Global trends suggest that teaching writing focuses on a skills-based approach to preparing children for high-stakes standardised tests. In the early years, teachers are grappling with finding a better balance between preparing children for such tests and satisfying their sense of pedagogic responsibility to teach them to become joyful, creative…

This essay draws from the experience of observing writing practices in English lessons from 2010-2019, to suggest that the influence of education policy during this phase prioritises preparation for examination questions above the imperatives of learner creativity or volition. Through discussion of ways in which the 'high stakes' examination…

Creativity allows to see things in a new way--to go beyond the information given, recombining, thinking in unconventional ways, using little known or neglected means. To be clinical, it starts in the frontal lobe, that part of the brain which has the boundless capacity to dream up things. Feeding one's creativity both in the classroom and away…

This article examines the relationship between literacy and play in six- and seven-year-olds' engagement with non-fiction writing. I draw from a year-long ethnographic study (Erickson, 1986) of a US classroom's "writing time", intentionally structured on children's own interests and enquiries. Rather than strict adherence to monolithic…

In this article, the authors explore the corpus of literature on creative thinking and applied creativity in higher education to help composition teacher-scholars and writing center practitioners improve the application of creativity in written, visual, and multimodal composing practices. From studies of creative thinking investigated across…

Discusses the experiences of students as they try to turn pictures in their head into poetry. Describes how the poetry of popular music can provide stimulus for student poetry. (HTH)

This study evaluated the use of guided imagery practice to enhance creative writing with 43 academically gifted students (stratified as either high or low creativity) in grades 3 and 4. Groups receiving the guided imagery practice (regardless of original creativity level) generated more original writing, which contained more sensory descriptions…

Takes issue with the assumed antithesis of processes of the irrational (imagination and creativity) and those of the rational (reasoning and argumentation). Argues that numerous philosophers suggest richer ways of imagining the processes of argumentation. Explores various classroom practices that enable teachers to weave the creative and critical…

Incorporating creative play in the writing lab or classroom is a unique way to pique students' interest and boost their imagination. Exercises varying from describing Hershey's Kisses®, to using tape recorders for discussing voice, to using magnetic poetry to practice grammar are all ways that stimulate learning through the lens of play. Play…

Postulates that successful writing of all kinds depends on freeing the writer's imagination. Suggests techniques teachers can use to help students find their individual voice in writing, such as providing appropriate classroom proxemics, asking students to complete an evocative phrase, and having students critique each other's papers. (CJM)

Imaging, or disciplined daydreaming, can be used in the composition class to expose students to their innate creativity, lessen writing anxiety, refresh memories before writing of personal experiences, and make impersonal subjects, such as historical events, vital and personal. Teachers can construct a classroom imaging session (which takes about…

Articles address a variety of ways in which imagination can be used to enhance second language teaching and learning. They include: "Multiple Intelligences and Second Language Acquisition" (Mary Ann Christison); "Spellbound in the Language Class: A Strategy of Surprise" (Gertrude Moskowitz); "The Imagination: Where Roles…