How can teachers begin to increase students' creativity and give them the motivation to learn, after the California STAR test era?

Recently, Governor Jerry Brown passed a bill to replace Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) tests with a new system that supporters say promotes more meaningful learning, and adopted a new school funding formula giving districts more control and targeting more money to needier districts.  

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This is exciting students for educators because this gives them an opportunity to focus more on teaching students important concepts like creative problem solving, intrinsic motivation and critical thinking; particularly in students from grades 6-12.

Yesterday I saw an Instagram posting of a picture that showed a person typing into Google, “School makes me...” In the suggestions of popular searches: “School makes me cry,” “School makes me want to die,” and “School makes me sad.” I tried typing in the same thing on my computer and came up with the same results.

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I believe that the depression and frustration that many students are feeling towards school can be changed now that standardized testing is starting to reform in California. Though it has not conformed how the state will be reforming it, at least we know that the standardized STAR test will be a thing of the past.

These negative feelings toward schools can begin change with intrinsic motivation which involves engaging with something because it is personally rewarding; such as performing an activity for its own sake rather than the desire for some external reward. Previously we have dealt with standardized tests that told the schools if they performed well in them, they would reward the school with funds and materials necessary to improve education. By doing this students have not been motivated about their education because it has revolved around testing. In an article entitled, “Education and Creativity” by Daniel Fasko Jr. of the Creativity Research Journal, “Creative thinking in problem solving would facilitate intrinsic motivation in individuals” (Fasko, D. 2001). Students will be more willing to learn if they could choose what they study and in doing this it will be more meaningful to the student.

Now that standardized STAR test is no longer an obstacle for teachers, they can begin to teach their students different approaches to problem solving. Fasko Jr. explains that to influence creative problem solving “methods such as brainstorming, role playing and discussing real life challenges that relate to them” (Fasko, D. 2001) can change the way a student sees and behaves towards the world. I agree with these methods because once I had an English teacher who would always make us act out the Shakespeare readings in her class. I used to hate reading Shakespeare because I would read it with no understanding of what I read, and this also relates to the STAR testing critical reading sections because I would read really fast through those long passages and not understand the material, just look for the answers. When we acted out the scenes in Shakespeare I had a better understanding of what I read because it was explained to me in a creative role play.

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Schools have created monotony for education in regards to standardized testing. For example, Don Batt discusses, everyday in class,the children discuss which answer is “right,” they sit, they write, they follow. Starting to dislike school begins in grade 6 and lasts through graduation in grade 12. For me, the first time I experienced an example of being a follower was in 6th grade when everyone began grabbing answers from the highlighted section in our history textbooks, rather than reading the whole book and trying to understand the material. We all had the same correct answer and we did not care about understanding it we just wanted to have the correct answer and be done with our work. This monotony has been created because students have been taught their is always a “right” answer. Students are not getting to express their own creative understanding of the world; instead they have been programmed to follow standard answers.

Teachers should be proud of California for leaving the STAR standardized test behind, and should look forward to a future filled with more creativity within education. And students can look forward to being a new generation of innovative thinkers!

Reference List

Fasko, D. (2001). Education and creativity. Creativity Research Journal