In class last week the fifth graders completed an activity that addresses the relationship between following directions and being critical and creative. The lesson was not complicated, but the implications of it were profound in developing a student-centered learning environment.
I asked the students to make a detailed technical drawing of a K’NEX vehicle we had built earlier. The directions were to draw the vehicle as accurately as they could. It was a straight-forward assignment, and to start, I was rather explicit about modeling a technique for drawing the wheel and tire onto quarter-inch graph paper for the students. Then, beyond the tire, I expected the students to apply similar techniques to complete the graphic representation of the vehicle.
To illustrate my expectation of independence to the students I shared a couple of stories. First, I told them about the time I was on a flight out of Hartford, CT next to a Yale medical school professor who was grading papers on the plane. I asked him if he would rather work with students who were good at following directions or students who were creative and better at figuring out problems. He said, without hesitation, “If medical school students cannot follow directions they will never make it through medical school.” I told my students that his response confirms the importance of following directions, but what about creativity? Is it separate? How does it relate to directions?
The educational process is not all rote. During our scale drawing lesson I drew a smiley face and started to write a message inside the circumference of the face. As the sentence arched around the curving line I realized I was demonstrating my point, and I explained it to the class. By beginning to write around the the curve I had set up a rule. As the sentence continued, I had to figure out how I was going to follow that rule by writing upside down and way. Figuring out how to follow rules and directions is a necessary skill.
The skill of writing an effective persuasive letter is a key element of the fifth grade NC standard course of study (NC SCOS), and my next example to my students. To write a persuasive letter well requires rule following and creative problem solving within one assignment that includes a strict adherence to accepted form and a convincing argument in the body of the letter that needs to stand out to the recipient. We need to follow directions and be creative.
Fifth graders confront the need for creative problem solving when they process directions. Student-centered classrooms need to identify and promote this built-in relationship between decision-making and following instructions. I was pleased to participate with the classes as they looked to themselves and to discuss with each other about how to complete their task.
From time to time I have dealt with one person or another who refused to follow directions and proclaimed that he or she was “thinking outside the box.” Unfortunately, in virtually every case, this meant that the person was doing what he or she wanted to do rather than what was expected, either due to laziness, inability, or a failure to understand what to do.
Before you can think outside the box, you have to first know what the box is. It is an understanding of how something is done (or is expected to be done) that leads to the creative thinking and changes for the better “outside the box.”