Case Study

Jeanna Jerde The student that I chose for my case study is a seventeen year-old, junior male. He comes from a low-income family. He lives with his dad and brother; his mother lives in Africa. He grew up in Africa and moved to the United States four years ago. He speaks English quite well and doesnt seem to struggle with any cultural misunderstanding. He has some behavior and academic issues. His class rank is 252 out of 303, his GPA is 2.162, and he has only completed 16 credits as a junior. He received a F in Drawing I and a C- in his first quarter of Introduction to Art. He also has some behavior problems. He regularly skips super study and sometimes even skips detention. He has been cited for insubordination and cell phone violations. Despite of what his record might indicate, he doesnt display too many behavior problems in class. The only persistent behavior problem in class is that he consistently breaks the cell phone policy and talks while the teacher is talking. Otherwise, he has a very friendly personality and is pleasant to be around. I chose this student as my case study for several reasons. Firstly, I have individually worked with this student extensively from the beginning of my teaching experience. He is not afraid to ask for individual help, but rather seems to overuse the privilege. I hoped to identify strategies that would help him become a more successful student by promoting his creativity and therefore build his confidence. According to

Miriam Clifford, Creativity builds confidence. Students take ownership of their own learning.
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This student often becomes frustrated with solving creative problems and often attempts to persuade me to solve the problem for him. He often asks me questions such as: What should I do? or What do you want me to do?. Instead of providing him with answers, I suggest to him that he should ask himself What could I do? What do I want to do? My response involves the use of a constructivist teaching strategy and individual guidance through the creative process. According to the Osborn-Parnes Creative Problem Solving Model, this process involves 6 steps which are: Identify the goal, wish or challenge; gather data; clarify the problem; generate ideas; select and strengthen solution; and. plan for action. 2 I am interested in developing strategies to aid him in developing creative solutions to critical thinking questions. I believe he is much too concerned with finding the right answer. In addition. I think he doesnt believe that he can think of this correct answer. He often says to me jokingly, its like you think that I am an artist or something. I tell this student to think of creativity as a skill. Much like resourcefulness and inventiveness it is less a trait and more a proficiency that can be taught.3 I relay this
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Clifford, Miriam (2012). 30 Things You Can Do To Promote Creativity in Your Classroom. Retrieved from http://www.opencolleges.edu.au/informed/features/30things-you-can-do-to-promote-creativity-in-your-classroom/
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Torrance, P.A., Torrance, P.E. (1978) Developing Creativity Instructional Materials According to the Osborn-Parnes Creative Problem Solving Model. Creative Child and Adult Quarterly. V3 n2 p80-90. http://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ196211
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Clifford, Miriam (2012). 30 Things You Can Do To Promote Creativity in Your Classroom. Retrieved from http://www.opencolleges.edu.au/informed/features/30things-you-can-do-to-promote-creativity-in-your-classroom/

message to my student by comparing the development of creativity to the skill of shooting a basketball accurately. With the right amount of dedication and practice, anyone can be a creative artist. In agreement to this concept, according to Miriam Clifford, teachers should encourage curiosity. Consider what is important to studentsTry to step into their viewpoint to find what motivates them. This student is a huge fan of basketball, he loves to watch and play it. So, as a result of considerable prompting, he has learned to incorporate his love of basketball into the projects while also fulfilling the requirements. Lastly, Creativity flourishes in a congenial environment. Creative thinking needs to be shared and validated by others in a socially supportive atmosphere. 4 Once he has solved a creative problem on his own, he then shares his solution and receives validation from other students and myself. Due to the implemented strategies, I have noticed that this students interest and confidence in creative decision-making has improved greatly. He hasnt recently attempted to persuade me to solve problems for him and has seemed to actually enjoy solving them for himself. I hope that this creativity can result in more academic successat least in art class-and self-confidence for him in the future.

Clifford, Miriam (2012). 30 Things You Can Do To Promote Creativity in Your Classroom. Retrieved from http://www.opencolleges.edu.au/informed/features/30things-you-can-do-to-promote-creativity-in-your-classroom/

Works Cited
Torrance, P.A., Torrance, P.E. (1978) Developing Creativity Instructional Materials According to the Osborn-Parnes Creative Problem Solving Model. Creative Child and Adult Quarterly. V3 n2 p80-90. http://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ196211 Clifford, Miriam (2012). 30 Things You Can Do To Promote Creativity in Your Classroom. Retrieved from http://www.opencolleges.edu.au/informed/features/30things-you-can-do-to-promote-creativity-in-your-classroom/