MODULE 11:

Arts and Creative Literacy

Concept
Exploration
1. Define arts and creative literacy
2. Identify the seven habits of highly creative people
3. Explain eye-hand coordination and some associated disorders, interventions and
developments
4. Compare and contrast visual and verbal creativity
5. Discuss aesthetics and three approaches from a philosophical perspective
6. Cite ways on how to integrate arts and creative literacy in the curriculum
7. Draw relevant life lessons and significant values from a personal experience in
creating an artwork or presenting a performance critiqued by others
8. Analyze research abstract on creative literacy and its implications to teaching
learning process.
9. Create an art work and evaluate it using self-made assessment rubric

Teachers need to be creative by all means because teaching

entails critical thinking and creativity not only in
Concept presenting lesson but perhaps in all facets of instructional
Exploration endeavor. Therefore, students: creativity potential should
be honed through various pedagogic techniques, classroom
activities and student engagement. Teachers have to understand creative literacy deeply to guide
them in assessing their own creativity and that of their students.

Arts and Creative Literacies

Creativity is the process of having original ideas that have value. Moreover, creativity is
the ability to see the world in new ways Therefore, creative individuals exhibit the ability to
switch between, different modes of thinking and shift their mental focus that suggest, a
connection between creativity and dynamic interactions of brain networks (Sun, et al, 2019).

Likewise, creativity is the act of turning new and imaginative idea into reality.
Henceforth, .it is characterized by the ability to perceive the world in new ways, to find hidden
patterns, to make connections between seemingly unrelated phenomena, and to generate
solutions. It involves two processes: thinking, then producing (Naiman, 2011).

As such, creativity is a combinatorial force: the ability to tap into one’s ‘inner’ pool of
resources, such as knowledge, insight, information, inspiration; and the fragments in the mind to
combine them in extraordinary new ways (Popova, n.d. in Naiman, 2011). It is also the process of
bringing something new into being that requires passion and commitment.

1|Page
 Creativity begins with a foundation of knowledge, learning a discipline, and mastering a
way of thinking. It can be learned by experimenting, exploring, questioning assumptions, using
imagination and synthesizing information.

The ability to generate creative and innovative ideas is not merely a function of the mind,
but also a function of five key behaviors that optimize brain for discovery: (1) associating or
drawing connections between questions, problems, or ideas: from unrelated fields; (2)
questioning or posing queries that challenge common wisdom; (3) observing or scrutinizing the
behavior of others to identify new ways of doing things; (4) networking or meeting people with
different ideas and perspectives; and (5) experimenting or constructing interactive experiences
and provoking responses to see what insights emerge
(https:/Avww.creativityatwork.com/2014/02/17/what-is-creativity/).

Developing literacies of the arts and creativity involves design of physical learning
environment, the emotional environment, scheduling, organization and implementation -of
curriculum and instruction and attention to the body and the brain. Therefore, teachers should be
empowered in developing these literacies among students with the support of the administrators,
parents, and other stakeholders.

Seven Habits of Highly Creative People

Naiman (2014) opined that if a person makes a habit of the seven practices, he/she will be
highly creative in his/her field. Thus, these would help teachers attain highest possible level of
creativity.

1. Prepare the ground. Creativity requires an absorbed mind, a relaxed state of focus and
attention by giving the self sufficient time and space needed while letting the desire to create
from the pleasure of creative expression and inspiration.

2. Plant seeds for creativity. It is important to put attention on what you want to create, not on
complaints and set an intention to produce the desired results.

3. Live in the question. Ask questions, instead of trying to find immediate answers and pay
attention to questions that other people ask.

4. Feed your brain. Get interested in something that later can provide you wisdom and ideas if
you learn to make connections between people, places and things that are not usually, connected.

5. Experiment and explore. Follow your curiosity, experiment, with ideas, and learn from
your mistakes therefore, the quality of your creativity will improve.

6. Replenish your creative stock. You must learn to be self-nourishing and translate hobbies,
talents and skills into wonderful potentials.

2|Page
7. Liberate your creativity. Your child’s play provides the clue to your creativity, potentials
and passion.

In general, creativity takes on many forms in business, - art, design, education and
science. When you express your creativity in these domains, you have the ability to make life
indeed a work of art (Naiman, 2011).

Eye-Hand Coordination

In most of our creative activities and endeavors, we integrate eye hand coordination as
we inhibit our usual body functioning. . Eye-hand coordination (also known as hand-eye
coordination) is the coordinated control of eye movement with hand movement, and the
processing of visual input to guide reaching and grasping along with the use of proprioception of
hands to guide the eyes. Eye-hand coordination can be observed in diverse activities, such as the
movement of objects, handwriting, catching a ball, sports, performance, music, reading, computer
gaming, typing, and others. In short, it becomes part of the mechanisms of performing everyday
tasks. Without it, people would be unable to carry out even the simplest actions in daily life.

Eye-hand coordination therefore, is the ability of the vision system to coordinate the
information received through the eyes to control guide, and direct the hands in the
accomplishment of a given task, n is also a complex cognitive ability as it unites visual and motor
Skills, allowing the hand to be guided by the visual stimulation that the eyes receive. It is the
ability to do activities that require simultaneous urge of hands and eyes, like an activity that uses
the information that eyes perceive (visual spatial perception) to guide the hands in carrying out a
movement.

Hand-eye coordination is important for child development and academic success, which
is equally important among adults to use in countless activities on a daily basis. Most activities in
day-to-day life, use some degree of eye-hand coordination, the reason why it is really important
to develop it as possible. Obviously, visual information is used to correct an inappropriate
behavior in a situation.

We use our eyes to direct attention to a stimulus and help the brain understand where the
body is located in space (self-perception), ‘Reciprocally, we use our hands to simultaneously
carry out age determined task based on the visual information that our eyes receive
(https://www.cognifit.com/science/cognitive-skills/eye-hand-coordination).

Examples of Eye-Hand Coordination

1. In writing. When making lines, the eyes send visual information to the brain to tell where the
hand is placed and if handwriting is legible.

2. Typing on a keyboard. Although the types of movement are different, but visual
information is used to tell the brain how to guide the hand or if a mistake needs to be corrected.

3|Page
3. When driving. It uses visual information to move the hands on the wheel, keeping the car in
the middle of the lane and avoiding accidents.

4. In sports. In any sports, the eyes usually coordinate with the movement of some parts of the
body called “motor coordination”. Depending on the sport, either hand-eye coordination
(basketball, tennis, football, etc.) or foot-eye ‘coordination (soccer, track, etc.) will be more
dominant." (https:/www.cognifit.com/science/cognitive-skills/eye-hand-coordination).

Problems and disorders related to poor eye-hand coordination. Hand-eye

coordination can also work poorly even if the person’s eyes and vision are not affected and if
their motor control skills work properly. It is possible for someone with a perfect vision to have
hand-eye coordination problems that will only manifest when they use both the visual and motor
systems together.

Any alteration to the visual or motor systems can significantly affect hand-eye
coordination, like visual or muscular problems, such as strabismus (crossed eyes), amblyopia,
muscle hypotonia, balance problems, or crossed laterality. Brain damage to the motor areas or
perceptive areas may also cause eye-hand coordination problems.

Poor hand-eye coordination can affect activities that may lead to developmental
disorders, learning disorders (related to reading, writing and playing sports), in academics
(making mistakes when they take notes, poor hand-writing, poor attention), professional areas (in
typing or assembling objects), and problems with daily activities.

Hence, poor hand-eye coordination can have variety of causes, but the following are two
main conditions for inadequate hand-eye coordination.

1. Vision impairment. It is a loss of vision that makes it hard or impossible to perform daily tasks
without specialized adaptations caused by loss of visual acuity, in which the eye does not see
objects as clearly as usual.

2. Movement disorders. These are characterized by impaired body movements caused by variety
of causes, such as ataxia, which is characterized by lack of coordination while performing
voluntary movements; and hypertonia, a condition marked by an abnormal increase in muscle
tension and a reduced ability of a muscle to stretch. https:/www.cognifit. com/science/cognitive-
skills/eye-hand-coordination.

Hand-eye coordination development stages. Hand-eye coordination development

milestones are as follows:

Between Birth And Three Years

1. Between birth and three years of age, infants can accomplish he following skills and can:

1.1 start to develop vision that-allows them to follow slowly moving objects with their
eyes;

4|Page
 1.2 begin to develop basic hand-eye skills, such as thee reaching, grasping objects,
feeding, dressing;

1.3 begin to recognize concepts of place and direction, such as up, down, in; and

1.4 develop the ability to manipulate objects with fine motor skills.

Between Three And Five Years

2. Between three and five years of age, little Children can:

2.1 continue to develop hand-eye coordination skills and a preference for left or right
handedness;

2.2 continue to understand and use concepts of place and direction, such as up, down,
under, beside;

2.3 develop the ability to climb, balance, run, gallop, jump, push and pull, and take stairs
one at a time; and

2.4 develop eye/hand/body coordination, eye teaming depth perception.

Five To Seven Years

3. Children between five and seven years old can:

3.1 improve fine motor skills, such as handling writing tools, using scissors, etc.;

3.2 continue to develop climbing, balancing, running galloping and jumping abilities;

3.3 continue to improve hand-eye coordination and handedness preference; and

3.4 learn to focus vision on school work for hours every day, (http://www.
healthofchildren.com/G-H/Hand-Eye-Coordination. htmittixzz5xFc4rsqG)

Visual Literacy

In the advent of the Internet, students must develop the necessary visual literacy skills to
navigate the image-intense world.

Therefore, visual literacy refers to interpreting and creating visual images and usually
about communication and interaction.

Visual literacy is the ability to read, write and create visual images. It is a concept that
relates to art and design and has much wider applications. It is about language, communication
and interaction. Visual media is a linguistic tool, with which we communicate, exchange ideas
and navigate our highly visual digital world.

5|Page
 The term was first coined in 1969 by John Debes, who was the founder of the
International Visual Literacy Association Debes explains: “Visual literacy refers to a group of
vision-competencies a human being can develop by seeing, having and integrating other sensory
experiences.”

According to Oxford Research Encyclopedia, visual literacy is the ability to interpret,

negotiate and make meaning from information presented in the form of an image, extending the
meaning of literacy, which commonly signifies interpretation of a written or printed text. It is
therefore, based on the idea that pictures can be read and the meaning can be through a process of
reading.

Serafini (2017) asserted that visual literacy is a set of visual competencies or cognitive
skills and strategies one needs to make sense of visual images. These visual competencies were
seen as universal cognitive abilities that were used for understanding visual images regardless of
the contexts of production, reception, and dissemination. More contemporary definitions stress
that visual literacy is a contextualized, social practice as much as an individualized, cognitively
based set of competencies. It is also a process of generating meanings in transaction with
multimodal ensembles that include written text, visual images, and design elements from a
variety of perspectives to meet the requirements of particular social contexts.

Theories of visual literacy can be integrated across disciplines. Therefore, visual literacy
now incorporates sociocultural, semiotic, critical, and multimodal perspectives to understand the
meaning that are potential of the visual and verbal ensembles encountered in social environments
(Serafini, 2017). Digital technology has greatly impacted our understanding of visual literacy as
we now see children growing up with tablets and computers and what appears to be highly
developed visual literacy instincts. (https:/visualliteracytoday.org/what-is-visual-literacy)

Verbal Creativity

In view of the rapidly increasing complexity of the world, creativity is more important
now than ever before and is even considered as a useful and effective response to evolutionary
changes, since it allows the individual to flexibly respond to’ the continuously changing
conditions around (Runco, 2004 in Fink, et. al., 2015). Torrance, (1969) in Hasan (2017)
recognized creativity as important for the development of a fully functioning, mentally healthy,
well-educated and vocationally successful individual. It is because of growing recognition of the
importance of creative functioning and there is sufficient evidence of the universality of
creativity.

Scott et al (2004) cited ‘that creativity-related skills ‘can be improved by providing

specific rules, techniques or strategies to develop appropriate cognitive skills for the domain at
hand. This could be realized through creative ideation trainings or divergent thinking exercises
(Coskun, 2005; Benedek, et. al, 2006), which aim at stimulating effective search, retrieval, and
integration/combination of remote associations related to a given stimulus word. Divergent
thinking is a useful concept for identifying, supporting and measuring creativity as a process to
actualize one’s self, manipulate internal and external symbols as creation of illustrative ideas
based on his/ her knowledge senses regarding people and objects to produce on (Hasan, 2017).

6|Page
 The four major components of divergent thinking: are fluency, flexibility, originality and
elaboration, which are very useful for an operational concept. Fluency .refers to the total number
of ideas, options and solutions generated for an open-ended problem; flexibility is the number of
conceptual categories; originality is the aspect of Created or invented works and is about
Statistical infrequency of responses related to the task compared with original ideas; and
elaboration is the ability to expand on an idea with details and the ability to create an intricate
plan.

Fink, et. al (2012) explained that cognitive stimulation through common or moderately
creative ideas was effective in improving verbal Creativity, and most importantly, stimulation
effects were also apparent at the level of the brain. As such, a widespread creativity-related neural
network includes left middies and superior temporal gyri along with right parietal cortex being
sensitive to cognitive stimulation.

Aesthetic
Britanica defines aesthetics, also spelled esthetics, as philosophical study of beauty and
taste. It is closely related to the philosophy concerned with the nature of art and the concepts of
which individual works of art are interpreted and evaluated.

In perspective, it is an interesting and puzzling realm experience: the realm of the

beautiful, the ugly, the sublime and the elegant; of taste, criticism and fine art; and of
contemplation, sensuous enjoyment and charm. In all these phenomena, similar principal, operate
and similar interests are engaged.

The nature and scope of Aesthetics . Aesthetics deals not on; with the nature and
value of arts but also with those responses to natural objects that find expression in the language
of the beauty and the ugly. The terms beautiful and ugly are too vague in application and too
subjective in meaning. Everything on earth may be perceived as beautiful by someone from
his/her point of view while different people may use the word differently that often may have
little or nothing in common but all are simply based on judgment. It may also be that the term
beautiful has no sense except as the expression of an attitude, which in turn, people may associate
it to different matters.

Moreover, in spite of the emphasis of philosophers: on the terms beautiful and ugly,
aesthetics becomes an insignificant issue for discussion in the description of what appeals in
nature. Just like when appreciating a poem, it can be described as ironic, moving, expressive,
balanced and harmonious. Likewise, in characterizing a favorite stretch of countryside, it can be
noted as peaceful, soft, atmospheric, harsh, and evocative, rather than beautiful.

Three Approaches to Aesthetics

Britanica laid down three approaches to aesthetics as follows:

1. It is the study of aesthetic concepts or the analysis of . “Language of criticism,” in which

particular judgments are singled out and their logic and justification are presented.

2. It is a philosophical study of certain states of mind, responses, attitudes and emotions that are

7|Page
involved in aesthetic experience.

3. It is the philosophical study of the aesthetic object that reflects the view that problems of
aesthetics exist because the world contains special objects toward which people react selectively
as described in aesthetic terms. (https://www.britannica.com/topic/aesthetics).

Integrating Arts and Creativity Literacy into the Curriculum

The following are strategies and initiatives in embedding arts and creative literacy in the
curriculum.

1. Physical environment - Design a physical environment to support creativity, such as castle-

designed school building, _ well-architecturally designed edifice, roofs and ceilings, creative
murals, beautiful garden landscape, colorful blocks and benches in the math and science garden,
structured music and arts studio, an atelier, student lounge, amphitheater, etc .

2. Emotional environment — Take time to create and maintain a climate of respect, caring
and support to someone when making mistakes.

3. Project-based learning (PBL) - Provide students time, space and opportunity to express
themselves - their ideas, emotions and insights through arts. Design and plan any projects that are
relevant, rigorous and real-world to attain motivation, engagement and learning.

4. Teach creative thinking skills - Teach students about “metacognition” or “thinking about
their thinking” even to the little ones through the process of brainstorming, reasoning, comparing,
and contrasting, problem-solving, concept mapping, analyzing, evaluating and more.

5. Alternative assessments — instead of just a worksheet or an assignment, provide different

authentic assessment like performance, systems design, product/output making, visual arts
creation, task-based, project-based, portfolio and others provided with rubrics and other forms of
metric.

6. Scheduling Project- based curriculum and performance based assessment need ample time
and proper scheduling in either structured or unstructured manner.

7. Student-centered and personalized learning - Provide students freedom to choose on

what they will learn, how they will learn it and how they will demonstrate what they have
learned.

8. Incorporate arts — integrate seamlessly music, art, drama and dance into the curriculum to
develop creativity.

9. Integration of technologies — Encourage students to create and utilize blogs and websites,
Glogster, Voice Thread, student publishing, video game design, coding, filmmaking,
photography, global collaborative classroom projects using Google Hangouts, etc.

8|Page
10. Preparing the body and brain for creativity - Create activities that induce body-mind
integration, such as yoga, ballet, jazz, zumba, calisthenics, etc.

ARTS AND CREATIVE LITERACY

 Creativity is the process of having original ideas that have value and
the ability to see the world in new ways.
 To enhance creativity skills, a person may adhere to the seven habits of
highly creative people.
 Eye—hand coordination is the coordinated control of eye movement
SYNTHESIS

with hand movement and the processing of visual input with the use of
proprioception of the hands to guide the eyes in many life activities.
 Visual literacy is the ability to read, write. And creates visual images
and a linguistic tool with which we communicate, exchange ideas and
navigate our highly visual digital world.
 Aesthetics is the philosophical study of beauty and taste and is
concerned with the nature of art and the concepts that are interpreted
and evaluated.
 Creative literacy should be integrated in the curriculum through
instructional strategies and learning tools while involving other
stakeholders towards sustaining a creative learning environment.

9|Page