Scholarship
July 3, 2025
Awakening Minds: The Power of Creativity in Teaching
- Author
- Downton, James, Jr.
- Publisher
- Humanics Trade Group, Atlanta, GA
- ISBN
- 0893343609
- Table of Contents
-
Becoming A More Creative Teacher
The best lecturer is an interesting book. Realizing this opens the way for innovations in teaching. Instead of telling students, we involve them so they are eager to learn. By becoming more creative teachers, we discover that teaching can be a fascinating adventure.
ch. 1 Teaching With Purpose When teaching serves our life purposes, it takes on a special meaning as a mission. What are our life purposes and teaching mission? Instead of simply emulating the styles of admired teachers, we create a unique way to teach that serves our own purposes.
ch. 2 Identity Affects How You Teach
Identity affects what we try as teachers. If our identities are too conventional, we restrict our creativity and diminish our willingness to take risks. By remodeling our identities, we discover creative ways to teach that inspire us and our students.
ch. 3 Cultivate A Playful Mind
Playful mind is flexible, imaginative, and eager to think in new ways. With a playful mind, designing innovative learning processes becomes easier. We learn to cultivate more playful thinking, which expands our ability to invent novel approaches in our teaching.
ch. 4 You Have Special Gifts
Most of us are unaware of our special gifts for teaching. Those gifts are the “creativity tools” we can use to enliven education. Knowing how and when to use specific tools is part of becoming a more creative and effective teacher.
ch. 5 Engage Students In Active Learning
“Tell me and I'll forget. Show me and I’ll learn. Involve me and I’ll understand.” Students become involved when we create experiential exercises that awaken and engage their minds. By emphasizing active learning, we see a sudden rise in students’ attention and receptivity.
ch. 6 Be Willing To Take Risks
Fear permeates education. Teachers and students alike may hold back for fear of being wrong or looking foolish. Those fears add too much caution to learning. We discover how to reduce the size of our fears in order to bring new vitality to teaching and education.
ch. 7 Manage The Size Of Your Ego
Ego is concern for oneself and its survival. The smaller the ego feels, the more it tries to inflate its size. Education is dramatically affected by teachers and students trying to manage the size of their egos. We use“Recovery Claims” to keep our egos from shrinking.
ch. 8 Create Motivation And Participation
Motivation and participation can be created. We learn to motivate our students by designing learning exercises on “the four cornerstones of motivation.” We increase their participation by understanding what holds them back.
ch. 9 Community Service Stimulates Learning
When students serve in the community while learning in the classroom, their motivation escalates. With greater interest, their engagement with issues deepens, so classroom learning becomes more dynamic.
ch. 10 Cultivate Inspiration
The mind becomes more playful when it is surprised. One way to surprise it is by creating arbitrary “inspiration points.” This adds a steady stream of novelty to teaching. By learning to create our own inspiration, we discover how easy it is to generate ideas for teaching.
ch. 11 Develop Novel Ideas For Teaching
It is easy to fall into a rut while teaching. To discover new ideas and approaches, we travel down unusual pathways. We use “Object Play” and “Mind Switching” to stimulate our search. When we do, we find creative ideas coming to us with little effort. Fun is added to teaching.
ch. 12 Nurture Positive Relationships
Teachers invent stories about students. When the stories are negative, relationships with students suffer. When they are positive, good relationships develop. By revising our stories, we nurture more positive relationships with our students. This increases mutual trust and respect.
ch. 13 Create Balance
We can become so overworked as teachers, we fall out of balance, feel miserable, and lose our enthusiasm for teaching. Recovering balance helps us to create a greater sense of contentment. While innovating, we accommodate conflicting inner voices, then balance workloads.
ch. 14 Stop The Stories That Torture You
We may live in stories of belief that limit us and make us miserable as teachers. Assumptions are beliefs that limit our thinking. Ideals are beliefs that can lead to disappointment and unhappiness. We change our stories so teaching becomes more creative and enjoyable.
ch. 15 Give Up Resistance And Resignation
Resisting what cannot be changed produces frustration. Becoming resigned to situations that can be changed causes alienation. When we give up resistance and resignation, we create a new sense of freedom and greater ease in teaching.
ch. 16 Use Questions To Guide The Mind
Teachers often ask questions without a clear sense for their impact on the activity of the mind. Questions guide what the mind thinks about and how deeply it engages an issue. We learn to use questions consciously to deepen inquiry, expand options, and empower students to change.
ch. 17 Listening Deeply
Listening usually occurs on the surface. Facts and feelings may be heard, but needs and desires for change are often missed. By learning to listen at four levels, we hear more as teachers, which gives us the ability to deepen any discussion and to solve problems more effectively.
ch. 18 Leading Dynamic Discussions
Discussions are great learning opportunities when they are focused and dynamic. When we listen deeply and ask probing questions, we engage the interest of students and intensify their learning. The ability to lead dynamic discussions gives our teaching greater impact.
ch. 19 Be Receptive To Coaching
When receiving “criticism,” a teacher’s ego is likely to deflate, so listening stops. “Defend” and “counterattack” may be automatic. We discover how we respond to criticisms, then develop greater receptivity to coaching and change. Our effectiveness increases as a result.
ch. 20 Coach Effectively
When teachers give feedback to students, it is often negative. Using the “Sandwich Technique” while coaching, we create a better balance between positive and negative feedback. We show students what they are doing well and what they might change.
ch. 21 “Nightmare” Students
“Nightmare” students present unique and creative challenges. There are the “unmotivated,” “critics,” “minimalists,” and “tormentors.” Like sleeping nightmares, we wish they did not exist, but they do. How we teach can also make normal students into nightmares.
ch. 22 Creativity Is Always Possible
When circumstances seem too limiting, we may play it safe and take a conventional approach rather than be creative. Imposed requirements or teaching a large class may weaken our resolve to the point where we forget that using a creative approach is always possible.
ch. 23 Teaching Wisdom
“Wisdom” is not a word often heard in teaching. Yet, when we ask questions about wisdom, the mind gladly seeks answers. We discover the power of wisdom to open new understandings about any issue. We use wisdom as a crucial part of our creativity as teachers.
ch. 24 Looking Back
Creative teaching enlivens education, deepens a teacher’s impact on the thinking and lives of students, and leads to a sense of greater fulfillment. Imagining those possibilities for ourselves, we discover why we became teachers.
Awakening Minds is an invitation to change. It brings a creative spirit to education through experiences that expand awareness, lead to new choices, and cultivate change. Discover how teaching can serve your life purposes and how creative thinking surprises the mind so novel ideas come quickly. Learn to use "deep listening," "strategic questioning," and "effective coaching" to increase your effectiveness as a teacher and make education more of an adventure. Develop innovative learning exercises that capture the attention of students and cultivate their full participation. (From the Publisher)