At FLIE, we promote working with creative methods with HE students to encourage divergent thinking. We showcased work previously using collage, images, lego and origami

Working with creative methods assists active learning in both small and large groups through reflection, personalisation and social learning,

Rebecca Hindley, Lecturer & Faculty of Management Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) Lead from the Business School borrowed some ‘Evoke’ cards. Here is how she used them.

Leading a session with international students I was really pleased to see how well my summer school students responded to a creative task that we used to think about self-awareness.

Despite having had some concerns earlier, about their spoken English and speaking in class, they were all able to deliver something really insightful in response to the Evoke cards. They were asked to identify an image that says something about the person they want to be and these were some of the responses:

• “Even though pigs don’t seem to have the best life or conditions, they always look happy – I want to be like that pig”
• “Clouds can go anywhere, they are always changing – I want to feel like I can do that too”
• “The castle has strong walls, that’s like me, I don’t always allow new ideas in, I need to try and change that. Also it is up high, it has a good view – I think that is what I try to do in my work, I try to get a sense of the whole picture”

If you’ve not tried them yet, I would really recommend borrowing the Evoke cards from FLIE and trying these with your students. It’s a great activity to energise students within a session, and having now used this creative method to engage people with using metaphor with summer school to postgraduates to business execs, I am convinced it encourages students to think more deeply.

Please contact Curie Scott for further information