Page 15 - ARUBA TODAY

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LOCAL Thursday 7 February 2019

Discovering Culture and Creativity in the Aruban Education System

Continued from Page 14 Those are the kind of people we want. tive, 2006).It is clear that unlocking creativity in
An essence of this report is the inclusion of the the school system has many implications on not
An interesting case study was conducted in perspectives of the educators. The people who only the way these children are being educat-
Scotland and research was done to under- are responsible each day proving the tools for ed, but rather the material that could be avail-
stand the implications creativity and culture development. In the same Scottish report, it is able.
could have in their education system. In the concluded with teachers’ comments on how
Scottish example, “the main findings were that future policy-making and practice should in- The Future?
developing creativity in education produced clude. These were as follows: Overall, the message today is that it has been
benefits in terms of student motivation, enthu- • Creativity needs to be built in as a key feature proven many times that creativity and cul-
siasm and enjoyment. The students became of all areas of the curriculum; ture have important jobs in the shaping of our
more independent in their learning: “rather • Creativity should be fostered at an early minds. It is not a question of one over the other,
than being told; they became more resourceful stage; it is a question of offering BOTH options in the
and reflective. They became good at knowing • There should be more definition of the mean- education system. Aruba, should prepare its
what worked for them and what did not” (p.9, ing of creativity and examples of how children to have ALL the skills to be successful
Scottish Executive, 2006). The level of indepen- to include it in all curricular areas; in the future, to innovate and bring Aruba to
dence children get from being able to develop • There should be less emphasis on what is be- the next level. This will not only strengthen our
ALL elements within themselves, will produce ing taught and more on how; society, but it will provide other markets (CCI),
secure and confident people who know what • Current assessment procedures need to be employment and could encourage the Aruban
they are good at. People who have stability on more flexible if creativity is to be diaspora to come back and contribute to the
what their life could look like. People who know fostered. More opportunities are needed for Aruban society. It is only a matter of priority at
what their contribution to its society looks like. peer and self-assessment (p.10, Scottish Execu- this point. q

Biography – Currently, Thaïs Franken is a 22-year-old Aruban student at the University of Maastricht (UM). She
is studying a Master of Science in Public Policy and Human Development in collaboration with the Unites
Nations University (UNU). Back home, on the beautiful island of Aruba she completed her Bachelor of Arts in
Organization, Governance & Management (OGM) at the University of Aruba (UA). She successfully gradu-
ated and defended her thesis titled “Placing Culture and Creativity at the Heart of the Aruban Sustainable
Development” on July 6th 2018. Thaïs is very passionate about topics such as sustainability, innovation, cul-
ture and creativity. Next to her academic interests, she enjoys reading, writing, dancing and cooking.