Learning as a Creative and Developmental Process in Higher Education: A Therapeutic Arts Approach and Its Wider Application

Much has been written about the importance of creativity in learning and education over the last few decades. This unique book extends beyond the usual focus on implementing creative methods in learning, teaching and assessing within higher education, to an examination of creativity as central to a learning process which is transformational for the student. More specifically, Learning as a Creative and Developmental Process in Higher Education examines the importance of a facilitative tutor-student relationship and environment which contextualise this creative process of teaching and learning. Bringing together unique teaching and learning approaches developed by experienced academics, this book discusses a number of complex issues, including approaches to an understanding of the student’s self-concept as learner; the nature of the curriculum; the potential of metaphor and creativity; and a multi-modal approach to learning and teaching. Contributions to the book also examine some of the challenges and tensions of such an approach within the context of arts-based subjects in higher education institutions. Using a unique and coherent thematic structure that is based upon the student journey as a transformational process, this book provides a new way of understanding the student journey through higher education. Including an examination of the parallels between educational and arts education and arts therapies disciplines, this book will be of interest to researchers, academics and postgraduate students involved in the arts and the arts therapies, as well as those studying creativity in teaching and learning in higher education. It should be of particular interest to those involved in the teaching and training of teachers and lecturers in higher education.

Table of Contents:
Foreword - Phil Jones Preface – Judie Taylor Acknowledgements Introduction - Judie Taylor Section 1 – Separation (Pre-liminal) Chapter 1 Supporting the student transition to Higher Education: arts-based reflections on the ‘Lifewide Curriculum’ Judie Taylor Chapter 2 Teaching Reflection to New Undergraduate Students Martyn Parker Eames Chapter 3 Re-thinking uncertainty in higher education using Klein’s concepts of the paranoid-schizoid and depressive positions. Katy Tozer Chapter 4 Rediscovering the playful learner Drew Bird & Clive Holmwood Section 2 – Transition (Liminal) Chapter 5 Liminality in Higher Education – gaps and moments of uncertainty as legitimate learning spaces Clive Holmwood & Pete Scales Chapter 6 Attunement in Creativity and Learning Jean Bennett Chapter 7 Ethnography, Autoethnography, and Social Media: Pedagogical Practices in Music and the Therapeutic Arts James Williams Chapter 8 Configuring the personal/professional self. Paul V. Ricketts Chapter 9 Assessing the Arts, and Student Response, within the Creative Expressive Therapies in Higher Education Clive Holmwood Section 3 – Incorporation (Post Liminal) Chapter 10 The Body of Work as a legitimate form of Independent Scholarship Jamie Bird, Mary Stephanou and Alessandra Wellen Chapter 11 Tutor-led peer supervision groups within higher education. Judie Taylor & Kate Smith Chapter 12 An evaluation of peer coaching circles within Higher Education Sally Casella & Judie Taylor Chapter 13 Reflections on a Journey: Student Experiences of a Therapeutic Arts Approach in Higher Education Philippa Buchanan & Sarah Paine Chapter 14 Ecological Perspectives on Learning to Practice in the Arts in Health and Arts Therapies Fields Norman J Jackson Afterwords – Clive Holmwood

About the Author :
Judie Taylor has recently retired as a Senior Lecturer and Therapeutic Arts Manager after a 30-year career at the University of Derby, where she was a tutor on the BA (Hons) Creative Expressive Therapies and postgraduate Arts Therapies programmes and was part of the team who developed them. Clive Holmwood is a Dramatherapist with over 20 years' experience working with children and adults in the public, private and voluntary sectors. He is currently Senior Lecturer in Dramatherapy and Admissions Tutor for the Creative Expressive Therapies degree at the University of Derby and a Director of Creative Solutions Therapy Ltd.

Review :
"From Viking Island to Schon's swamp: this book has diversity and depth. It has grown out of the arts and arts therapies training and research at University of Derby and gives us a wealth of riches. There are valuable insights into educational process and student led learning. We are shown the enrichment of tutors and students when they share playful learning. As readers we also grow through understanding concept mapping, liminality, lifewide learning, and flexible purposing. I strongly recommend this book as a treasure chest of creative research, theory and practice." Professor Sue Jennings PhD has pioneered dramatherapy and neuro-dramatic-play worldwide for over fifty years. She is visiting professor at University of Derby and Professor of Play, a life-long award given by the European Dramatherapy Federation. She is a prolific author with over 50 books in print.