The Future of Education
From Looking to Seeing: Embedding Creativity Into Classroom Observation Practice Through Structured Thinking Tools
Eileen Bowman, University College Dublin (Ireland)
Abstract
From Looking to Seeing investigates how structured creativity tools can support pre-service language teachers to engage more thoughtfully and confidently with classroom observation during their first school placements. Observation is often experienced by novice teachers as a passive exercise, one that positions them at the margins of classroom life and offers limited opportunity for genuine professional inquiry. This study seeks to reframe that experience by introducing creative thinking structures that enable student-teachers to move beyond simply watching lessons to actively interpreting, questioning and reimagining classroom practice. The intervention introduced a series of structured creativity tools that encourage participants to adopt multiple perspectives when observing lessons.
The study argues that creativity can be meaningfully nurtured within Initial Teacher Education when it is supported by clear, intentional structures. Creativity in this context is not limited to producing novel classroom activities but is understood as a professional disposition that encourages curiosity, experimentation and critical reflection. When observation is framed as a creative act, student-teachers are invited to see complexity rather than merely record it, and to participate in a form of professional learning that values openness, imagination and thoughtful critique.
