Applied to the curriculum, less is more. One can scaffold for the ownership of learning by gradually moving toward less provision of backgrounding and reading guidance/selection, while also seeking to connect material to what the students are already passionate about (see Guthrie, Wigfield & Perencevich-18; Silvia-25; Babbage-1).

That said however, one must keep in mind the role of variety. One reasonable critique of current emphasis of relevance in schools; is that it can limit the scope of curriculum to contemporary discourse and society (see Morgan-20). Indeed, the values underpinning which news is reported in the media — impact, proximity, prominence, timeliness, conflict, currency and oddity (see White-27) — serve to sell newspapers, being what people want to read, but tend to exclude as much as they include.

If the educator is to develop creative students then the curriculum should serve to expand their interests beyond what they already know. After all, insight actually tends to occur where an individual is both informed and flexible (see Runco-22), and the types of people who develop original ideas are those with both a mastery of their subject and ongoing exposure to concepts from unrelated; fields of study (see Simonton-26).

What this means in terms of pedagogy is that a significant part of learning to think develops from the social interaction that develops in response to content. As noted by Billig-4, much of our reasoning skills develop as the internalization of socialized argumentation and, according to Schugurensky-24, the development of deep thinking skills depends on an environment that allows for open discussion of contrary points of view.

Furthermore, and contrary to popular belief, social interaction with people of different backgrounds and expertise is essential to the creative process (see Csikszentmihalyi & Sawyer-7), which means that the creative classroom is one where students are free to interact with both the teacher and each other.

To sum, if students can be encouraged to own their learning and find pleasure in it, they are likely to become better thinkers, continuing learners, and well adjusted beyond the classroom. The method for this is the provision of curious materials and sufficient space for students to explore them on their own creative terms. Let us work with, and not against, our own playful instincts.

Footnotes

1. Babbage, K.J. Extreme Students: Challenging all students and Energizing Learning. 2006. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 60-3.
2. Batra, N.D. Digital Freedom: How much can you handle? 2008. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield. p. 128-30, 133-7.
3. Beder, S. Global Spin: The Corporate Assault on Environmentalism. 2000. Melbourne, Victoria: Scribe. p. 166-74.
4. Billig, M. Arguing and Thinking: A Rhetorical Approach to Social Psychology 1989. Newcastle, Great Britain: Cambridge University. p. 110-7.
5. Csikszentmihalyi, M. Flow: The Classic Work on how to Achieve Happiness. 1992. Sydney, New South Wales: Rider. p. 141.
6. Ibid 118-20, 141
7. Csikszentmihalyi, M. & Sawyer, K. Creative Insight: The Social Dimension of a Solitary Moment. In Sternberg & Davidson-30. p. 358-60
8. Dawkins, R. The God Delusion 2006. London, Great Britain: Transworld. p. 191-201.
9. Diamond, J. Guns, Germs and Steel: a short history of everybody for the last 13,000 years 1997. Sydney, New South Wales: Random House. p. 360
10. Elkind, D. The Power of Play: How spontaneous, imaginative activities lead to happier, healthier children. 2007. Cambridge, Massachusetts: De Capo. ch. 1
11. Ibid ch. 5-6.
12. Ellis, E. S. Watering up the curriculum for students with learning disabilities. Remedial and Special Education 18, 6 (1997). p. 327-8.
13. Fendler, L.. Educating Flexible Souls. In Hultqvist, K. & Dahlberg, G. (eds.) Governing the Child in the New Millennium 2001. New York: RoutledgeFalmer. p. 134-9.
14. Fleming & Marien. Fleming's Art and Ideas 2005. Belmont, California: Thompson & Wadworth. p. 301-3.
15. Florida, R. The Rise of the Creative Class 2002. New York: Basic Books. ch. 3.
16. Goleman, D. The New Leaders: Transforming the Art of Leadership into the Science of Results 2002. London, Great Britain: Little, Brown. p. 92-6 & 194-5
17. Ibid 59-63 & 66-9
18. Guthrie, J.T., Wigfield, A., & Perencevich, K.C. Motivating Reading Comprehension: Concept Oriented Reading Instruction 2004. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. p. 61-8.
19. Kane, P. The Play Ethic: A Manifesto for a Different Way of Living 2004. London, Great Britain: Macmillan. ch. 6.
20. Morgan, P. Education Made Easy. Quadrant, January-February 2007. p. 50-52.
21. Okagaki, L. & Sternberg, R.J. Teaching Thinking Skills: We're Getting the Context Wrong. In Kuhn, D. (ed.) Developmental Perspectives on Teaching and Learning Thinking Skills. 1990. New York: Karger. p. 74-6.
22. Runco, M.A. Creativity, Cognition and their Educational Implications. In Houtz, J.C. (ed.) The Educational Psychology of Creativity 2002. Cresskill, New Jersey: Hampton. p. 25-40.
23. Salter, D. The Media we Deserve 2007. Melbourne, Victoria: Melbourne University. p. 62-3
24. Schugurensky, D. Tranformative Learning and Transformative Politics: The Pedagogical Dimension of Participatory Democracy and Social Action. In O'Sullivan, E.V., Morrell, A. & O'Connor, M.A. (eds.) Expanding the Boundaries of Transformative Education: Essays on Theory and Praxis 2002. New York: Palgrave. p. 63-5
25. Silvia, P.J. Exploring the Psychology of Interest 2006. New York: Oxford University. ch. 6.
26. Simonton. Foresight in Insight? A Darwinian Answer. In Sternberg & Davidson-30. p. 478-86
27. White, S.A. Reporting in Australia1996. Melbourne, Victoria: Macmillan. ch.1
28. Zimbardo, P. The Lucifer Effect: Understanding how Good People turn Evil 2007. New York: Random House. p. 273-85.
29. Zuboff, S. Managing the Informated Organization. In Webster, F. (ed.) The Information Society Reader 2004. London, Great Britain: Routledge. p. 316
30. Sternberg, R.J. & Davidson, J.E. (eds.) The Nature of Insight 1995. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.