"You have to know the rules, to know how to break the rules," says Dr Andrew Burn from the Institute of Education. He's looking into the confusion over whether creativity stems from freedom or whether structure is required before children can produce anything worthwhile.
His research also suggests that teachers can overlook the value of children's diverse cultural backgrounds and experiences. "Creativity doesn't come out of nowhere and children come to school with a great many cultural resources which we sometimes overlook," says Dr Burn.
Another recent report, co-written by the National Foundation for Educational Research's Dick Downing and funded by the Arts Council and the Tate, looked at the impact of adding or extending the teaching of contemporary art to the curriculum. For some schools it proved a success, but in others teachers were hesitant to show pupils contemporary art fearing that it was "far too difficult. It would make them giggle."
