David Yarwood, Lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University, reflects on how secondary teaching shaped his creative pedagogy in higher education.
There is a recurring critique in education circles that schools are producing “exam robots”. The implication is that creativity has been pushed aside in favour of rote memorisation and rigid routines. But my experience as a secondary teacher tells a more nuanced story.
What structure can offer
Yes, there has been a clear shift in recent years towards terminal examinations, with curriculum planning increasingly shaped by findings from cognitive science. While I am not an advocate of terminal exams, I have seen how principles of direct instruction, including retrieval practice, modelling and careful sequencing, now dominate professional development sessions and are regularly found in the classroom. These techniques have become part of the everyday language of teachers.
Far from stifling creativity, many teachers use these tools to structure learning in ways that support curiosity, engagement and deeper thinking. These routines do not suppress creativity. They enable it.
What schools taught me, and what I’m learning now
As I moved into higher education, I brought this mindset with me. I found myself drawing heavily on the work of Dylan Wiliam, Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli. I owe a great deal to each of them. Their insights helped me to become a more deliberate, reflective practitioner. They also gave me a language to describe what effective teaching looks like, one that resonates just as strongly in university classrooms as it does in schools.
I am currently leading a teaching and learning project focused on helping students develop more critical and creative thinking within applied business modules. This includes embedding activities such as LEGO Serious Play, speculative design, metacognitive reflection and visual routines into my practice. These tools invite students to experiment, articulate complex ideas and engage in non-linear thinking, often in playful or provocative ways.
Creativity as structure, not chaos
Creativity does not emerge from a vacuum. It needs structure, stimulus and space. Some of the most creative lessons I taught in schools were also the most tightly structured: an opening recap of prior learning, a worked example, then carefully scaffolded tasks that invited students to respond in original ways. Whether building business plans, role-playing customer service scenarios or debating ethical dilemmas, students were encouraged to take risks with their ideas, but only because they had something to build on.
The same applies in my university teaching. Creative outcomes are most likely when the foundational knowledge is secure. This is why the routines I have learned from Sherrington, Wiliam and Caviglioli continue to shape how I plan and teach. They create the cognitive conditions in which students feel both challenged and supported, free to explore but not lost.
My thinking builds on Kleiman’s view that creativity is often misunderstood in education. It is not the same as free expression or unstructured play. Creativity relies on prior knowledge, purposeful constraints and the learning conditions set by the teacher. In both schools and universities, it is the structure of the task, the clarity of modelling and the space to reflect that help students move beyond the obvious and produce original, meaningful work.
Not a conflict, but a foundation
Rather than asking whether cognitive science and creativity are in conflict, perhaps we should be asking how one can support the other. Structured techniques such as direct instruction, retrieval practice and modelling do not close down creativity. They provide a solid foundation of knowledge and confidence. In turn, this creates the space for students to take risks, make connections and generate ideas.
That, surely, is the kind of graduate we want to develop.
David Yarwood is a Lecturer in Business Education at Manchester Metropolitan University. He is currently studying for a PhD in Higher Education at Lancaster University and leads a project exploring how active and experiential learning can support creativity, critical thinking and graduate readiness in applied business education.
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