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Big Wins, Small Steps

How to Lead For and With Creativity

By: Ronald A. Beghetto

This book is the definitive resource for fostering schoolwide creativity, showing the way to improving possibility thinking through small adjustments.

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Product Details

Grade Level: PreK-12
ISBN: 9781483385464
Published By: Corwin
Year: 2016
Page Count: 160
Publication date: April 25, 2016

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Description

Don’t sink your school’s creativity—encourage it to set sail!

Do today’s schools stifle creativity? Some think so. Whether or not that assessment is fair, educational leaders need to innovate, implement creative leadership and cultivate possibility thinking.

This book is the definitive resource for making creativity a schoolwide core value. Introducing the groundbreaking Small Steps Approach to Instructional Leadership (SAIL) framework, Ronald A. Beghetto shows how big wins come from small, completely doable steps, and all creativity needs is a little nudge from you, the instructional leader. Content includes:

“Creative leader checklists” summarizing actionable points in each chapter.
The keys to removing the most difficult creative barriers
How to sit with uncertainty instead of letting it derail innovation efforts
When to “flow like water”, and when to “stand like a mountain” as you re-focus your school towards creativity

Implementing these principles will produce positive effects that resonate in every aspect of your school.

Watch this video from Ron Beghetto on "Responding to Uncertainty."

Check out the PCR Interview for Big Wins, Small Steps.

"Ron Beghetto's engaging work on creativity has profound implications for schools, and for the staff and students within them."
Larry Rosenstock, CEO
High Tech High

“Creativity has become the holy-grail in education. Beghetto presents an authoritative, accessible, and unpretentious pathway toward creative leadership. Insightful, practical, and based on solid research, not popular myth.”
Yong Zhao, Author of World Class Learners

"Creativity is needed to negotiate a complex world. Big Wins, Small Steps invites educators to teach creativity by first practicing deliberate creativity one small step at a time."
Beth Miller, Executive Director
Creative Education Foundation

Author(s)

Ronald A. Beghetto

Dr. Ronald A. Beghetto is an international expert on creativity in educational settings. He serves as Professor of Educational Psychology in the Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut. He is also Editor-in-Chief for the Journal of Creative Behavior and a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and the Society for the Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts (Div. 10, APA).

Dr. Beghetto has published numerous books, articles, and scholarly book chapters on creative and innovative approaches to teaching, learning, and leadership in schools and classrooms. He speaks around the world on issues related to helping teachers and instructional leaders develop new and transformative possibilities for classroom teaching, learning, and leadership in K-12 and higher education settings.

Prior to joining the faculty at UConn, Dr. Beghetto served as the College of Education's Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Associate Professor of Education Studies at the University of Oregon. Dr. Beghetto earned his Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from Indiana University (with an emphasis in Learning, Cognition and Instruction).

Table of Contents

Preface

Chapter 1. Respond Creatively: A Small-Steps Approach

Rethinking Creative Leadership

Responding to Uncertainty

Introducing the SAIL Framework

Chapter 2. Sit With Uncertainty

The Creative Potential of Uncertainty

Sit With Uncertainty: Principles of Practice

Putting the Principles in Practice

Chapter 3. Engage in Possibility Thinking

Possibility Thinking: A Different Way of Reasoning

Engage in Possibility Thinking: Principles of Practice

Putting the Principles in Practice

Chapter 4. Prune Possibilities

The Power of Pruning Possibilities

Creativity and Criticism

Prune Possibilities: Principles of Practice

Putting the Principles in Practice

Chapter 5. Take Measured Action

The Power of Small Data

The Progress Principle

Take Measured Action: Principles of Practice

Putting the Principles in Practice

Chapter 6. Reclaiming Your Creativity as an Instructional Leader

A Dozen Action Items for Instructional Leaders

Creativity Resources

Appendix A: Creative Leader Checklists

Appendix B: Ground Rules

Appendix C: Heuristics for Possibility Thinking

Appendix D: Action Items for Instructional Leaders

Reviews

"In a world in which change comes at alarmingly faster rates each year (or so it would seem), it is refreshing to have a source that encourages us to take small steps within the context of our current efforts in instructional leadership which will lead to greater gains. This book is a great companion for any educational leader who wishes to model creative leadership within their building."

Rich Hall, Director of Elementary Education
Henrico County Public Schools

"Big Wins, Small Steps gives Principals, Teachers, & Instructional Leaders a framework to reference when looking out how to increase the creative spirit in our schools, and what steps we can do to support our students."

Kristopher Kwiatek, Principal
Kadena Middle School

"I suggest that all school leaders consider this book as Ron Beghetto's engaging work on creativity has profound implications for schools, and for the staff and students within them."

Larry Rosenstock, CEO
High Tech High

"At a time when creativity has become the holy-grail in education, Beghetto presents an authoritative, accessible, and unpretentious pathway toward creative leadership and leadership for creativity. Insightful, practical, and based on solid research, not popular myth.”

Yong Zhao, Author
World Class Learners

"Creativity is a process. It is an intrinsic skill -- the key skill needed to negotiate a complex world. Big Wins, Small Steps invites educators to teach creativity by first practicing deliberate creativity. This practical guide will cultivate your creativity one small step at a time."

Beth Miller, Executive Director
Creative Education Foundation

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