Creativity in ECE

“Creativity is contagious. Pass it on” –Albert Einstein.

The Early Childhood Curriculum (Ministry of Education, 1996) states that “children experience an environment where they discover and develop different ways to be creative and expressive” (p.80). Some learning outcomes for this goal involves and ability to be creative through a range of activities, familiarity with arts, crafts, songs, music and stories valued by cultures and communities, skills and confidence with arts and crafts such as drawing, painting, collage and constructing and a belief that music, dance, drama and art will delight, comfort and excite.

Early Childhood programmes should provide children with experience to be creative with a range of materials such as clay, fibre, fabric, pencils, brushes, rollers, dress ups, stamp pads, scissors, computers, musical instruments, sticky tape, glue, a variety of paper including different types and carpentry tools. Creativity should not be restrained to activities using these materials but also widens to challenges and changes to rules, ideas and environments that include humour, fun and enjoyment (Ministry of Education, 1996).

To me being creative is to have freedom to make something out of endless possibilities. It is never wrong or structured by one thing we have complete control over what is being created. Creativity is about seeing something and making it into something else and connecting things together. So be original and imaginative and let your mind run free!

Having a creative mind makes life more fun and interesting. To conclude this blog, I will leave you with another quote to THINK about from one of my favourite children’s authors:

“Think left and think right and think low and think high. Only the thinks you can think up if only you try!” –Dr. Seuss.

References:

Ministry of Education. (1996). Te Whāriki. He Whāriki matauranga mo ngā mokopuna o 

Aotearoa: Early childhood curriculum. Wellington: Learning Media. 

Picuture:

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Google images. Retrieved from http://www.inspiresy.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/cute_colorful_kids-1920x1200-570x350.jpg 

Steiner

“Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes and having fun” –Mary Lou Cook.

Steiner education was based on the educational philosophy of Rudolf Steiner. Steiner founded the philosophy of Anthroposophy which considers the human body is composed through the mind, soul and spirit. In regards to education, Steiner’s ideas had strong connections to the humanistic approach and a holistic view. Steiner education has a high value of autonomy which I believe would support and encourage creativity. Steiner believed that children in an early childhood stage should learn through a physical way such as through their senses and imitation (Santrock, 2011).

Teachers must ensure that children have a sensory world through sounds, sights, actions, gestures and feelings that are valuable for imitation. Learning through practical hands on activities will set up an environment that will encourage children to have daily opportunities for creative, imaginative play.

Creativity can be supported through many Steiner approaches such as:

• Having a large experimental and sensory based environment
• Providing practical activities for children to imitate allowing exploration through role models
• Environment is home like- natural materials, children will feel safe to explore and extend their learning
• Guided free play for self directed learning
• Simple materials that could fit wide ranges of activities to strengthen creativity and imagination (MacNaughton & Williams, 2009).

References:

 MacNaughton, G & Williams, G. (2009). Techniques for teaching young children (3^rd Ed).

               Australia: Pearson Education. 

 Santrock, J.W. (2010). Life-span development. (13^thed.). Boston: McGraw Hill 

Picture:

Google images. Retrieved from http://serabeena.com.au/static/files/assets/72b9a709/Encouraging_Creativity_in_Children2.jpg 

Humanism

“You can’t use up creativity the more you use, the more you have” –Maya Angelou

A humanist approach to teaching involves being an open and honest teacher who values their relationships with learners. Teachers should also value ideas, language, and culture and nurture the learner’s sense of identity and self esteem. By setting up a learning environment that provides a range of potential creative activities will support the learners to develop creativity and critical thinking skills. Using humanism strategies should encourage the learners to be curious and take interest in their learning (Duchnesne, McMaugh, Bochner & Krause, 2013). Like the cognitive process of constructivism, a humanist approach can have no control over what is learned and how to be creative or more creative it is again to just be encouraged and valued.

Carl Rogers an important figure associated with humanist approaches had an idea that teachers should be non-directive, innovative and more personal. He believed that children should be nurtured and not controlled in their learning. Roger emphasized the significance of freedom and choice for mental and emotional health. He also believed that supportive, non-directive relationships help individuals begin to heal themselves. An approach was developed called non-directive teaching which would free learners to develop their talent through self directed activity and this is how creativity is had(Duchnesne, McMaugh, Bochner & Krause, 2013).  To be creative we must direct our own learning to encourage our interests and values and let our mind experiment and create endless opportunities.

References:

Duchesne, S., McMaugh, A., Bochner, S., &Krause, K-L. (2013). Educational psychology for  

       learning and teaching (4th ed.). Auckland, New Zealand: Cengage.

Pictures:

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Cognitive views

“Creativity is seeing possibilities that we have not seen before and seeing connections between patches of truth and beauty then responding to them in a way we have not done before” –Neal A. Maxwell.

Creativity come from within us; our mind, soul and whole being. It can be an important part of who we are and how we express ourselves. Our cognitive processes may have some influences on our creativity. Creativity can link to metacognition as the learner is engaged with the material and environment through using self expression. Metacognition is about self and processing our own knowledge (Duchnesne, McMaugh, Bochner & Krause, 2013). Our creative decisions reflect our thinking processes.

I believe creativity comes from ourselves and we cannot just become more creative. To improve our creative processes though it could help to alter lighting, music, time or environment depending on how we individually learn and engage best. We can do this by self monitoring our learning, understanding and remembering what works for us. For children we could encourage creativity through the environment and supporting their interests as they learn best through interest and enjoyment (Duchnesne, McMaugh, Bochner & Krause, 2013).

I think that using constructivism and creativity are similar as they cannot be controlled by the adult it is all through individual children. Teachers need to trust themselves, trust the children and trust where it is going. They can use children’s prior knowledge to support and present materials in the centre in an organised way.

Both Vygotsky and Piaget had ideas about cognitive development. Vygotsky’s idea was that cognitive development was through social processes. That ways of thinking and acting are first gained through social interaction. Piaget had a different idea that cognitive development is constructed through individual’s knowledge, beliefs and identity. A social environment is acknowledged but the individual learner’s role in constructing the learning environment is most important (Duchnesne, McMaugh, Bochner & Krause, 2013). So it seems that we could connect Psychological constructivism which is based on Piaget’s theory on creativity. This is because the children are responsible for their own creativity and having a capability to be creative. We cannot control creativity only value and encourage it. 

References:

Duchesne, S., McMaugh, A., Bochner, S., &Krause, K-L. (2013). Educational psychology for  

       learning and teaching (4th ed.). Auckland, New Zealand: Cengage.

Picture: 

Google images. Retrieved from http://www.creativitypost.com/images/uploads/activism/left-brain-right-brain-creativity-400x294.jpg

Behaviourism

"To live a creative life we must first lose the fear of being wrong"- Joseph Chilton Pearce.

Behaviourism is a study that we can observe and measure. It has been grown to believe that development is something we can observe through behaviour and this behaviour can be learned through experience with the environment (Santrock, 2011).
In regards to creativity I believe we can't exactly control if children have it or not. What we could do is control the environment though. We could also encourage children to think in meaningful ways by creating connections to their environment in their learning.

Even when creativity is encouraged it can sometimes be seen as troublesome as these children like to take risks. Creative children want to question and explore possibilities rather than understanding views of adults around them. Strategies teachers could use to avoid preventing creativity can be to:

• Gain an understanding, knowledge and skills to support children to move beyond the prepared activity.
• Remember that having a creative process is about a freedom to explore ideas and to allow children to do this.
• Be open to what the child has to say and their view on an idea.
• Try not to constrict the time and rush the child or be prepared to allow time for the child to come back to their project at a later time.
• Using positive reinforcement can always help encourage children to be and continue their creative process (Duffy, 2006). 

References

Duffy, B. (2006). Supporting Creativity and Imagination in the Early Years. Open University Press, Buckingham Philadelphia.

Santrock, J.W. (2010). Life-span development. (13^thed.). Boston: McGraw Hill.

Picture

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Teacher's role

“The creative adult is the child who survived”- Ursula K. Le Guin.

It is important to educate young children and encourage their imagination and creativity. By doing this teachers support children’s abilities to explore, understand and make connections of their world around them (Duffy, 2006). To support children’s creativity teachers could:

• Understand how valuable it is to have creativity and imagination
• Have knowledge about development, activities to provide, the roles they must take during this process and patterns of interest
•  Plan the physical environment; is it exciting, motivating or stimulating?

Now brings me to my next question.

Is it a good thing to have a stimulating environment for children?

Would it create encouragement, easy access and be engaging or would it create too much choice?

For me I believe that it is important that a learning environment is safe, secure and pleasurable. Some spaces could be exciting and some spaces where there are places for resting. For a space encouraging creativity it needs to be exciting and inspiring but if it’s too stimulating it may be too much for children which children need to be aware and careful about. Interesting ways teachers could encourage children’s curiosity and wonder is to place materials or equipment in different areas around the centre for example placing a book in the block corner. This could prompt children to question and experiment with their creativity (MacNaughton & Williams, 2009). 

References:

Duffy, B. (2006). Supporting Creativity and Imagination in the Early Years. Open University

       Press, Buckingham Philadelphia.

 MacNaughton, G & Williams, G. (2009). Techniques for teaching young children (3^rd Ed).

               Australia: Pearson Education. 

Pictures: 

Google images. Retrieved from https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSBKFrf98IUdyb8gAQT2oYiwhxzheWQvD396ZFxguE1U65-2Mo5

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Children's learning

          “Creativity is a natural extension of our enthusiasm”- Carl Nightingale

A certain level of intelligence is needed to be creative. Now I believe this is a very strong statement. I agree to this to a certain degree that when someone is creative they have certain intelligence because they are interested, motivated and inspired but anyone can be creative and who decided who is intelligent and who is not?

This statement is viewed by many learning theorists who argue that creativity is seen through a high level of achievement that involves high abilities, knowledge and practical skills within the area. This is usually how creativity seems to be identified in children (Duchnesne, McMaugh, Bochner & Krause, 2013).

Having a creative process involves imagination and play. Play encourages flexibility and problem-solving skills which supports a child who is creative. Through creativity children would be able to:

•  Communicate their feelings through verbal and nonverbal way
•  Express their thoughts
•  Express their cultural background
• Understand, respond and signify  their views of the world
•  Experience beauty and value
• Create and think about new meanings and
• Gain self esteem and trust in themselves (Duffy, 2006)

The Early Childhood Curriculum (Ministry of Education, 1996) states that “children experience an environment where they discover and develop different ways to be creative and expressive” (p.80). Some learning outcomes for this goal include:

•  An ability to be creative and expressive through a range of activities such as carpentry, drama, pretend play, making music and storytelling
•  Belief that music, drama, dance and art can amuse, comfort, inform and excite
• Awareness of the materials and technology used with creative and expressive arts
• Awareness of the many types of music, arts, drama and dance used as expression of moods, feelings, occasions and culture

References:

Duchesne, S., McMaugh, A., Bochner, S., &Krause, K-L. (2013). Educational psychology for   

       learning and teaching (4th ed.). Auckland, New Zealand: Cengage.

Duffy, B. (2006). Supporting Creativity and Imagination in the Early Years. Open University

       Press, Buckingham Philadelphia.

Ministry of Education. (1996). Te Whāriki. He Whāriki matauranga mo ngā mokopuna o 

       Aotearoa: Early childhood curriculum. Wellington: Learning Media. 

Picture: Google images. Retrieved from: 
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRz0hjp750vC3DwAP8cD20CsdzJXHHSbykTBslBchJ07a3CnvU3