Report Research"The pre-school child's imagination has a positive educational value because in the process of playing he develops a firm desire to imitate adults, to take on the role of good people, to act as they do." Zhukovskaya, R. I., (2014) Development of the Child's Imagination in the Process of Play. Soviet Education. [Internet] December 2014, 4(5), 44-52. Available at: <http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.2753/RES1060-9393040544> [Accessed 16 November 2016] "All children need to have an environment where the act of imagining and its expression are not only respected but given visible outlets. Children's playing should be seen as a profound manifestation of this process." "Out of playing and dreaming comes the child's love of creating and doing - of bringing together what the child is thinking and feeling, of finding a means of expressing the inward world outwardly." "For all children, the world is freshly revealed, ready to be experienced in all it's subleties and elements. To allow children to gather the world, to embrace its energy and vitality, is to allow their imagination to be a life force in their becoming fully human." Lewis, R., (1984) Reaffirmations: Speaking Out for Children: A Child's Right to Imagine. Childhood Education. [Internet] July 2012, 62(1), 52. Available at: <http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00094056.1984.10522343> [Accessed 16 November 2016] "The role of the arts in the development of imagination in early childhood is linked with children's need to explore and learn about their world. Learning to imagine is a crucial step in symbol‐making in early childhood. Decentration skills are hypothesised as the link between fantasy or pretense play activities and development in areas such as communication, co‐operation, perspective‐taking ability, creativity, problem‐solving skills and many areas of cognitive development. Children develop their own theories of the world well before starting school and, by being aware of these theories, teachers can build on children's prior learning rather than negating it. Examples of children's symbol‐making are used to illustrate the process of making meaning. Aspects of children's learning environments are considered in terms of how effectively they facilitate children's exploration and the development of imagination." White, M. H., (1993) Imagination in Learning: Learning to Imagine. Early Child Development and Care. [Internet] May 1993, 90(1), 99-111. Available at: <http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0300443930900112> [Accessed 16 November 2016] "Results showed that activities such as gardening and construction were as valuable for supporting creative thinking as ones traditionally associated with creativity, for example, music and painting. Outdoor play of all kinds and socio-dramatic play were particularly effective contexts." "Child-initiated activities featured the highest levels of involvement, and were associated with trying out and analysing ideas, flexibility and originality, imagining and hypothesising." "There is increasing recognition of the importance of supporting creativity and creative thinking at all phases of education (Siraj-Blatchford, I. 2007. Creativity, communication and collaboration: The identification of pedagogic progression in sustained shared thinking. Asia-Pacific Journal of Research in Early Childhood Education, 1(2): 3–23. ).This paper presents data produced as part of the Froebel Research Fellowship Project, ‘The Voice of the Child: Ownership and Autonomy in Early Learning’, at the University of Roehampton. In particular, it looks at young children's creative thinking, as inferred through observations of their everyday behaviour whilst they engage in child-initiated, adult-directed and adult-led activities in an early childhood setting." "The National Advisory Committee on Creative and Cultural Education (NACCCE) defines creativityas ‘imaginative activity fashioned so as to produce outcomes that are both original and of value’ (National Advisory Committee on Creative and Cultural Education (NACCCE) . 1999 . All our futures: Creativity, culture, and education . London : DfEE ., 29), whilst Sternberg defines creative thinking as ‘thinking that is novel and that produces ideas that are of value’ (2003, 325–6). They share ideas of imagination, and originality or novelty" "Rather, creative thinking is thinking which is new for that individual." " Hypothesising, and making leaps of the imagination require confidence on the thinker's part, and a willingness to take risks, suggesting a key role for motivation, particularly intrinsic motivation (Amabile, T.M. 1996. Creativity in context, Boulder, CO: Westview Press. )." "Accordingly, this paper addresses the research question: How do children express their creativity and creative thinking in early childhood settings?" "The data show that all participant children displayed evidence of creative thinking, although in some this was more frequent than others." "In addressing the research question: ‘How do children express their creativity and creative thinking in early childhood settings?’ the data are considered from three perspectives:
"In the case of the first factor, the data here endorse the view that child-initiated play may be more supportive of creative thinking (Craft, A., Cremin, T., Burnard, P. and Chappell, K. 2008. “Possibility thinking with children in England aged 3-7”. In Creative learning 3-11 and how we document it, Edited by: Craft, A., Cremin, T. and Burnard, P.65–73. Stoke on Trent: Trentham Books. ). In the case of the second factor, the differences between indoors and outdoors as contexts for creative thinking may be significant. The vast majority of outdoor play we recorded showed high levels of creative thinking behaviour in the participants, whether alone or with others, and regardless of adult presence or absence." "Pretend play, particularly socio-dramatic play, was the most likely activity to lead to high levels of creative thinking." "Much pretend play, particularly in this age group, is collaborative, providing a context for children to engage with others, hypothesising about their wishes and intentions, as they negotiate story lines, and imagine how co-players will feel, think and act." "At the same time, however, it was evident that children's exploratory play with materials and resources of all kinds proved a very strong context for their creative thinking." "Laevers believes that a key factor of support for higher levels of involvement (seen by him as an indicator of children's ‘intense mental activity’) is the opportunities children have for choice: ‘the more children can choose their own activities, the higher will be their level of involvement’ (Laevers, F. 2000. Forward to basics! Deep-level-learning and the experiential approach. Early Years, 20(2): 20–9. [Taylor & Francis Online], 26)." "In RDs, children often referred to the presence of friends as important, and friends have been shown to be more likely to succeed in problem solving activities than non-friends (Smith, P.K., Cowie, H. and Blades, M.2011. Understanding children's development, 5th ed, Oxford: Blackwell. ). Some children also talked about not wanting to play with children that they did not count as friends, and the impact this had on their choices of activity." "However, whilst using prior knowledge is important, Vygotsky's famous statement, ‘What a child can do with assistance today she will be able to do by herself tomorrow’ (Vygotsky, L.S. 1978. Mind in society, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. , Vygotsky, L.S. 1986. Thought and language, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. ), emphasises the value of the acquisition of new knowledge and insights, gained through joint thinking." "Children's exploratory play with materials and resources of all kinds proved a very strong context for their creative thinking. However, two particular contexts which may be supportive of creative thinking are outdoor play and pretence. Socio-dramatic play, in particular, was the activity most likely to lead to high levels of creative thinking." Robson, S., Rowe, V., (2012) Observing young children's creative thinking: engagement, involvement and persistence. International Journal of Early Years Education. [Internet] December 2012, 20(4), 349-364. Available at: <http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09669760.2012.743098>. [Accessed 16 November 2016] "Imagination is closely related to creativity. It is also distinct from fantasy. The basic distinction between imagination and fantasy is that while imagination is related to reality, fantasy is related to unreality. The key link between imagination and creativity lies in the opportunity that, based upon reality, imagination provides for innovation and original changes and possibilities. That is creativity itself as well." Mellon, E., (1995) Creativity: The Imagination Condition. Early Child Development and Care. [Internet] June 1995, 114(1), 97-106. Available at: <http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0300443951140108>. [Accessed 16 November 2016] "From the three translated papers of Vygotsky which directly addressed creativity, one can extract the outlines of a viable theory explaining the development of creativity. Vygotsky claimed that creative imagination is the distinguishing feature between the world of culture and the world of nature, and the basis of all mature mental activity. He found the origins of creative imagination in early manifestations of play, and explained that it goes through a process of integration and evolution following the development of concepts and reasoning during adolescence. It develops into mature creative imagination only in adulthood. The argument in the present article is that Vygotsky's explanation can resolve contradictions that exist in the empirical findings on the development of creativity during adolescence. In addition to a general theoretical examination of Vygotsky's perspective on creativity, the theory's relevance to developmental issues in creativity is critically examined, and its relationship to existing knowledge about development of creativity is discussed." Ayman-Nolley, S., (1992) Vygotsky's Perspective on the Development of Imagination and Creativity. Creativity Research Journal. [Internet] November 2009, 5(1), 77-85. Available at: <http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10400419209534424>. [Accessed 16 November 2016] Multiple journals to gather extensive research to back up any points included in my report in reference to how imagination, creativity and play are used within child development. The conclusion of my report is becoming more and more clear the more I read. Many different sources agree with the same statement that play manifests creativity and imagination (play is a way for a child to experiment with their imaginative and creative skills to help further their development).
Comments are closed.
|
KEY
Creative/Practice - Green Practice Research - Blue Report Research - Red Research for Both - Indigo My Reflection in Posts - Pink Categories
All
Key Words
|