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Developing Young Children's Creativity PDF
Developing Young Children's Creativity PDF
Readership: primary
Being creative enables children to make connections Where definitions of creativity differ most strikingly
between one area of learning and another and so extend is the extent to which their proponents are
their understanding. This area includes art, music, dance, attempting to identify creativity as a generic human
role-play and imaginative play. characteristic, or to define what makes highly
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Developing young childrens creativity
creative people special and different from others. Creativity in young children
This is the distinction between what the Robinson When considering young children, it is appropriate
Report (5) calls the democratic, as opposed to the to adopt a broad, democratic definition of
lite, definition of creativity. Howard Gardner (6), creativity. In this way, every child can be
adopts an lite definition of creativity when he considered to have creative potential and to be
argues that truly creative people are those who make capable of creative expression.
a difference to the world (e.g. by moving forward
thinking in science, social science, music or art). It is important to consider what might constitute
This type of Big C creativity is reserved for very few originality in the work of a young child. After all,
individuals. The report (5) of the National Advisory only a child prodigy could be expected to come up
Committee for Creative and Cultural Education, with something new and valuable to society.
chaired by Professor Ken Robinson, adopted a Instead, each childs creative abilities can be related
democratic view of creativity. It argued that this was to his/her personal stage of development. For
the most useful way of viewing creativity in relation example, a young childs work may be adaptive
to education (5, para. 25) and original for that particular child and/or in
relation to children in their class or age group (7).
All people are capable of creative achievement in
some area of activity, provided that the conditions Another suggestion for adapting the notion of
are right and they have acquired the relevant creativity to suit young children is to put the
knowledge and skills. emphasis on the creative process, rather than to
judge the quality of their products. This is
So is creativity another way of talking about because young children may not have developed
intelligence or talent? Most authorities agree that all the skills they need to achieve a successful
creativity is different. Creativity has been shown creative outcome (8, 9). A similar point is made by
to be distinct from intelligence (children scoring Malaguzzi (10), who says (p. 77):
high on intelligence tests are not necessarily
highly creative). The concept of multiple Creativity becomes more visible when adults try to
intelligences (6) suggests that people may have a be more attentive to the cognitive processes of
particular intelligence (or potential) in relation to children than to the results they achieve in various
a given field of endeavour. fields of doing and understanding.
is creativity While this is a more inclusive
another way of concept than traditional IQ, it This is an interesting comment coming from the
is still essentially distinct from driving force behind the Reggio Emilia approach,
talking about creativity, which may be which has impressed so many people with the
intelligence or considered to represent a more quality of creative products generated by young
children.
talent? generic set of abilities,
applicable to a range of
domains. Talent usually refers to the possession of How does creativity develop?
a high degree of aptitude and skill in a given area Some theorists have studied the way in which
(such as music or mathematics), but would not creativity develops in children. Most theories of
necessarily imply either a high degree of child development view young children as highly
originality or an ability to demonstrate creative creative, with a natural tendency to fantasise,
abilities outside the specific area. experiment and explore their environment.
However, this high level of creativity is not
Talk to most parents about their childrens necessarily maintained throughout childhood and
creativity and they will probably think you are into adulthood. For example, Meador (11) presents
talking about artistic or musical talent. The evidence from the USA that creativity (as measured
Robinson Report (5) argues that, while there are by divergent thinking tests) declines when children
strong links between the expressive arts and enter kindergarten, at around the age of five or six.
creativity, viewing creativity as solely or mainly the
province of the arts is unhelpful because it can Runco (12) has studied how creativity develops. He
lead to a denial of the role of creativity in other explains that longitudinal research on trends in
areas, such as science and mathematics. creativity suggests both continuities and
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Developing young childrens creativity
discontinuities throughout an individuals lifespan. For example, a child may not choose to engage in
In other words, a child identified as highly creative creative thinking because she lacks self-confidence
in early life may or may not consistently show and does not believe that she has anything of
creativity later on. He argues that this uneven value to offer. Or maybe she becomes anxious
development may result from the fact that certain when given an open-ended task with several
traits and talents develop at different rates and are possible solutions. Through observation and
influenced by each individuals environment and conversation, an adult can work out what is
life chances. causing the childs difficulties and encourage her to
work through them.
How does education influence creativity?
Most writers on creativity agree that it is possible How can educational settings influence creativity?
to encourage or indeed to inhibit the development Mellou (14) suggests that young childrens
of creativity in young children. The finding creativity can be nurtured through educational
highlighted by Meador (11), that children are settings in three respects: the creative
apparently more creative before they enter environment, creative programmes and creative
kindergarten, leads to the question of whether this teachers and ways of teaching. A brief overview of
is a natural consequence of children maturing and recommendations in relation to these three
becoming constrained by social conventions, or elements is given below.
whether their experiences in kindergarten
somehow caused the decline. The creative environment
Fundamental to the creative environment is the
In order to consider the way in which creativity encouragement of childrens play. Play is strongly
can be fostered in educational settings, it may be featured in many of the discussions about
helpful to identify some of the components of creativity in young children. Indeed, older children
creativity in young children. Creativity is closely and adults are often encouraged to be playful in
bound up with an individuals personality and order to facilitate creative thinking. Imaginative
emotional life: there is more involved than just play (especially role play) and free choice of
thinking skills. activities would seem to be key components of the
early childhood setting in relation to creativity (see
Russ (13) has developed a model to explain the 9, 13, 1518). Both creativity and play require
relationship between creativity and psychological imagination, insight, problem solving, divergent
processes. This model suggests that the following thinking, the ability to experience emotion and to
three elements are involved: make choices (19).
1. personality traits, such as self-confidence, being able This does not mean that all play involves
to tolerate ambiguity, curiosity and motivation creativity. Prentice (18) suggests that active
involvement is a key feature: For creativity to
2. emotional processes, such as emotional fantasy in flourish in an educational setting, it is necessary
play, pleasure in challenge, involvement in tasks and for learners to be actively involved in the process
tolerance of anxiety of their own learning (p. 154). Research has also
shown that it is possible for adults to help children
3. cognitive abilities, such as divergent thinking, ability improve their imaginative play skills, with
to transform thinking (for example, by being able to apparent positive consequences for their creative
reorder information or shift thinking sets), sensitivity abilities (19).
to problems, breadth of knowledge and judgement.
Two other issues have been raised concerning the
environment in early childhood settings. The
The implication of this model is that, in order for stimulation offered by a childs physical
children to express creativity, they need a environment is important, as Runco (20) has
combination of attributes. Although some children pointed out. This could include the size and layout
already have the necessary components, others of the classroom and outdoor space, the quality of
may need help, encouragement and skill equipment and materials, and access to varied and
development in order to engage in creative activity. new environments. A second key issue is the need
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Developing young childrens creativity
for children to be given sufficient and sustained Some children may need to learn to stand up for
periods of time in which to develop their creative their own ideas, especially when these do not
projects (see 5, 10, 21). conform to those of the rest of the group. But
children also need to learn discretion, so that they
Creative programmes can judge when it is appropriate to be divergent
Can creativity be taught through creative and original, and when it is appropriate to
programmes? The results from research in this area conform.
would seem to suggest that it is possible to enhance
childrens creative skills through specific teaching
programmes, including arts-based ones (see 22, 23).
However, conclusions from two reviews of research
into the transferable effects of arts education have
concluded that the impact of arts programmes on
childrens creativity is not yet proven (24, 25). The
apparent contradiction probably arises from a lack
of sufficient high-quality research, and the
possibility that not all arts activities serve to
enhance creativity.
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16 CRAFT, A. (2002). Creativity and Early Years 27 DOWNING, D., JOHNSON, F. and KAUR, S.
Education. London: Continuum. (2003). Saving a Place for the Arts? A Survey of
the Arts in Primary Schools in England (LGA
17 MELLOU, E. (1994). The case of intervention Research Report No. 41). Slough: NFER.
in young childrens dramatic play in order to
develop creativity, Early Child Development and About the author
Care, 99, 5361. Caroline Sharp is a Principal Research Officer in
the Department of Professional and Curriculum
18 PRENTICE, R. (2000). Creativity: a Studies at the National Foundation for Educational
reaffirmation of its place in early childhood Research. Her research interests are in early
education, Curriculum Journal, 11, 2, 14558. childhood, arts and creativity and study support.
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