Promote Creativity and Creative Learning in Young Children

Children are no longer encouraged to be creative in the test prep environment. Instead, they are being taught to perform well on standardized tests and are labeled as unintelligent if they don’t. Young children are born with creativity and we see that when they are playing and pretending. According to Sir Ken Robinson, in Slon’s (2013) article, “by the time they get to be adults, most kids have lost that capacity” to be creative. The fundamentals of creation and experimentation are not part of the standardized testing mechanism.

In the novel "What the Best College Students Do" by Ken Bain he states that learning is not only discovering new abilities, it is putting a creative twist into it (p. 4). He places Paul Baker (a professor that taught Integration of Abilities) in this story because he emphasizes what Bain is trying to convey (pp. 2-3). Baker states that "This is a class in discovering your own creative ability and all you will have to help you with your discovery is yourself and getting acquainted with the way you work" (p. 4). Everybody has different viewpoints because everyone has different backgrounds, therefore, creativity is not only a want it is a necessity. To deeply learn something, students needs to have a

Kaufman and Beghetto (2014) further suggest that creativity can be fostered in children to a certain extent by providing them with opportunities to express their own unique ideas.

Creative learning is about how children are actively involved in their own learning and ability to make choices and decisions. This can be achieved through providing a creative environment allowing exploration through play and praising creative efforts. Creativity is about risk taking and making connections, allowing children to

• Creativity emerges as children become absorbed in action and explorations of their own ideas, expressing

Creative learning is about how children are actively involved in their own learning, and their ability to make choices and decisions. This can be achieved through providing a creative environment, allowing exploration through play and

Cognitive theories is when children make relations between different things, this theory look at how the brain puts things together, lots of opportunities need to be provided for the child to develop knowledge in lots of different areas, and so that they can draw on their own views and experiences. Some theorists such as Robert Sternberg and Howard Gardener argue that being able to make new connections and to create a drawing from them is a type of intelligence.

Creative development is important to a child’s learning because it helps them to use their mind and imagination and express their own ideas, and through playing with their friends it also helps them to understand that all family’s and cultures can be different. It helps them to make connections in their thinking and the way in which they problem solve, by doing things over and over again they reinforce their thinking and learning, they develop self-esteem, confidence, imagination & learning to work together in groups. It puts down the foundations for more

This Area of Learning relates to the development of children’s individual ways of developing and representing their notions and emotions in an imaginative way through assorted mediums and various forms of self-expression.

Creative learning is about how children are actively involved in their own learning, where they are given the opportunity to make choices and decisions which develops their problem solving skills and imaginative thinking.  It can be achieved through providing a creative environment allowing exploration through play.  For example the construction area, where children are given the opportunity to build with different objects and materials, using their imagination.

There are multiple theories explaining how cognitive development occurs. Piaget’s stage theory, for example, focuses on whether children progress qualitatively through stages of development (Diener 2017). A theory based in nature vs. nurture, Piaget believed a child’s cognition develops biologically as they grow, based on their interactions with the environment. Sociocultural theory, on the other hand, believes children are influenced by the beliefs, values, perceptions, and opinions of those around them. Finally, information processing theories suggest that children process the information they receive and do not merely react to stimulus.

Today’s education system has become focused on standardized intelligence testing and what works best for the majority. This system, although created to help the masses, is impersonal and only benefits a specific group of students who learn the best through testing. Those students who think creatively and use imagination are left behind. This is why intelligence tests are not accurate measurement of a child’s knowledge as it does not account for creativity and the child’s individual strengths. Changes need to be made within the school system. Instead of focusing on what is “correct” schools should be encouraging problem-solving through the process of making mistakes and failing. This challenges a student to learn about themselves and the world around them. When everything is already laid out for them it is easy to follow. There is no single way of thinking. By making a student have to think on their own it stimulates creativity and allows them to better connect concepts to real world situations.

A smart man said “Creativity is as important as literacy and we should treat it with the same standing.” (Ken Robinson-“Do schools kill creativity?”). There are multiple studies on how creativity helps improve a student’s mind. Project based learning is a huge creative booster for students. A math teacher from California uses projects to do math instead of using the text book. From doing this, she’s had more students pass her class then from when she was teaching straight from the text books. Instead of having standardized tests, using more creative techniques for students to enjoy the learning they’ve done and for them to show the higher officials what the students are learning. Creativity is the process of turning real world problems into an understanding by extending the minds cognitive processes. In Alabama, kindergartners are studying different ways to be creative.

Creative intelligence is an innate characteristic with which we are born; this is an aspect in the development of our mental

Children by nature are curious, innovative, explorative and experimental. They tend to see the world differently with endless possibilities and opportunities. They are less hesitant to try new ideas and are also experts in expressing themselves in the form of art. In short, children are creative by birth. Since the early childhood setting is a hub for fostering these creative minds, expanding horizons, and creating future geniuses, creativity in early childhood development and curriculum provision holds utmost importance. As a result, creativity is important for Early Childhood development and therefore, creative experiences should be incorporated within the curriculum. This will be discussed in relation to current perspectives within the role and importance of creativity in Early Childhood education.