Understanding Children's Creative Thought

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.

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.

3. Critically analyse how creativity and creative learning can support young children’s emotional, social, intellectual, communication and physical development.

Children’s creativity must be extended by the provision of support for their curiosity, exploration and play. They must be provided with opportunities to explore and share their thoughts, ideas and feelings, for example, through a variety of art, music, movement, dance, imaginative and role-play activities, mathematics, and design and technology.

2.2 - Explain why young children require extended and unhurried periods of time to develop their creativity.

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 by providing a creative environment, allowing exploration through play and praising the child’s creative efforts. Creative learning is about helping children develop imaginative thinking through exploration of materials, objects and problem solving skills like ICT. It is also about giving children opportunities to make connections between different areas and to relate to them. Some creative learning activities may be goal orientated like the

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

1.3 Critically analyze how creativity and creative learning can support young children’s emotional, social, intellectual, communication and physical development

This approach believes that all children can be creative but this will be suppressed if children are not given the opportunity or supported to explore and be creative in their environment.  If children are given the opportunity to be creative and explore and supported then they will develop their creative learning and creativity.

E: I think using a picture to spark creativity is a good idea for all children. During my experience hours, the teacher that I was aired with gave her student a picture of a woman pulling her hair out and two other children below her arguing, and the students had to write what each person was thinking and saying. Her students came up with really interesting answers, and it was a great activity.

When children are able to show their creativity, their physical environment enhances their abilities to show what they can do. Having easily readily material that can be transformed into anything a child can imagine. The material should enhance a child’s ability to make things their imaginations

Albert Einstein once said, “It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.” This quote describes the responsibilities and standards of teaching children. I believe that teachers should be held to high standards for being the foundation of a student’s education and well-being. For my future students, my responsibilities as a future educator include supplementing the growth of a variety of students’ knowledge and creativity, abiding as a role model for students and colleagues, and understanding the issues in the foundations of education.

Play contributes to children’s “physical, emotional and social well-being” (Else, 2009, p.8) and through play, the child’s holistic development and well-being is being constantly accounted for as is it led by the individual. The child decides what s/he wants to do and does it; it is

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.

According to Campbell and Jane (2012), “The generative and evaluative modes associated with creativity help children to understand their own creative thinking and decision-making, facilitating their learning.” (p. 2). I agree with this observation because I do believe that allowing children to expand in their creative thinking will allow them to make decisions on their own. Technology even helps them more because they are given software’s that allows them to show their creative thinking and decision making. The authors emphasize how children feel more motivated during technological activities and discuss how the language of the children improves with the use of technology. For example, they are able to download applications that provide them with speaking and listening skills. Furthermore, they could also use applications that allows them to learn other languages, which expand their knowledge. Their research revealed how some factors such as beliefs, attitudes, expectations, emotions, and motivation in the learning process, can help the learning experiences connect students to be more creative and analytic. In this study, the authors demonstrated that children are more engaged when they are taught by means of technology (Campbell, 2012).