Los Angeles Mission CollegeLilamani de Silva

Chapter 15

Nurturing the Development of Creative Self

  • The experience of being involved in Creative activities satisfies people in ways that nothing else can and fosters emotional health.
  • The act of creation enhances the child’s feelings of self-esteem and self-worth.
  • Something about creating a unique product or idea leaves people feeling good about themselves.
  • Along with that emotional sustenance, such activities foster cognitive growth by providing endless opportunities for trying out ideas and putting them into practice, for finding many alternative ways to solve problems, and for using symbols in place of “real” objects to represent ideas and feelings.

What is Creativity?

Mary Ann Kohl (2007) stated (p.1):

Creativity focuses on the process of forming original ideas through exploration and discovery. In children, creativity develops from their experiences with the process, rather than concern for the finished product. Creativity is not to be confused with talent, skill, or intelligence. Creativity is not about doing something better than others, it is about thinking, exploring, discovering, and imagining.

  • Creativity is the life force of play
  • Creativity plays a significant role in the cognitive realm, such as mathematical and scientific thinking
  • Creativity is the way of thinking and processing the world rather than the production of art projects.
  • Creative thinking involves imagination, the production of new ideas and testing them out, communication, physical manipulations, problem posing, problem solving, interpretation, and the use of symbols.
  • Four Essential Components of the Creative Process(E. Paul Torrance, 166/1984)
  • Fluency – the ability to produce a number of different ideas
  • Flexibility – the ability to approach situation and develop solutions from a number of different perspectives
  • Originality – the ability to have a new or novel idea
  • Elaboration – the ability to extend ideas
  • The importance of creativity
  • Children’s creative expression is everywhere in early childhood! Examples: drawing, singing, dancing,…
  • Teachers should provide a range of creative materials and experiences for the children every day because it is a powerful way to tap into children’s thinking as well as support the development of the five selves.
  • Creativity supports emotional development
  • Helps children express their emotions
  • Helps develop multiple intelligences (Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences)
  • How teachers can help
  • Creativity supports social development
  • How teachers can help
  • Creativity Supports physical development
  • Creativity develops fine-motor skills
  • Creativity develops large-motor skills
  • The bodily-kinesthetic intelligence
  • Creativity supports language and literacy development
  • Combine verbal storytelling with artistic creation
  • Encourage children to work together, and language will flow
  • Incorporate listening and music activities
  • Ask open-ended questions about child’s creative work
  • Offer tools and materials to develop eye-hand coordination
  • Creativity support cognitive development
  • Creativity enhances mathematics learning
  • Creativity enhances science learning
  • How teachers can help

The Stages of Development in Children’s Creativity

  1. Exploration
  2. Nonrepresentational Stage
  3. Representational Stage

Ten lessons the arts teach – page 388-figure 15.1

Implications for Teachers in Nurturing Children’s Creativity

It’s important that teachers develop a program to intentionally nurture children’s creativity. As Piaget himself said, “Education, for most people, means trying to lead the child to resemble the typical adulty of his society…..But for me, education means making creators…..You have to make inventors, innovators, not conformists” (Bringuier, 1980, p 132).

  • Allow countless opportunities for creative experiences and exploration
  • Focus on process, not product
  • Use lots of self-expressive materials to foster the creative self

Practical ways to encourage the creative aspect of self-expressive materials – page 391-Figure 15.2

  • Remember to make self-expressive opportunities available for children with disabilities
  • Foster an appreciation of beauty