Promote creativity and creative learing in young children

1. Understand the concepts of creativity and creative learning and how these affect all aspects of young children’s learning and development. 1.1 Analyse the difference between creative learning and creativity. Creative learning and creativity have a different number of meanings. Creativity is linked to the development of imagination, imaginative play and traditional creative arts. Creative learning is linked to where children can show skills in exploration, imaginative thinking and problem solving. Creative learning – This is all about guiding children to develop problem-solving skills and imaginative thinking. Creative learning is about giving children the chance to make connections between individual areas and to apply them.

Heuristic play is a good example of creative learning it encourages children to play with recyclable and household objects, which encourages children to explore. Another good way of creative play is getting a child to make a den. In our setting we change our den every week. We get the children involved by giving them materials and ideas on themes of what they are going to do, for example a camouflage den. This helps them to practise their problem-solving skills. While this is creative learning sometimes both will be needed such as when they are doing a sculpture. Creativity – When we talk about creativity in this area its all about aiding children to discover ways to express themselves through the arts. Its also about self expression and exploring emotions. Creativity is more about learning and enjoying from the process and not just about the end product. In the EYFS creativity is linked to the Creative Development.

1.2 Explain current theoretical approaches to creativity and creative learning in early childhood. When we talk about theoretical approaches to creativity and creative learning we know they are different key approaches. These key approaches are listed below. Nature or nuture – The pyschology of children can cover many areas and one of them is nature verus nuture debate in terms of creativity. Some children could be considered naturally creative, for example having a talent for art or music or is creativity something that is nurtured. Cognitive theories – The way in which children make associations and connections between things involves cognitive theories. These theories focus on the way the brain processes information. A child may look at a circular shape and then recognise the similairitys between the circle and a bike wheel. In terms of our practice with children some theorists suggest being able to make new connections and being able to draw something new from them can be considered a type of intelligence.

In order for children to draw on their own experience and develop pockets of knowledge from first hand experience as cognitive theories suggest. But some theorists suggest, for example Robert Sternberg that not all children do well in some education settings. Social models – The environment of children and the role of adults in it are the main focus of social models. Meaning it is the experieces and the environment which are given to children where they are allowed to be creativity. Cultural approaches and role modelling are linked to social models. Cultural approaches – All children can be creative, this can be encouraged or surpressed depending on how supportive the environment is. It is therefore an idea that society has to be ready for new ideas and innovations. This would mean ensuring that we provide a envionment where children are encouraged to be creative and exploratory.

Role modelling – Children watch and learn from adults who are being creative. In terms of working with children this would mean showing creativity in the way we think and learn. Letting children see us being adaptable, solving problems and also painting and drawing. Creativity as a process – Creativity is the focus of some theories. The models look at the emerging for new ideas. Graham Wallas put forward one of the earliest theories which who proposed the five stage model, where the focus is the importance of the unconscious mind. preparation – a problem and initial thoughts

incubation – thinking about a problem unconsciously
intimation – being aware of the answer
insight – having a conscious aware of the answer
verification – working on the solution

There is some recent research by psychologists supporting Wallas’s model with adults showing that sleep is important component in solving problems. An experiment was done in which two groups were given a problem solve. One group was asked to solve the problem immediately while the other group was told about the problem before going to sleep. The problem was solved quicker by the group which slept on the issue. Lateral thinking – It has been suggested by Edward De Bono that creative thinking is better planned than organised and has written many books on the subject including using a process model to help children problem solve. But this style is considered to pragmatic by others, which include Robert Sterberg. 1.3 Critically analyse how creativity and creative learning can support young children’s emotional, social, intellectual, communication and physical development. Having creativity and creative learning for young children is very important and they also support other curriculum and developmental areas.

Creativity is vital as it gives a child ways to express their feelings and route for expression and self-exploration. Imaginative play helps young children with being able to explore diversity of roles that they would of seen from adults, other members of family and other children. Some also like to be superheros this makes them feel powerful. It can help towards their communication and language skills as they play with other children. Art – This term is used when children are drawing, painting or mark making. It helps children express themselves. This is shown through the physical way they make marks or the colour and size of shapes they use. This also helps with their motor and gross skills which will help them with their handwriting as they get older. Children cognitive development is also used when they are using symbols to make representations. Creative movement – When children are moving to music, dancing or just moving creatively this aloows for self-expression and can be very rewarding to children as it helps with their social skills.

It will also help them with balance, co-ordination and their gross motor skills. Design including modelling ans sculpting – This helps with cognitive development through learning about different materials. This helps them to express themselves, gain confidence and competence. Fine motor skills are developing from using scissors and handling materials. Music – Playing instruments and singing is a delightful way for children to communicate. This helps with a child’s sppech and will also help with their auditory discrimation. This is a skill needed for reading. Music however can help children work as a team and give them confidence. A child will also develop gross and fine motor skills using instruments. Some say that there is a link between early musical experiences and mathematical ability. This is shown through the beats, rhythms and patterns in music. Creative learning – This is about probelm solving and applying knowledge which is very beneficial. Many areas of the curriculum cover creative learning, which will help support a child’s development easily.

Problem solving – Problem solving helps with concentration, perseverance and confidence especially when they prosper. Most problem solving activties involve team work, which children will have to work together and listen to each other’s ideas. This helps children gain good communication and social skills. Children doing problem solving activites young will have a better understanding when they have to do maths. science , design and technology. Making connections and applying knowledge – These are skills that will support a child’s cognitive development. Metacognition skills are used when children are learning to apply knowledge. These are a set of skills which will make help them use their cognitive abilities and will help them gain control over their thinking.

Exploration – Some creative learning will involve exploring. An example of this is when you set an area up for children with different objects and the children are able to see what the objects do and what they can do with them. This helps with children’s motivation and confidence. The cognitive aspect of exploration is very beneficial too as this helps them to learn to sort and group as a result of their exploration. Making decisions – Creative learning is very benefical to children as it involves having the choice and being able to make decisions. This helps with their cognitive development as it makes them think about good and bad of their choices they have made.

2. Be able to provide opportunities for young children to develop their creativity and creative learning. 2.2 Explain why young children require extended and unhurried periods of time to develop their creativity. A child needs extended and unhurried periods of time to develop their creativity so they have time to experiment and explore with materials and be able to use them in their own way. It also gives children the chance to do their best and gives them the opportunity to take their time at something allowing them to complete it with pride in what they have done..

3. Be able to develop the environment to support young children’s creativity and creative learning. 3.1 Explain the features of an environment that supports creativity and creative learning. A creative environment needs to be a place where children have access to diferent materials and allows children to move from place to place. When doing this it’s not just about putting paints, pens and paper out it’s also about letting children explore their surroundings. By allowing the children to move things by themselves for example moving a chair around the room or taking a toy telephone outside they will then start to make connections between things more quicker. If we help to provide opportunities for children by making the environment fun, safe, rewarding and stimulating this will inspire and motivate them to learn through play. 3.2 Monitor and Evaluate the effectiveness of aspects of the environment in supporting young children’s creativity and creative learning. When we evaluate an environment to determine its effectiveness in supporting creativity in children we need to ask these questions about our setting.

• Is it welcoming and bright?
• Are there displays on the wall that are age appropriate, bright, appealing and relevant to the children’s work?
• Is the children’s work displayed?
• Is there a good variety of equipment and is it accessible to the children?
• Are the children engaged and is that engagement sustained?
• Does the environment inspire you?

These points may help us with monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of the environment. Levels of engagement – We know from experience that when an environment is working well children will be more content and engage themselves in creative learning or a creative activity. By observing children we can see how attentive they are. Length of engagement – When children are in a creative environment they seem to find things that they are interested in and explore and preserve for longer periods of time. Awe and excitement – Children what are in a creative environment that’s dynamic will continually participate in awe and excitement. It is essential that we think carefully if we are providing an environment regulary that promotes these reactions.

4. Be able to support the development of practice in promoting young children’s creativity and creative learning within the setting. 4.1 Evaluate and reflect on own practice in promoting creative and creative thinking. The aim of this session was to see how many different sounds the children could recognise. The age of these children was 2 years. In my setting we decided to have the cd player on, which has noises of everyday things such as brushing your teeth, doors shutting etc. We sat all of the children on the carpet and asked them to listen out for the sounds to see how many they could guess. We helped them by doing actions with some of the sounds so they could understand what the noise related to the sound. The children took it in turns to guess what the sounds were. We also joined in with the children to encourage them to have a guess. I really enjoyed doing this activity with the children.

Watching them guess the sounds was really fun as you could see they was clearly listening to see if they knew what the sound was and when they got it right they would get excited and jump up and down. It also helped with the less confident children to come out of their comfort zone and join in with the other children. Next time we do something like this we are going to try a different cd with animal noises on and have pictures so the children can match the pictures up with the sounds. From this I learnt that the children gain the abilities in personal, social, and emotional development from interacting with staff and other children. It also helps towards language skills and knowledge and understanding of the world, which helps with creativity and creative learning.