Creativity

Creativity

by: catpass - 26-01-07 17:22

Hi i am a third year student teacher studying ealry years. I have a dissertation to write and I was wondering if you could share your views on creativity for me.
What do you think of it?
What does creativity mean to you?
What do you have to do to help the children develop creative?
Any of your views and opinions would be extremely greatful

thanks
Catherine

by: hatthar

Hi catpuss

I'm a hospital play specialist, not sure if you know much about this profession?
Creativity is very important to children who are under stress, which is very common state experienced by children in hospital settings. Carrying out creative activities stimulates a particular part of your brain which means it is difficult to think about problems while actively undertaking a creative activity, which therefore gives the children a sort of 'holiday' from their problems and gives the whole body a opportunity to relax.

Hope this is relevant to your area of study.

Creativity - 30-01-07 12:58

by: catpass

Hi thanks for your reply it was helpful but i would now like to expand from what i said earlier.
What do you think of creative play?
What do you think children need (possibly resource wise) in order to play creativly?

Thanks again for your comments

Creativity - 30-01-07 17:33

by: hatthar

Within my professional role within a hospital setting creative play is the most important sort of play used for calming and relaxation.

Because I work with a wide range of age and abilities it is very important to have a wide range of different art & craft materials in order that a child or young person can choose what they would like to do. In my work choice is very important also the end result is not important but the process the child goes through.

Creativity - 31-01-07 19:21

by: shellabell

Hiya,

Im currently completing my 3rd year of an education degree. Dont know if this is any good for your dissertation but one of my tutors has written a paper on what creativity isnt, a sort of opposite look at creativity. It might give you an alternative argument.

The paper is available from www.blackwell-synergy.com I think you have to pay here but if you are at uni and have access to journals, or journal wabsites you could look up the British Journal of Educational Studies. The author name is Dr Howard Gibson

Hope this helps

Shelly

Creativity - 31-01-07 19:45

by: joshuajones

Hi catpuss

creativity to me (and this is a personal interpretation) means the ability to express ones thoughts, emotions and imagination in a way that the individual wants to. There is no right or wrong way to express these things. Creativity is about being able to use your body, materials, resources in any way that you see fit and produce anything that you want at the end of it. We tend to get caught up in creativity producing something that we recognise. ie a painting of a daffodil should look like a daffodil to everyone that sees it. But we don't all see things in the same way, how one person perceives a daffodil to look may not be the same as another person. To help children develop their own creativity we need to give them the resources and materials to experiment with without a directional approach. Music and movement should be about the child's interpretation of the music, the mood, the emotion, what they do is not wrong for them, though it may be for you. Creativity is about the process and not the end result. Experimentation, personal interpretation, thinking for yourself is creativity, not mass produced cards, pictures, movements etc. Maybe whacky, but hope it helps.

Creativity - 07-02-07 14:17

by: catpass

Thanks this will be really useful to look at

Creativity - 09-02-07 22:17

by: sallyQ

Hi
I work in a pre-school and have a long carrer working with pre-school aged children. To me creativity is allowing the children the time, space and resourses to create as they wish. By providing a variety of open ended resourses and adult scaffolding as support there are no limits to what children can create. It is important to remember that with children the doing is as important as the end product. Practitioners are more enlightened nowadays and hopefully the days when children were presented with a template and told exactly what to do with it are becoming fewer.