Important of Creativity
Creative learning is a characteristic of someone or some process that forms something new and valuable. For such, it is the learning through an art-form using the attributes, skills and techniques of an art-form to engage and develop learners, primarily in another subject area. It motivates kids to learn and also involves exploration, decision-making, problem solving, and applying knowledge. It is a way of having or showing an ability to make new things or think of new ideas. Notwithstanding, this writing will basically discuss the importance of creative learning to all learners since childhood which are; assist learners to foster mental growth by providing opportunities for trying out new ideas, ways of thinking and problem solving, contributes towards children’s mood as they lose themselves in their thoughts and ideas, to assist children relieve stress and work through things happen in their lives, through creative, children can grow emotionally, socially and physically and the stages of creative development.
As a matter of fact, assists learners to foster mental growth by providing opportunities for trying out new ideas, ways of thinking and problem solving (Craft, 2006). When designing learning experiences, as a teacher you can provide tools that give students options and choice in order to enable them to be creative and smart. In addition to foster creative expression a teacher should remove constraints for creativity and give the students space and a framework in which they can be creative, teach them new skills, set up learning activities that allow them to explore their creativity in relevant, interesting, and worthwhile ways. For instance, provide blocks for building, puzzle games and pencil and color for drawing and coloring or give children an empty cardboard box to make a house, a robot, a truck or an animal, whatever your child is interested in, they could paint the box and decorate it with craft and materials. However, encourage each various ideas and ways of thinking in formal and informal ways from students, and to provide a safe environment for students is the role and responsibility of a teacher in fostering creativity among students.
Moreover, contributes towards children’s mood as they lose themselves in their thoughts and ideas. They should be given activities to enhance their skills in doing creative things like drama, dance, art and craft since it is great for learning and development that will help learners develop their critical thinking in imagining and solving problems on their own (Duffy, 2006). In addition, this will make them engage and lose themselves in doing what they are expected to do, yet they should not be distracted and disturb in what they are doing. Give them time to think on their own in order for them to enlarge their thought and capability and will smart in creating new art and craft by themselves especially for the lower level which are year level one and two.
Therefore, through creative, children can grow emotionally, socially and physically. It promotes children in integrate these feelings into activities so that they can creatively express their thoughts and emotions in a way they are encouraged to do so. However, it assists children relieve stress and work through things happen in their lives (Chang & Netzer, 2019).
In addition, according to google and it mentioned that there were five stages of creative development for children that a teacher should familiarize with which are; scribble stage, pre-schematic stage, schematic stage, dawning realism stage and pseudo realism stage. Scribble stage is a first stage were children’s age falls under 2-4 years old. They are beginning to start developing and acquire their motor skills, enjoy moving their arms and making marks information. In this level children start to collect information from people around them like parents, neighbors and people in a community. According to (Safi, Banouri, & Atifnigar, 2023) and they mentioned in their journal that Jean Piaget mentioned that there were four stages of creative development which are sensorimotor (0-2 years), preoperational (2-7 years), concrete operational (7-11 years) and formal operational (11+ years).
The second stage is pre-schematic were children’s age falls under four to seven-year-old. The artwork in this stage is indicative of a child’s proclivity to draw representationally. They learned to draw picture, yet they draw it in not a proper way. Images begin to resemble symbols, and these may only be understanding by children. Drawings created at this stage are often shows what the child perceives as they can draw to fill the entire papers. For instance, writing a picture of stick humans, animals and images of things they had seen and already seen but memorized it in their memory.
Schematic stage is a third stage of creative development for children. They are older than the pre-schema since their ages falls under seven to nine years old. Children at this stage are more mature in drawing pictures. They can develop more advanced drawing skills and begin to draw objects with greater detail and structure. To represent more complex object, they utilize symbols and labels. There drawing is more accurate and structured. Therefore, people can understand their drawing when looking at their picture.
The fourth stage which is dawning realism. This stage where children ages falls under nine to eleven years of age. They will focus on developing an expertise in art and may often get frustrated throughout the process. They become more intelligent in drawing exact images they had seen. They can copy images or pictures in an exactly way. However, they are more talented in drawing any kind of pictures which are non-living and living things.
The last stage which is pseudo realism. At these stage children ages falls under twelve years. Their value and light is now apparent in drawings. Their artistic development is very critical of their own success. They are the most intelligent and confident in what they are doing. They know how to decorate their drawing and what color they should use. They are perfect in what they are doing.
To conclude, creativity not only for children, it includes everyone to be creative in order for them to be smart in thinking for solving problems, and developing new ideas. Although it is very critical to learn it since childhood. Creativity continuously starts with imagination which is all about coming up with new ideas and solving problems in new ways. Often, creative thought involves tapping into different styles of thinking and examining information from various viewpoints to see new patterns. Anyone to foster a creative mind ensure to perform some practice.
Safi, A. B., Banouri, S. U., & Atifnigar, H. (2023). Exploring children's developmental stages and preparation of a framework for comprehensive and creative curriculum. European journal of theoretical and applied sciences, vol 1, pg 2 & 3.
Foster mental growth
Craft, A. (2006). Fostering creativity with wisdom. Cambridge Journal of Education, 36(3), 337–350. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057640600865835
Supporting creativity in the early year
Duffy, B. (2006). Supporting creativity and imagination in the early years (2nd ed.). Open University Press.
Relieve stress
Chang, M., & Netzer, D. (2019). Exploring Natural Materials: Creative Stress-Reduction for Urban Working Adults. Journal of Creativity in Mental Health, 14(2), 152–168. https://doi.org/10.1080/15401383.2019.1568940