Creativity

Creativity in Early Childhood Curriculum

Carson (2010) and Isenberg and Durham (2015), as cited in Isbell & Yoshizawa (2016) define creativity as the ability to come up with an original, valuable, and flexible concept. Creativity includes problem-solving, imaginative play, experimenting new things and beginning to use language in early childhood education (DEEWR et al., 2012). This is an essential part of education that promotes critical thinking, emotional expressiveness, and problem-solving abilities in children. Encouraging creativity allows children to gain self-confidence, learning to look for multiple solutions to an issue, expanding their capacity for thinking, developing their uniqueness and talents (Howard & Mayesky, 2022). Teachers that promote creativity in children from a young age support them in learning important abilities that foster overall development.

The role of creativity in child development 

Children's cognitive, social, emotional, and physical development all require creativity (Howard & Mayesky, 2022).

Cognitive Development - Creativity promoting problem-solving and imagination.

Social Development - Creativity enhances relationships through collaborative work.

Emotional Development - Creativity promotes emotional well being by allowing children to express their emotions. 

Physical Development - Through creativity motor skills are developed such as hands-on activities and large muscle used activities like running and climbing. 

Language Development - Creativity allows children with story telling activities and communicating with others.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi research on creative process describes five key steps (Howard & Mayesky, 2022):

1. Preparation - Developing an interest in interesting ideas or enquiries.

2. Incubation - Concepts churn below the surface of consciousness, subconsciously making connections.

3. Insight - The "aha" moment when the ideas take shape, for example  puzzles start to fall together.

4. Evaluation - To decide if the insight is valuable and worth following. 

5. Elaboration - Converting the insight into its finished product. This is how the concept or inquiry is physically realised.

About this website

This website covers a number of developmental areas where early childhood education focuses strongly on creativity.  Each page explores a specific subject such as art, drama, music, STEM, literacy, and more. Teachers and parents will find insights, strategies, and examples of creative learning experiences which are useful for young children. The objective is to provide practical guidance on promoting creativity in early learning environments.