Creativity and Making in Early Childhood: Challenging Practitioner Perspectives

✍ Scribed by MONA SAKR; BINDU TRIVEDY; NICHOLA HALL; LAURA O’BRIEN; ROBERTO FEDERICI

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2018
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 201
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Creativity and Making in Early Childhood brings together practice and research insights on creativity, to offer new perspectives on what creativity is, how it manifests in early childhood education and what can be done to support it.
Each chapter includes practitioners’ own experiences and looks within these observations and reflections to highlight key questions and challenges. Insights and perspectives are drawn from research in order to engage deeply with these challenges and to develop future practice in early childhood education. Particular focus is on creativity as physical 'making' processes. Topics covered include:
- children’s developing identities
- sharing and social interactions
- how time, choice and physical environments influence young children’s creativity
- instructions, resourcing and expectations of creativity in the early childhood setting
Practical learning features guiding students through the book include: research spotlight sections introducing readers to key pieces of research, questions to aid reflection on experiences in relation to relevant theory, and summaries and tasks for the reader designed to deepen thinking. This text is an excellent resource for undergraduate students in early childhood and education, as well as postgraduate students and practitioners who have returned to study.

✦ Table of Contents

Title Page
Copyright Page
Contents
Introduction
Welcome
Our aims
Who is the book for
Who we are
How the project developed
How to get the most out of this book
Ethical considerations
Chapter overview
Recurring themes
Chapter 1: Looking for Creativity
Introduction
Experimenting with shells and water
Creativity as divergent thinking
Reflecting on your own experiences
Flow
Reflecting on your own experiences
Recognizing flow through multimodal behaviours
Reflecting on your own experiences
Possibility thinking
Facilitating possibility thinking
Reflecting on your own experiences
Chapter summary
Activities to deepen understanding
Chapter 2: Creativity and Identity
Introduction
‘I’ve made Tower Bridge’
Self-representation and subject matter specialists
Reflecting on your own experiences
‘This one is Leonardo’
‘Rajkumari Rapunzel’
The role of popular culture in children’s developing identity
Reflecting on your own experiences
‘The mermaid is sliding down the hill’
Creative making as remix
Reflecting on your own experiences
Creative making as the production (not expression) of self
Is children’s creativity any different from adults’ creativity?
Practitioner views on children’s creativity and self-expression
Reflecting on your own experiences
Chapter summary
Activities to deepen your explorations
Chapter 3: Collaborative Creativity
Introduction
Paradigms of creativity
Reflecting on your own experiences
Multimodal interaction in collaborative creativity
‘We’re just gonna scribble it’
Moments of meeting
Reflecting on your own experiences
A community display
Collaborative creativity among two-year-olds
Community spaces for shared creativity
Reflecting on your own experiences
Chapter summary
Activities to deepen your explorations
Chapter 4: Time
Introduction
Is there enough time for creativity in your setting?
Creativity takes time
Reflecting on your own experiences
When activities grow
Extending and embedding
Stretchy time
Reflecting on your own experiences
The ‘tidy-up’ tambourine
The tyranny of clock time
Reflecting on your own experiences
Observing transitions
Smooth versus difficult transitions
Reflecting on your own experiences
Chapter summary
Activities to deepen your thinking
Chapter 5: Choice
Introduction
A very sorry-looking caterpillar: What happens when we over-prescribe activities
Colouring outside the lines
How important is choice in children’s creativity?
Reflecting on your own experiences
Butter beans and penne pasta
Less is more?
Reflecting on your own experiences
Displaying children’s artwork: Practitioner reflections
Displaying children’s artwork: Who makes the decision?
Backing off from messy play
Reluctant makers: The choice not to engage
Reflecting on your own experiences
Chapter summary
Activities to deepen your thinking
Chapter 6: Space and Materials
Introduction
Pipettes, straws, and teaspoons
Affordances
Reflecting on your own experiences
Spaces for creativity and making
Principles of space from Reggio Emilia
Reflecting on your own experiences
Ice: An observation by Laura
Setting up provocations
Reflecting on your own experiences
Kymarni and the wallpaper
Creativity as a network and ‘thing-power’
Reflecting on your own experiences
Chapter summary
Activities to deepen your explorations
Chapter 7: Digital Creativity
Introduction
Customizing photos on a mobile phone
Digital affordances
Reflecting on your own experiences
Drawing through touch on the iPad
Sensory experiences with digital technologies
Reflecting on your own experiences
Helping Salma to hold the iPad
How adults regulate children’s creative use of digital technologies
Reflecting on your own experiences
Scaring ‘Daddy’: Personalized iPad story-making
Personalization in digital environments
Reflecting on your own experiences
‘On my way to school, I saw a frog’
Ready-made material in digital creativity
Reflecting on your own experiences
Chapter summary
Activities to deepen your thinking
Chapter 8: Child–Adult Interactions
Introduction
iPad photography in the home
Apprenticeship, guided participation, and participatory appropriation
Reflecting on your own experiences
Trying new things with the help of an adult
Child–adult conversations during and about creative processes
Working with Giles
An artist-in-residence at Rowland Hill Nursery
Artists-in-residence
Reflecting on your own experiences
Chapter summary
Activities to deepen your thinking
Chapter 9: Inspirations
Introduction
Foot-printing turns into foot-washing
Inspired activities
Reflecting on your own experiences
Are you creative? (Bindu’s reflection)
Teachers as creators
Reflecting on your own experiences
Washing up dinosaurs
Democratic participation
What type of documentation best helps you to reflect? (Laura’s reflection)
Pedagogic documentation
Reflecting on your own experiences
Chapter summary
Activities to deepen your thinking
Chapter 10: Adult Expectations
Introduction
Draw a picture as if you were three
‘Good old-fashioned child art’
Reflecting on your own experiences
‘Everyone will laugh’
‘It looks just like Olaf’
Visual realism
Reflecting on your own experiences
Experimenting with paint: An observation focusing on development
Bubble painting: An observation less focused on development
Developmental and post-developmental approaches
Reflecting on your own experiences
Chapter summary
Activities to deepen your thinking
References
Index