Creative Pedagogy - Supporting Children’s Creativity Through Drama

Abstract

Drama education is still a rather young field of science. Thus, there is an obvious need to conceptualize the elements and factors related to drama education fostering children's creativity. What kind of learning environment supports children's creativity? Which aspects of drama education nurture children's creativity? Children's creativity is often referred to as 'little c creativity ', LCC, (Craft 2001). Subjectivity is an intrinsic character when defining children's creativity since it is not determined by society. The article aims to perceive and build a theory of tuition supporting children's creativity in the context of drama education. The objective of this theory-based article is to characterize the terminology of creativity in drama education. Based on prior research, the purpose of the article is to construct a model of tuition fostering children's creativity. This theoretical model is contemplated through drama education. In a creative learning environment of drama the children are provided with rich experiences and their active role in learning is emphasized. Interaction is an essential part of learning process making learning itself a social activity. Creative environment supports children's imagination and inner motivation. In addition, the atmosphere is permissive. These elements also create a potential for group creativity. According to research (Kim 2010), the need to support children's creativity is obvious. Furthermore, children's creative development should be considered on two levels: the individual creativity of each pupil and the group creativity of the whole class. Drama education has the potential to nurture pupil's creativity through its experiential, social and children-activating nature.

Effectiveness of Creative Pedagogy in Enhancing the Knowledge and Awareness on Bullying amongst Secondary School Students

“…Therefore, this study suggests that creative pedagogical approaches are an appropriate method for delivering learning content to students. This finding also supports some of Sivan et.al's (1991) study showcasing better learning outcomes and enhancing learning (Benjelloun, H. 2009), producing more effective learning (Robinson, CF, & Kakela, PJ, 2006) able to increase curiosity (Lin, 2011), and achieve better results in learning (Toivanen, T., Halkilahti, L., & Ruismäki, H., 2013).…”

Investigating pupils’ group creativity in drama - Teacher trainees fostering a creative classroom environment

“…The teacher trainees' didactical solutions (selected exercises and drama techniques) and pedagogical relationship (group handling, behavior management, instructional support, learning climate) are important elements for creative pedagogy. These components were also revealed in our previous study (see Toivanen et al, 2013a). Additionally, it is important to remember that the correct analysis and solutions to all educational problems are not easy or predictable, because each classroom with students and each lesson is unique (Kagan 1992).…”

“…Children's creativity often differs from adult's creativity due to its subjectivity; children's creativity rarely meets the criteria of BCC creativity. (Craft 2001, 46;Toivanen et al, 2013a. )…”

“…Group creativity is not the sole property of artists or scientists; it can also be seen as a phenomenon of everyday life from children's play (e.g., Sawyer 1997;Lobman 2003;Dunn 2008) to working organizations (e.g., Turner 2008). We have chosen Craft's (2001, 45) concept of ‗little c creativity', LCC, as our main concept to define children's creativity and creative learning (Toivanen et al, 2013a) in drama. According to Kampylis et al (2009, 18), LCC could be widely applied in the primary school context because it is regarded as an innate potential in all people.…”

Development of Creative Abilities in Schoolchildren Through Self-cognition Lessons

“…According to Finnish authors Vedenpää and Lonka (2014), creativity development can be achieved through the use of creative teaching methods and more than 60% of Finnish teachers and future teachers believed this to be true. Toivanen, Halkilahti, and Ruismäki (2013) encourage creating an educational environment that supports schoolchildren' creativity by combining the theory of creativity with theatrical education. This aligns with our methodological framework, which uses Therapeutic Puppetry where pupils perform role interaction on behalf of invented heroes.…”