On the Edge Between Digital and Physical: Materials to Enhance Creativity in Children. An Application to Atypical Development

Abstract

The 4 P's creativity model (person, process, press, and product) underlines how creativity is strongly connected with the materials employed to conceive and realize a creative outcome. As a multiform construct, it invites a wide variety of approaches to the study of it. One of the most promising ways to address this issue is to connect it with cognitive development and related educational pathways, as creativity can be enhanced and stimulated in every child, leading to an improvement both at personal and societal level. Even if creativity is recognized and highly valued, there is still a lack of methods which can stimulate creativity in an effective way. Useful hints may come from the outstanding contributions of Piaget and Montessori who underlined that interaction with the physical world is a fundamental building block for cognitive development. In this paper, starting from these fixed points, we describe some creativity enhancing methods for children which give importance to the edge between digital and physical materials. Digital materials open new ways to the use and integration of physical materials with hybrid platforms which can be used in educational contexts. Together with this perspective we provide a description of the application of these methodologies to enhance creativity in children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder.

Coding and educational robotics with peers: The C0D1NC experience to foster inclusion

“…In the C0D1NC Project we select educational approaches and teaching strategies that enable the active involvement of learners in productive educational pathways by creating new knowledge and meaningful exchange sharing their own experiences. These approaches and strategies include collaborative learning (Resta, & Laferrière, 2007), peer education (Green, 2001), effective applications of creativity to education (Ponticorvo et al, 2020b), introduction to real-life situations and hands-on experiences for reflection and building new ways of thinking. Collaborative learning theory entails peer-to-peer learning that nurtures deeper thinking among learners.…”

“…We investigated if this double-role can have some beneficial effects in acquiring technical skills and to foster inclusion. From our previous studies, we had indications that robotics and tangible materials can be effective in promoting positive relations between peers (Ponticorvo et al, 2020a;Ponticorvo et al, 2020b).…”

Dribbling skills training model in football games for elementary school age

“…In experimenting with a greater capacity for dribbling a larger ball compared to control group, (Riyadi & Doewes, 2017). Through play can improve the learning and creative thinking, (Ponticorvo et al, 2020). The problems that occurred were found during field observations.…”

Creativiteit als kritische factor voor het verhogen van motivatie en leerprestaties

“…4-P-model van Rhodes (1961) Later komen Simonton (1990) en Runco (2003) met respectievelijk een vijfde dimensie, Persuasion, het overtuigen van de toekomstige gebruiker van het product en een zesde dimensie Potential, het zaaien van creatieve zaadjes die in de toekomst van pas komen om een creatief product te ontwikkelen (Kozbelt et al, 2010). Het 4-P model wordt nog steeds gebruikt door verschillende onderzoekers (Ponticorvo et al, 2020).…”