The present study is designed to examine preschool children's (4-5 and 6 years old) attitudes toward unstructured materials and to take their divergent ideas about these materials. Paper napkin, a plastic bottle, bottle lid, toilet paper roll, a piece of white string, a plastic spoon and a 10x10x10 cm³ sized box were used as unstructured materials. 126 children (58 female, 68 male) were selected from four state preschools. For originality scores first an originality index was prepared. Children who gave similar answers scored as 1, children who gave answers that were rarely given by other children, scored 2 and children who gave answers that were not given by others, scored 3. Children's usage of materials and answers were analyzed as originality and fluency by two blind coders. It was found from the study that, most of the children preferred to use materials in usual and ordinary ways, only few children were found to use them creatively as play materials. The results showed that most of the children cannot be able to use the unstructured materials as play materials creatively. Gender difference was found significant in the usage of plastic spoon, box and bottle. Girls tended to use napkin and bottle lid creatively and symbolically as domestic play toy, on the other hand boys had a tendency to use the box and plastic spoon creatively and symbolically. The age factor was also found significant, older children tended to use the materials more creatively than the younger ones.
| Published in | Education Journal (Volume 4, Issue 1) |
| DOI | 10.11648/j.edu.20150401.13 |
| Page(s) | 9-14 |
| Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Preschool, Creativity, Divergent Thinking, Unstructured Materials
| [1] | Benlliure, V. A.; Melendez, J. C. and Ballesteros, M.G. (2013). Evaluation of a creativity intervention program for preschoolers. Thinking Skills and Creativity,10, 112-120. |
| [2] | Canning, N.(2013). ‘Where’s the bear? Over there!’Creative thinking and imagination in den making. Early Child Development and Care, 183(8), 1042-1053. |
| [3] | Craft, A. (2013). Childhood, possibility thinking and wise, humanising educational futures. International Journal of Educational Research, 61, 126-134. |
| [4] | Cremin, T. Burnard, P., Craft, A. (2006). Pedagogy and possibility thinking in the early years. Thinking Skills and Creativity 1, 108-119. |
| [5] | Dhingra, R. and Shaina,N. (2012). Assesment of divergent thinking ability of school children. International Journal of Academic Research, 4 (2), 155-162. |
| [6] | Elder, J.L.; Pederson, D.R. (1978). Preschool Children’s Use of Objects in Symbolic Play. Child Development, 49, 500-504. |
| [7] | Facer, K. (2011). Learning Futures: Education, technology and Social change. Routledge, NewYork. |
| [8] | Glavenau, V. P. (2011). Children and creativity: A most unlikely pair? Thinking Skills and Creativity, 6, 122-134. |
| [9] | Hennessy, B. (2003). The social psychology of creativity. Scandavian Journal of Educational Research, 47 (3), 253-271. |
| [10] | Hoicka, E.; Bjovet-van der Berg, S.; Kerr, T.; and Carberry, M. (2013). The Unusual Box Test: A Non-Verbal, Non-Representational Divergent Thinking Test for Toddlers. Creativity and Early Cognitive Development, Papers from the 2013 AAAI Spring Symposium, 32-37. |
| [11] | Kharkhunin, A.V. (2014). Creativity 4 in 1: Four criterion construct of creativity. Creativity Research Journal, 26 (3), 338-352. |
| [12] | Kaufmann, G. (2003) What to measure? A new look at the concept of creativity. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 47(3), 235–251. |
| [13] | Matud, M. P., Rodriguez, C. ve Grande, J. (2007). Gender differences in creative thinking. Personality and Individual Differences, 43. |
| [14] | 13. McLoyd , V.C. (1983). The Effects of the Structure of Play Objects on the Pretend Play of Low-Income Preschool Children. Child Development, 54, 626-635. |
| [15] | Mouchiroud, C & Lubart, T. (2001). Children’s original thinking: An empirical examination of alternative measures derived from divergent thinking tasks. Journal of Genetic Psychology, 162, 382-401. |
| [16] | Prentice, R. (2000) Creativity: A reaffirmation of its place in early childhood education. The Curriculum Journal, 11(2), 145–158. |
| [17] | Riga, V.; Chronopoulou, E. (2014). Applying MacKinnon’s 4Ps to foster creative thinking and creative behaviours in kindergarten children. Education 3-13, 42 (3), 330-345. |
| [18] | Robson, S. (2013) The Analysing Children’s Creative Thinking framework: development of an observationled approach to identifying and analysing young children’s creative thinking. British Educational Research Journal, 1-14. |
| [19] | Robson, S. & Rowe, V. (2012). Observing young children's creative thinking: engagement, involvement and persistence. International Journal of Early Years Education, 2084), 349-364. |
| [20] | Rule, A. C., Zhbanova, K., Hileman, A., Evans, J., & Schneider, J.S. (2011). Exploring Torrance’s Creative Strengths by Making an Object from a Set of Given Materials. Cutting beyond the edge: New realities in gifted education: Iowa Talented and Gifted Association Annual Conference, October 17-18, Airport Holiday Inn, Des Moines, Iowa. |
| [21] | Runco, M. A. (2003) Education for creative potential. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 47(3), 317–324. |
| [22] | Runco, M. A. and Acar, S. (2012). Divergent thinking as an indicator of creative potential. Creativity Research Journal, 24 (1), 66-75. |
| [23] | Russ, S.W. (1996). Development of Creative Processes in Children. New Directions For Child Development, 72, 31-42. |
| [24] | Singer, J. L. (1973) The child’s world of make-believe: Experimental studies of imaginative play (New York, Academic Press). |
| [25] | Siraj-Blatchford, I. (2007) Creativity, communication and collaboration: The identification of pedagogic progression in sustained shared thinking, Asia-Pacific Journal of Research in Early Childhood Education, 1(2), 3–23. |
| [26] | Stephens, K. R., Karnes, F. A., ve Whorton, J. (2001). Gender differences in creativity among American Indian third and fourth grade students. Journal of American Indian Education, 40, 1. |
| [27] | Trevlas, E.; Matsouka, O. & Zachopoulou, E. (2003). Relationship Between Playfullness and Motor Creativity in Preschool. Early Child Development and Care, 175 (5), 535-543. |
| [28] | Tsai-Ling Chu & Wei-Wen Lin, 2013. Uniqueness, integration or separation? exploring the nature of creativity through creative writing by elementary school students in Taiwan. Educational Pscyhology, 33 (5), 582-595. |
| [29] | Wolfradt, U. ve Pretz, J. E. (2001). Individual differences in creativity: Personality, story writing, and hobbies. European Journal of Personality, 15, 297-310. |
| [30] | Vig, S. (2007). Young Children’s Object Play: A Window on Development. Journal of Developmental Psyhological Disorders, 19, 201-215. |
APA Style
Elif Celebi Oncu. (2015). Preschoolers’ Usage of Unstructured Materials as Play Materials Divergently. Education Journal, 4(1), 9-14. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.edu.20150401.13
ACS Style
Elif Celebi Oncu. Preschoolers’ Usage of Unstructured Materials as Play Materials Divergently. Educ. J. 2015, 4(1), 9-14. doi: 10.11648/j.edu.20150401.13
AMA Style
Elif Celebi Oncu. Preschoolers’ Usage of Unstructured Materials as Play Materials Divergently. Educ J. 2015;4(1):9-14. doi: 10.11648/j.edu.20150401.13
Share This Article
Twitter
Linked In
Facebook
Copy
Download@article{10.11648/j.edu.20150401.13,
author = {Elif Celebi Oncu},
title = {Preschoolers’ Usage of Unstructured Materials as Play Materials Divergently},
journal = {Education Journal},
volume = {4},
number = {1},
pages = {9-14},
doi = {10.11648/j.edu.20150401.13},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.edu.20150401.13},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.edu.20150401.13},
abstract = {The present study is designed to examine preschool children's (4-5 and 6 years old) attitudes toward unstructured materials and to take their divergent ideas about these materials. Paper napkin, a plastic bottle, bottle lid, toilet paper roll, a piece of white string, a plastic spoon and a 10x10x10 cm³ sized box were used as unstructured materials. 126 children (58 female, 68 male) were selected from four state preschools. For originality scores first an originality index was prepared. Children who gave similar answers scored as 1, children who gave answers that were rarely given by other children, scored 2 and children who gave answers that were not given by others, scored 3. Children's usage of materials and answers were analyzed as originality and fluency by two blind coders. It was found from the study that, most of the children preferred to use materials in usual and ordinary ways, only few children were found to use them creatively as play materials. The results showed that most of the children cannot be able to use the unstructured materials as play materials creatively. Gender difference was found significant in the usage of plastic spoon, box and bottle. Girls tended to use napkin and bottle lid creatively and symbolically as domestic play toy, on the other hand boys had a tendency to use the box and plastic spoon creatively and symbolically. The age factor was also found significant, older children tended to use the materials more creatively than the younger ones.},
year = {2015}
}
TY - JOUR T1 - Preschoolers’ Usage of Unstructured Materials as Play Materials Divergently AU - Elif Celebi Oncu Y1 - 2015/01/26 PY - 2015 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.edu.20150401.13 DO - 10.11648/j.edu.20150401.13 T2 - Education Journal JF - Education Journal JO - Education Journal SP - 9 EP - 14 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2327-2619 UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.edu.20150401.13 AB - The present study is designed to examine preschool children's (4-5 and 6 years old) attitudes toward unstructured materials and to take their divergent ideas about these materials. Paper napkin, a plastic bottle, bottle lid, toilet paper roll, a piece of white string, a plastic spoon and a 10x10x10 cm³ sized box were used as unstructured materials. 126 children (58 female, 68 male) were selected from four state preschools. For originality scores first an originality index was prepared. Children who gave similar answers scored as 1, children who gave answers that were rarely given by other children, scored 2 and children who gave answers that were not given by others, scored 3. Children's usage of materials and answers were analyzed as originality and fluency by two blind coders. It was found from the study that, most of the children preferred to use materials in usual and ordinary ways, only few children were found to use them creatively as play materials. The results showed that most of the children cannot be able to use the unstructured materials as play materials creatively. Gender difference was found significant in the usage of plastic spoon, box and bottle. Girls tended to use napkin and bottle lid creatively and symbolically as domestic play toy, on the other hand boys had a tendency to use the box and plastic spoon creatively and symbolically. The age factor was also found significant, older children tended to use the materials more creatively than the younger ones. VL - 4 IS - 1 ER -
Information
Email: