Free Strategies For The Discovery And Development Of Creativity Among Kindergarten Children Dissertation Methodology Example

Methodology

Participants and Setting
An anonymous, cross-sectional survey was conducted. In order to carry out the study, we conducted an internet-based survey in which questions were asked online to the participants of the study through an online survey tool known as “SurveyMonkey” (www.surveymonkey.com). This study was conducted on teachers in the Dayton area. This platform is not only easy to create but also easy to use. A total of 16 teachers were contacted through email to participate in the study. In order to preserve and maintain anonymity, and restricting the possibility of multiple feedbacks from a single individual, we enabled a particular tool on SurveyMonkey, which is used to prevent many entries from the same IP address (i.e. computer).
Participants were considered in the study, when they showed that they were teachers involved in teaching of children. Moreover, they may have at least one year of teaching experience. On the other hand, participants were not considered in the study, when they have no e-mail address, or no teaching experience. After meeting the inclusion and exclusion criteria, participants were invited. In order to continue the study, the Permission from University of Dayton was granted to ensure that the survey didn’t breach UD guidelines. Moreover, participants were initially asked to provide their informed consent to take part in this study.

Data Collection

Data collection was done with the help of 15 closed-ended questions having multiple options assessing study related important data such as teaching status, teaching settings, and experience of teaching. Moreover, questions were asked to teachers as they are directly involved in the growth and development of children outside of the house. Most of the teachers involved in our survey were highly experienced, and this is also clear from the results of our study.
Three questions addressed the participants’ information. One question dealt with the relationship of teacher and children in discovering and developing creativity. One question dealt with the time children play in classroom per day. Ten questions addressed the opinions of participants (teachers) regarding creativity and its development in children. Most of these questions have four options; “Strongly disagree”, “Disagree”, “Agree”, and “Strongly agree”. These questions were asked to get a good level of information about the discovery and development of creativity in children. Moreover, the SurveyMonkey tool was closed to new responses after collection of sufficient data.

Data Analysis

SurveyMonkey tool is helpful in gathering valuable data from participants’ feedback. It utilizes advanced analytics to convert important data into proper results. Data from participants from the exclusion criteria were not included in the study.
After completion of data, the data was imported into Adobe Reader (Adobe Systems Inc). Data was analyzed using the SurveyMonkey’s own percentage calculations. These percentage calculations were helpful in making a rough estimate of the number of people having particular options, as our participants are representing the teachers’ community, and percentages are considered as a proportion in relation to the whole community (see Table 2).

Results

Nearly 16 teachers responded to the online survey. Their level of teaching was from kindergarten to 3rd grade. Out of 16 participants, 9 participants taught Kindergarten, 4 participants taught 1st grade, 2 participants taught 2nd grade, and 1 participant taught 1st grade. None of our respondents taught pre-school children. In case of experience, most of our participants were highly experienced, i.e. 12 respondents reported that they have 10 or more years of teaching experience, 2 participants reported that they have five to nine years of teaching experience, 1 participant reported two to four years of teaching experience, and 1 participant reported one year of experience. Similarly, in case of highest level of education by participants, 10 participants were Master Plus, 3 participants had Master’s degree, and 3 participants had Bachelor degree. Some of the important information related to respondents have been presented in the following table:
During the online survey 100% of participants reported that both home as well as school plays an important role in the development of creativity in children as shown in the following figure. It was the only result in which all participants agreed on a single point.
Figure 1: Percentage of respondents, who say that both school and home are important in creativity
Participants reported that school and child-teacher relationship is important in discovering and developing creativity. Our respondents reported that music and free-playing are helpful in discovering and developing creativity. None of them considered “internet” as an important factor in creativity. Only one participant strongly agreed with the use of modern technology in the discovery and development of creativity. However, six participants also responded that all of them, i.e. music, free-playing, and internet, are important in creativity. Most of the respondents also reported that children spend about half an hour in play in the classroom per day. Some other important opinions and their results have been presented in the table below:

Discussion

About 75% of our participants were highly experienced and that is why, we can say that our results would be near to accurate. Most of our respondents strongly agreed that musical activities and school can be among the strongest factors in the discovery and development of creativity.
This finding is confirming previously performed researches in which music has been considered as an important factor in the discovery and development of creativity. Mostly children in kindergarten like to listen and play with music, therefore learning is sometimes based on music at this level. Music helps children in memorization and removing the boredom, which is responsible for short attention span of children at the kindergarten level. Music is also helpful in identification of different talents in children, and this identification can help in improving their hidden talent. Overall, music is helpful in providing a medium of creativity by proper guidance of children. Musical intelligence is also helpful in the development of expressive as well as imaginative compositions in children (Wright, 2002). Musical intelligence can help in improving the knowledge of music that is helpful in improving memory, and it can also help in improving emotional associations through beautiful sounds. It is an interesting fact that this intelligence is not only confined to the musical field, but it can also help in other fields of life.
Along with music, most of our respondents strongly agreed that school plays an important role in the discovery and development of creativity. Schools have to be among the supportive and creative tools in the lives of children as they can have a number of creative educational activities and attitudes for the development of creative character (Albari, Smadi, Yassin, & ALShammari, 2013). Schools can provide facilities that can increase the creative abilities of students. Moreover, teachers in schools can become the role model of students and they can help them in knowing their inner strengths and weaknesses. Teachers can also help students in availing all possible opportunities to do something new by exploring and nurturing their potential (Teaching Strategies, 2010). On a further note, the principal of the school must be aware of the creative and educational philosophies as well as different teaching methods that can help students in exploring new opportunities and doing productive things. It is also the responsibility of the principal that he/she has to remove all the potential problems, fears, and worries of the students inside the school. Many of our participants are agreed with the point that subjects offered in the school play an important role in the discovery and development of creativity. Subjects must be designed in such a way that they help the children in exploring new things. Dull or boring presentation can result in the development of slow and noncreative personality.
All of the participants either agree or strongly agree with the point that playing is helpful for children. Playing in school can help children emotionally. It can also help students in increasing their self-confidence and self-reliance. Most importantly, playing in school can help students in increasing their creativity and a sense of independence (Miller & Almon, 2009).
Technology is also not found to have an important role in the discovery and development of creativity in children. However, it can help in improving creativity in different ways such as by the use of applications that are specifically designed to improve creativity. Children can think creatively, if cartoons and comic strip tools are used creatively. On a further note, digital story telling tools can also help in improving the ways of communication of children. These tools can help students in thinking creatively and helping themselves in exploring the meaning of different thoughts. Researchers have also found the importance of internet in improving the fluency and elaboration components of creativity (Majid, Tan, & Soh, 2003).

Conclusions and Anticipated Action

The concept of developing and teaching creativity in children has been around for a long time. It is usually considered as an immeasurable innate ability, but it has to be considered that it can be taught with the passage of time and presence of good teachers, as shown by the survey report of our participants. Moreover, involvement in different activities in the school is important for enhancing creativity. Technology and music can also help in improving the creative potential of students.
Creativity can help students not only in creating new things but also help them in learning new things in a creative way. Students must be inspired to do things creatively. In this regard, it is important to embrace creativity as a part of learning strategy. Moreover, considering creativity as a part of skill rather than a natural ability can also help teachers in enabling their students to think creatively. In this regard, teachers can improve the creative skills of their students by designing such programs that can help students in developing creative skills. Teachers can also become a role-model by showing their students different ways of doing things creatively. Creative discussions and freedom of expressions can also help students in taking a step ahead in their learning. Teachers can also encourage their students to ask questions. They can design such lessons that are helpful in arising different points to ponder. Most of our participants reported the positive outcomes of playing in school, so teachers have to design games in such a way that they would be able to improve the creativity of children along with improving their health. However, further studies are still required, especially in the use of technology to improve creativity as many of our participants didn’t supported the idea of using technology in improving creativity.

References

Albari, Q. N., Smadi, S., Yassin, M. B., & ALShammari, W. T. (2013). The Role of School and Family in Developing Childrens' Literary Creativity. International Journal of Education, 5(3), 136-156.
Majid, D. A., Tan, A. G., & Soh, K. C. (2003). Enhancing Children's Creativity: an Exploratory Study on Using the Internet and SCAMPER as Creative Writing Tools. Korean Journal of Thinking and Problem Solving, 13(2), 67-82.
Miller, E., & Almon, J. (2009). Crisis in the kindergarten: Why children need to play in school. Alliance for Childhood (NJ3a).
Teaching Strategies. (2010). Research foundation: The creative curriculum (1st ed.). Bethesda: Teaching strategies.
Wright, S. K. (2002). The arts, young children, and learning: Allyn and Bacon.