Angels, tooth fairies and ghosts: thinking creatively in an early years classroom

This chapter offers an evaluation and interpretation of the creative thinking and collaboration that took place in a class of five year olds in an English primary school during the academic year 2004–05. This school was committed to developing itself as a creative learning community by participating in a creativity-training programme, Synectics, more usually employed in an adult business context. This school wanted to develop its capacity for creative teaching and learning. This intent was in tune with national and international developments in education where strenuous efforts were being made to extend the reach of creative education which had for a long time been more or less exclusively associated with the arts. The chapter offers an outline of these developments to set the research in context. The research described is a case study and second phase of an evaluation of the project EXCITE! (Excellence, Creativity and Innovation in Teaching and Education) and was carried out by researchers from the Open University. Previous research suggests that when children first start school, they are already competent creative thinkers and storytellers and that both creative and narrative modes of thinking involve abductive rather than deductive inferential reasoning. It is argued that although children may need training in paradigmatic (deductive) modes of thought, they do not necessarily need further training in narrative modes of thought. The examples of young children’s thinking discussed in chapter support this argument. The Synectics creativity-training programme does not claim to ‘teach’ creative thinking per se. The evidence presented suggests that when teachers use Synectics tools and techniques to inform practice, these allow them to create a positive, emotional climate that allows young children to use analogy and metaphor to construct creative explanations and narratives through collaborative discussion

Exploring children's creative narratives: some theoretical, methodological and applied perscpectives

This chapter introduces the edited collection, Exploring Children’s Creative Narratives that offers fresh perspectives on children’s creative narratives and that explores what these perspectives reveal about their imagination, their thought processes and how they understand the world. The chapter argues that ethnographic case studies, naturalistic observations, conversations and playful interactions with children ranging in age from two to eleven years allow the development of theoretical insights that challenge traditional accounts of creativity and narrative. It also argues that a proper understanding of creative narratives has to be an interdisciplinary endeavour if it is to do justice to the rich, complex, multi-modal and embodied nature of the children’s thought processes as revealed through their drawing and story-telling, music making, dance, drama and imaginative play. Interpretation of these processes draws on socio-cultural accounts of creativity and creative development that challenge more traditional accounts of creativity as an attribute or talent that belongs only to certain gifted individuals. The chapter (and contributors to the collection) maintains that to understand the situated nature of children’s creative activity it is important to examine the social, affective and cognitive processes that take place when children are immersed in such activity. This re-conceptualisation of children’s creativity challenges conventional educational practice and suggests that formal educational training programmes should offer teachers more sophisticated cultural discourses and experiences which will allow them to gain a more rounded understanding of children’s creative narratives

Youth Voice in the work of Creative Partnerships

This report summarises the findings of an 18-month research project into ‘Youth Voice in the work of Creative Partnerships ‘, 2007-9, conducted by Sara Bragg, Helen Manchester, Dorothy Faulkner at the Open University, funded by the Arts Council England. Creative Partnerships (CP) was established in 2002 and is a ‘flagship creative learning programme’. It aims to foster innovative, long term collaborations between schools (often in areas of socio-economic deprivation) and creative practitioners. In particular CP states that it places young people ‘at the heart of what we do’ and claims that its programmes are most effective when young people are actively involved in leading and shaping them. CP highlights three key areas: involving young people in governance (the design, delivery and evaluation of the programme of work); building and maintaining ‘positive relationships’ with young people; working as ‘co-constructors of learning’ with them. The report maps existing youth voice initiatives in Creative Partnerships in those three areas. In addition, it considers the nature of the links between creativity and participation; explores issues of access to youth voice, such as patterns of inclusion and exclusion; explores what skills, experiences, identities and relationships are developed through participation. More broadly it attempts to understand, analyse and theorise youth voice, starting from the empirical but aiming to interpret the features of particular activities or projects to understand them more fully

Storytelling cultures in early years classrooms

The analysis presented in this article draws on Rogoff’s (2003) work on intent participation and Dyson’s (2001, 2010) studies of children’s written compositions to identify the nature of peers’ contributions to meaning making, and cultural transmission processes claimed to occur when young children narrate stories to supportive adults. It draws on data collected during an evaluation of an in-service training programme that introduced UK-based early years practitioners to a version of Paley’s (1990) storytelling and story acting curriculum known as the Helicopter Technique (HT). The HT draws on theatre practice and drama to foster narrative development and literacy skills. Children tell a story to a practitioner trained to scribe this exactly as told and who assists them to identify story characters that can be acted out later with peers. The significance of adults’ contributions to these sessions is well understood, but less is known about the contribution of peers who may also be present. The evidence presented suggests that these peer-to-peer processes can be described as two-way transactions between more and less confident language users and may be particularly important for children with English as an Additional Language (EAL). Implications of these findings for practitioners supporting second language learners are discussed

Storytelling and story-acting: co-construction in action

In the light of sustained interest in the potential value of young children’s narrative play, this paper examines Vivian Gussin Paley’s (1990) approach to storytelling and story-acting, in this case with three to five year-olds. It scrutinizes how children’s narratives are co-constructed during adult-child and peer interactions through spoken and embodied modes, as their stories are scribed by an adult and later dramatised by their peers. Data are drawn from an evaluation of an eight-week training programme, based on Paley’s approach, designed for early years professionals and undertaken in different geographic and demographic locations in England. Naturalistic data collection techniques including video and field notes were used to record the storytelling and story-acting of 18 case study children. The resultant data were subject to close discursive and multimodal analysis of storytelling and story-acting interactions. Findings reveal discursive co-construction ‘in action’ and illustrate how the child story-tellers, story actors and practitioners co-construct narratives through complex combinations of gaze, body posture and speech in responsive and finely-tuned interactional patterns. The study contributes significantly to knowledge about how young children’s narratives are co-constructed through multiple modes in the classroom

International perspectives on progress, change and development in early childhood education and care, 1993 to 2013

The article presents an introduction to the special September 2013 issue of "International Journal of Early Years Education" addressing research on topics including the impact of Apartheid on education in South Africa, numbers of kindergartens in China, and school readiness

Pre-teens' informal learning with ICT and Web 2.0

ICT and Web 2.0 have the potential to impact on learning by supporting enquiry, new literacies, collaboration and publication. Restrictions on the use of these tools within schools, primarily due to concerns about discipline and child safety, make it difficult to make full use of this potential in formal educational settings. Studies of children at different stages of schooling have highlighted a wider range of ICT use outside school, where it can be used to support informal learning. The study reported here looks beyond the broad categories of primary and secondary education and investigates the distinctive elements of pre-teens’ use of ICT to support informal learning. Nineteen children aged 10 and 11 participated in focus groups and produced visual representations of ICT and Web 2.0 resources they used to support their informal learning. Thematic analysis of this data showed that pre-teens respond to a range of age-related constraints on their use of ICT. Inside formal education, these constraints appear similar at primary and secondary levels. Out of school, regulation is more age specific, contributing to the development of tensions around use of ICT as children approach their teenage years. These tensions and constraints shape the ways in which children aged 10 to 11 engage in formal and informal learning, particularly their methods of communication and their pressing need to develop evaluation skills

Evaluation Report of MakeBelieve Arts Helicopter Technique of Storytelling and Storyacting

This research, commissioned by MakeBelieve Arts, a London-based theatre and education company, evaluated their educational programme for enhancing young children’s storytelling and story acting. The programme, called the ‘Helicopter Technique’, is based on the work of Gussin Paley’s work. Whilst this has received widespread recognition in the field of children’s play and narrative engagement , ther has been little empirical research into its benefits. The work encompassed examination of archival material and classroom based observations and documentation, as well as scrutiny of the children’s stories scribed in class story books,and interviews with staff involved in the pre prgramme taaining and in class coaching. The work aimed to investigate the value of this approach for children and early years practitioners, and to consider how programme could be improved and made more sustainable in early years classrooms. Overall, the Helicopter Technique was found to provide a rich framework for supporting young children’s learning across diverse curriculum areas, and was a motivating and valuable pedagogical tool for developing creative and reflective teaching. Diverse recommendatiosn were made regarding the future development of the technique

Creating a Virtual Research Environment to build a research Community

This paper describes The Open University’s Virtual Research Environment (VRE), our solution to training of the next generation of researchers. We also discuss how we have adapted the OU’s ‘supported open learning model’ to develop a new suite of on-line doctoral training modules referenced against the Vitae Researcher Development Framework. Traditionally the university has adopted a cohort approach, providing training in generic skills for full-time doctoral and MRes researchers through annual programmes of f2f workshops supported by online materials in year one, supplemented in subsequent years by career development and advanced skills workshops and web based exercises. Provision for the university’s part-time doctoral researchers (including those in its Affiliated Research Centres - ARCs), has been challenging. Responsibility here has traditionally rested with supervisors. Consequently, Key priorities for the University are to improve the quality of the research environment and tackle the fragmentation of resources and services offered to research students. In 2011 the university invested in a two-year project to develop a Virtual Research Environment (VRE). This draws on its established track record in developing its undergraduate taught provision and its ‘supported open learning’ delivery model using world class virtual learning environments. The VRE offers a gateway to online training and development resources for all full and part-time research degree students and ARCs. It seeks to bring together this diverse body of researchers into an online community with parity of access to institutional support so that they can provide mutual support for each other and share best practice. The VRE was launched in October 2013 as a central point of access to research based information and support for doctoral researchers, supervisors and support staff. This on-going project is intended as a catalyst that will strengthen the doctoral research community through on-line networking, professional development, and on-line skills training