Integrated Arts Learning Experience and Creativity in Young Children

The current study dedicated to examine the impact of picture book pedagogy onkindergarten students’ verbal, non-verbal and motor creativity, as well as theircommunication characteristics and learning motivation, through objective assessmentsand reports by parents and teachers. A total sample of 1,904 kindergarten students andtheir parents participated in this study. Of all, 1,284 were valid responses, with 51 percentof the student participants being males. Ninety-seven valid responses have been collectedfrom 147 teacher participants. Students’ creativity, assessed using Test for CreativeThinking –Drawing Production (TCT-DP) (Urban Jellen, 1996), Story Telling Task -Creativity and Communication (STT) (Hui Lau, 2006), Torrance Thinking Creativelyin Action and Movement Thinking Creatively in Action and Movement (TCAM)(Torrance, 1980), was shown to have improved after receiving picture book pedagogy,and statistically significant enhancement in their non-verbal creativity, as reflected byTCT-DP scores, was also achieved by students of the experimental group. Parents’ reporton their children’s creativity, communication and motivation characteristics, measuredwith the Scales for Rating the Behavioral Characteristics of Superior Students (SRBCSS)(Renzulli et al, 2002), statistically supported positive pre-post differences. Similarsignificant results were also observed in students of the experimental group underexperimental-control comparison. Significant statistical evidences from CreativityFostering Teacher Index (CFTIndex) (Soh, 2000) have suggested picture book pedagogyseemed to empower teachers to consolidating and preparing students intellectually aswell as cultivating their self-inquiring mentality necessary for creative development.Creativity-promoting pedagogical approach and how effectively it was practiced bykindergarten teachers might have crucial roles to play in enhancing young children’screativity and parents’ perception on their children’s creativity. Implications on such willfurther be discussed.