Pre-primary teachers' perception of preschool children's visual-art creativity / Percepcija odgojitelja o likovnoj kreativnosti djece predškolske dobi

Svetlana Novaković, Ema Dugandžić

Faculty of Teacher Education, University of Zagreb

svetlana.novakovic@ufzg.hr

The importance of art education for the cognitive, social, and emotional development of children and youth

Abstract

Creativity is a basic educational value that should be fostered and developed from an early age, and the development of children's creative abilities in the visual and artistic field simultaneously impacts the development of their creativity in other areas, i.e. it impacts the development of creative thinking in general. Pre-primary teachers have a significant role in the development of children's creative potential; therefore, the purpose of this research was to investigate teachers' conceptual beliefs about creativity. In this paper, we present the results of empirical research whose aim was to determine how teachers define creativity, their views on children's creativity, and their role in fostering children's artistic creativity. The research was conducted on a sample of 70 undergraduate students of early childhood and preschool education at the Faculty of Teacher Education in Zagreb, local branch in Petrinja, and 70 practicing teachers in Croatian kindergartens. The research instrument used for data collection was a questionnaire consisting of closed survey-type questions, an ordinal scale, and a five-point Likert-type attitude scale. The non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test was used to test the differences in the perception of creativity and their role in fostering it between undergraduate students of early childhood and preschool education and practicing teachers. The results of the research show that teachers understand their role in developing creativity in children and are aware of the importance of their own creativity in the organization and implementation of educational activities with children.

Key words

education in preschool age; teacher's perception; visual - art creativity

Svetlana Novaković, Ema Dugandžić

Faculty of Teacher Education, University of Zagreb

svetlana.novakovic@ufzg.hr

Važnost umjetničkog obrazovanja

Sažetak 

Kreativnost je osnovna odgojna vrijednost koju treba poticati i razvijati već od najranije dobi, a razvoj kreativnih sposobnosti djece na vizualno-likovnom području istovremeno utječu na razvijanje njihove kreativnosti i na druga područja, tj. djeluje na razvijanje kreativnoga mišljenja uopće. Odgojitelj predstavlja važan faktor u razvoju dječjega kreativnoga potencijala, stoga je svrha ovoga istraživanja bila istražiti konceptualna uvjerenja odgojitelja o kreativnosti. U radu predstavljamo rezultate empirijskoga istraživanja kojim smo utvrdili kako odgojitelji definiraju kreativnost, njihova stajališta o kreativnosti djece i ulozi odgojitelja u poticanju dječje likovne kreativnosti. Istraživanje je provedeno na uzorku od 70 studenata prediplomskog studija Ranog i predškolskog odgoja Učiteljskog fakulteta u Zagrebu, odsjek Petrinja i 70 odgojitelja praktičara u hrvatskim vrtićima. Za prikupljanje podataka upotrijebljen je upitnik, sastavljen od zatvorenih pitanja anketnoga tipa, ordinalne ljestvice i petostupanjske ljestvice stajališta Likertova tipa. Testiranje razlika između studenata prediplomskog studija Ranog i predškolskog odgoja i odgojitelja praktičara s obzirom na njihovu percepciju kreativnosti i njihove uloge u poticanju iste primijenjen je neparametrijski Mann Whitney U test. Rezultati empirijskoga istraživanja pokazuju da obje skupine ispitanika razumiju svoju ulogu u razvijanju kreativnosti kod djece te su svjesni važnosti vlastite kreativnosti u organizaciji i provedbi odgojno-obrazovnih aktivnosti s djecom.

Ključne riječi

obrazovanje u predškolskoj dobi; percepcija odgojitelja; vizualno-likovna kreativnost