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The Importance of Developing Creativity through Preschool and Early Education: Teachers’ Self- perceptions of Creativity

Research aims: The aim of this study is to determine how preschool and early education teachers in Croatia perceive their creativity and describe their perceptions in the context of the domains of creativity. Relationship to previous research works: In the context of preschool and early childhood education, teachers have an important role in supporting their students’ creative potential by planning and conducting artistic activities to provide their students with creative experiences. Previous studies demonstrated that teachers’ creativity has an important role in the creative development of children (Baker, 1979 ; de Souza Fleith, 2000 ; Esquivel, 1995). Therefore, in addition to understanding childhood development and developing professional pedagogical competencies, teachers must gain the creative competencies required to engage children in creative activities. Theoretical and conceptual framework: Creativity is a phenomenon whereby something original is developed, such as innovations that have a historical and developmental significance for society. The theoretical framework of this study recognizes and measures the following five broad areas as the dimensions of creativity: Self/Everyday, Scholarly, Performance, Mechanical/Scientific, and Artistic (Kaufman, 2012). Paradigm, methodology and methods: A positivist research paradigm was used to inform the design of this quantitative study. An anonymous survey was conducted using Kuafman’s Domains of Creativity Scale (K-DOCS) to measure the participants’ five domains of creativity (Kaufman, 2012). Ethical considerations: Personally identifying information was not collected to protect the participants’ privacy. Main findings: The results of this study describe the creative development and potential of preschool and early childhood education teachers. The role of their creativity in the holistic development of children is discussed. Implications: Facilitating the creative development of children in practice.

creativity, early education, preschool, self-perception, teachers

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