See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/312600262

Creative Thinking among Preschool Children

Article · July 2015

CITATIONS READS

6 5,390

2 authors:

Norsiah Fauzan Nurfarahin Mat Zani

University Malaysia Sarawak University Malaysia Sarawak
31 PUBLICATIONS 73 CITATIONS 1 PUBLICATION 6 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

All content following this page was uploaded by Norsiah Fauzan on 23 January 2017.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 International Journal of Technical Research and Applications e-ISSN: 2320-8163,
www.ijtra.com Special Issue 22 (July, 2015), PP. 86-93

CREATIVE THINKING AMONG PRESCHOOL

CHILDREN
Norsiah Fauzan1, Norfarahin Mat zaini2
Department of Cognitive Science,
Faculty of Cognitive Science & Human Development
Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
Kota Samarahan, Sarawak
1
[email protected]
2
[email protected]

Abstract: The main purpose of this research is the development change the curriculum to improve childhood education and to
of higher order thinking skills’ module with emphasis on minimize focus of using exam-oriented in school and motivate
creativity for the preschoolers. In the development of HOTS students to think critically. In this study, we believe that
module, pedagogical documentation were carried out to make the children can get creative through their engagement with
students’ thinking and creativity visible. It opens up the
activity and social activity which then affects higher order
possibility of shared reflection with the children who are
naturally creative, inquisitive and exploratory in nature. The thinking skills. A module will be continuously developed by
ongoing dialogues and sharing with the teachers and children on using pedagogical documentation.
the learning process throughout the pedagogical documentation
enables the researchers to plan the learning experiences and
development of new techniques for the teaching of HOTS or II. PROBLEM STATEMENT
creativity among young children. The module emphasized on the
learning environment and students’ engagement in learning with This examination oriented culture in our system of
emphasis on play and nature. Through play, the children seems
to more creative through their engagement with social activities,
education is a barrier to critical thinking. The children lacked
conversation and scaffolding. These conversations allow the ability to think and solve problems in a less familiar
educators to further their “understanding of the concepts environment or when faced with complex and challenging
children are building, the theories they are constructing and the issues. There is a need to develop higher order thinking among
questions they are posing. Results shows that children have the children and the best time to start is at an early age.
better thinking skills and creativity when given freedom to learng Providing experiences at an early age affect brain’s
and scaffolding from teachers. Observation shows that learning development and learning.
environments such as classroom and friends and teachers Another issue that needs to be addressed is the quality of
creativity in facilitating and external resources are critical factors
the early childhood education. Children that experience low
for the development of higher order thinking
quality environment do not perform well in elementary school
[4]. Another issue that needs to be stressed is insufficient
research of higher order thinking among pre-school children
Index Terms— Pedagogical documentation, Creative thinking, compared to research toward students in primary and secondary
Higher order thinking, HOTS curriculum school. As government want to transform the educations
curriculum from exam-oriented towards thinking critically,
then there should be a lot of research on pre-school‟s education
I. INTRODUCTION
because early education is the foundation of learning.
Early education is the basis for continued learning
(preschool malaysia,n.d.). As stated in [1] in her study address
that child’s early experience affects their brain’s development III. OBJECTIVE
and learning. However, the common problem with the system The main objective of the study to develop a module based
of education in Malaysia is its examination orientation at every on higher order thinking skills among pre-school children.
level of education, from kindergarten to higher secondary. Specific objective
Meanwhile, malaysian‟s Ministry of Education, Tan Sri • To observe technique used by pre-school teachers in
Muhyiddin Yassin said that it is important to change the the development of higher order thinking
curriculum from exam-oriented towards thinking critically[2] .
He also stress that 70% of Malaysian’s students student cannot • To observe childrens’ thinking behaviour and social
answer question out of text book [3] . Government planned to interaction during class activity.

86 | P a g e
 International Journal of Technical Research and Applications e-ISSN: 2320-8163,
www.ijtra.com Special Issue 22 (July, 2015), PP. 86-93
• To develop a module based on children‟s interest and Montessori, traditional methods that focus on academic,
learning style. Waldorf method which focus play-based approach and
• To implement pedagogical documentation as a international preschool that are based on their own curriculum .
formative assessment method Basically, there are two types of teaching either academic
based or play based. Play-based teaching style is said to be
• How does pedagogical documentation contribute better than educational-based [8]. In Islam, Prophet
towards pre-school children’s learning? Muhammad had divided life of a child into three categories,
which Each last for seven years [9].). During the first seven
years,
IV. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY Prophet Muhammad focus for the children to play as their
source for happines and enjoyful learning [10]. Meanwhile,
This study provides a preliminary guideline on the during play activity, children can build inividual development.
development of pedagogy and module of higher order thinking Research had shown that children show better performance in
for preschool children. Teachers should take an advantage from play-based activities compared to formal activity]. During the
this module development and continuously improvise based on play-based activity, children become more focus on solving the
childrens’needs. Other significance is to develop a module or problem compared to children during formal activity which
planned experience based on the children interest. It follows easily get distracted [11]. Thus, module developed will be on
Reggio Emilia‟s method which focus on childrens’ interest children’s interest that focus on play based activities such as
itself. The development of the module were based on story telling, and building block. Children that fully engage
observation on the childrens’ thinking and behavior, social with task have more involvement with activity and thus provide
interaction with the peers and during play better learning experience .
V. Background of the study
C.Pedagogical Documentation in pre-school
A. HOTS in Malaysia “Pedagogical documentation is a method used to capture
There are several strategies applied by Ministry of children‟s learning experiences systematically through
Education (MOE) in order to inculcate HOTs. They implement observations, transcriptions of classroom interaction and
Integrated Curriculum for Secondary School (KBSM) that analyses of their work products, and then share these with the
“introduced critical thinking skills, in 1988, the Vision 2020 in children throgh visual representations that provoke reflection”
1991, the Critical and Creative Thinking Skills (KBKK) in [12]. Thus, pedagogical documentation can help teachers
1996, and the concept of “smart school” in 1997” [5]. Main capture critical moments among children.
purpose is to produce people who have high thinking abilities.
Further strategies used to promote HOTs that are the release of
Preliminary Report of the Malaysian Education Blueprint VI. METHOD
2013-2025 [6]. There are three main aspects been focused that
is written curriculum, taught curriculum and examined A case study using qualitative approach was used to gain
curriculum. However research in 2012 for Preliminary Report better understanding of the childrens’ learning strategy and
of the Malaysian Education Blueprint 2013-2025 showed planned the development of a module for teaching thinking and
negative result that actually does not promote HOT [7]. creativity among the preschoolers.
Previous research showed some factors that limits the nurturing
of HOT skills among student are the time factor such as time
consumed to reflect justify and question about the issue and
teacher‟s lack of understanding on the concept of HOT in
teaching of thinking. Teaching of HOTS require more time as
the children will have to go through the process of learning
how to think. On the contrary, there is a conflict between the
thinking curriculum and the assessment which seems to limit
the answer given by student based on scheme which
consequently limits thinking skills ). Another factor to be
considered is the learning environment such as desk
arrangement and learning space that may influence or limit
students’ thinking .

B. Quality of pre-school education

In the development of creativity, it is best to enhance their
thinking skills by applying play based approach. There are four Figure 1 shows the flow chart throughout the three
teaching methods in Malaysian preschools which are phases of the study started from a survey and pedagogical

87 | P a g e
 International Journal of Technical Research and Applications e-ISSN: 2320-8163,
www.ijtra.com Special Issue 22 (July, 2015), PP. 86-93
documentation, development of HOTS module until the trial or A.First Objective: To analyze the observation, document
implementation of activities from the module and children behavior as a basis for development of module
Curriculum used in KEMAS
Data were collected during semester break in Tabika
A. Data Collection Procedure
Kemas Kampung Bukit Rawa, Kulim, Kedah. There are two
A case study using observation and pedagogical teachers that responsible for each Tabika Kemas. The concept
documentation were used to capture children’s creativity and of KEMAS is 'Learning through Play’. There are four
thinking skills especially during play and social interaction. By approaches used in Tabika Kemas. Figure 7 below shows
observing and recording using video, audio recording and approaches used in Tabika Kemas.
writing notes Researcher can directly explore on children’s
expression or movement and capture children’s thinking. Then,
all the artifacts such as children’s art work were kept for data
analysis. The study were carried out in three phases from
January until April 2015. Data collection such as picture,
children’s art work and field notes was conducted at Tabika
Kemas at Kampung Bukit Rawa, Kulim, Kedah. There are 18
students consist of 5 boys and 13 girls. Range of students’ age
is from five to six years old. In the phase 2 of the research,
discussion and brainstorming with the project members were
based on the documentationand artifacts collected before the
development of the module. In the third phase, the module
were put on trial at Tadika Sri Mawar in Kuching. Fig 3 Approaches in Tabika Kemas

I. Children’s Demographic Information

Tabika Kemas Kulim Kedah: There are 18 students consist

of 5 boys and 13 girls at Tabika Kemas Kulim Kedah. There is
more female student which is 13 students compared to only 5
students in the preschool.All the children are Muslim afrom
rural background’s area.
Fig. 2 Three main phases in research From the findings, most of the children live nearby the
preschool. Most of the parents work on their own such as
working at the farm. There are two children from this preschool
B. Informant and sampling Technique:
lives with their grandparents. From the finding, highest
It involves both children and teachers at pre-chool. qualification of their parents are at SPM level. Information
Purposive sampling were used for selection of subjects from their teachers revealed that most parents were not concern
because the objective of the study was to observe children from on their children’s education from home. Observation shows
the age of five to six years old and to develop HOTS module that only few parents inquire about their children’s progress.
based on the pedagogical observation. For example, Informant 5’s mother asks about the suitable
Instrument: Data were collected by observation, field notes, book that she can use to revise.
interviews and document analysis from artifacts. Creaativity
were assessed using creativity rubric assessment adapted from Tadika Sri Mawar: In this research, a group of 6 years old
Kuong, Puteh and Toran [13] children was chosen. There are 22 children consisting of 12
. Male and 10 Female children. Compared to children in Tabika
KEMAS Kg Bukit Rawa, there is greater number of male
VII. RESULTS
children than female in Tadika Sri Mawar. There are number of
The findings will be presented based on the objectives of races in this preschool such as Malay, Chinese, Iban, Bidayuh
the research.Three objectives of the study are to analyze the and Dusun. The highest number is Chinese (12), followed by
observation, document analysis and children behavior as a Malay (3) and Iban (3), then Bidayuh (2) and lastly Dusun(1).
basis for development of module. Second objective is to
develop a module for creativity among preschool children II. Teachers and Pedagogy
based on the pedagogical documentation. The third objective is Individuals that work in Tabika KEMAS must at least
to analyze the implementation of creativity module in pre- have diploma in early education. However, for teacher’s
school. Some of data findings are presented in graphical form assistant, the minimum requirement needed is Sijil Rendah
for easier understanding. Pelajaran(SRP). Teacher’s assistant does not really teach, their
main work is to prepare meals for the children. In Tabika
KEMAS, there have their own schedule for children’s meals.

88 | P a g e
 International Journal of Technical Research and Applications e-ISSN: 2320-8163,
www.ijtra.com Special Issue 22 (July, 2015), PP. 86-93
Children will have their breakfast before they start their class
and they will have another meal two hours later. At Tadika Sri
Mawar, children have to bring their own meal. They can eat
their meal during recess time.
Observation on pedagogical aspects shows that at
Tabika KEMAS, important thing is to get children’s interest
during learning. She said that, normally student can only focus
for five to ten minutes. So, it is essential for teacher to know
the strength and weakness of their student. For example, Figure 5 Cognitive section
informant 10 cannot express himself during class session,
however during outdoor activities, he able to express his Figure 8 shows the cognitive section in the Tabika
emotion. Similar to Informant 12, she refuses to interact with KEMAS. This section attract children so much. They tends to
teacher, but when the researcher or her friends talk and work be curious about all the learning material on that section and
together with her, she able to interact normally and she can that is the reason why it is called the wonder wall. When the
smile. children have a free time, they tends to stand in front of the
One of methods used by the teacher is scaffolding. cognitive section, and look at it. At the cognitive section, there
Scaffolding follows theory of Zone of Proximal Development. are a lot of play materials. There are student that like to play
Lev Vygotsky in his paper stated that assistive learning can animals, and wonder how the animals move, sound and how
help children solve a problem]. Assistive learning refers to the they walk.
guidance by the teachers or peers. From the observation,
student will get a guide from the teacher, mostly during the
early stage of activities

Fig. 6 childrens’ collaboration and childrens’ artwork

Figure 6 is the section that displays all children’s artwork.
The selection of wallpaper are colorful and interesting. This
section motivate children to do the best so that their artwork
Fig.4 can be displayed.

Figure 4 illustrate teacher guiding her student. The children

are having hand painting activities and they need to use only
the right hand. Some children still confused between left and
right hand. Thus, teachers show how to put the water colors on
their right hands. Apart from helping children completing their
work, scaffolding is important to make the children focus
again. Previously, teacher had mentioned that these children
can only give full attention for a short period. Other method
used is questioning. Questioning is used to know the level of
understanding among children and their focus level. For
example one of activity is human body activities. The activity
is to know the level of understanding among student about their
Fig 7 Tadika sri mawar Classroom environment and
part of body. According to the teacher, early themes are related
seat arrangement
to the children itself such as their name, their face, family and
lastly to the environment.
Figure 7 show the classroom environment and lay out
of student’s arrangement in Tadika Sri Mawar. Compared to
Learning Environment
Tabika KEMAS, it has a fix arrangement for children. Children
have to sit according to their place. The classroom also looks
very dull and there is very little of wall’s decoration.

89 | P a g e
 International Journal of Technical Research and Applications e-ISSN: 2320-8163,
www.ijtra.com Special Issue 22 (July, 2015), PP. 86-93
Second Objective: To develop a module for creativity A. Third Objective: To analyze the implementation of
among preschool children based on the pedagogical creativity module in pre-school.
documentation. The modules were put on trial in another pre-school
From the findings based on children’s interest, a , Tadika Sri Mawar, Kuching to validate the creativity module
creativity module was developed. The module focuses on created. For the first day, two activities were conducted that is
developing higher order thinking through creativity. Teacher’s ‘draw your friend’ and ‘Make a Snowman’. Drawing friend’s
ability, learning environment and external sources have an activity was chosen in order to compare with the previous
impact on developing higher order thinking skills. This factors result conducted in Tabika Kemas.
influence the intrinsic motivation among children while they Their drawing is much smaller and tidier compared to the
are playing. Table below shows some of the activity and drawing in Tabika Kemas. Their pattern of drawing and color
learning outcomes of the modules. selection is also almost the same. Only a few children have a
MODULE 1 different drawing which they draw more than one friend.
SEE, TOUCH AND SMELL! Although, their teacher scold them to draw only one of friend,
NAME OF ACTIVITY 1 : STORY but still some of them draw more than one. Figure 20 shows
ACTIVITY TELLING drawing by children in Tadika Sri Mawar. One of the drawings
TEACHING BIG STORY BOOK illustrate three person holding hand together. From this
MATERIALS drawing, it displayed the friendship that the child wants to
show.

Goal/Founda Explorin Build Applyi

tion/Standard: g ing ng
Engagement Give Relati Questio
and Persistence explanation ng with ning on
on human’s real life their daily
body stuff life
function. (Give experience
student to (What is
smell the smell
perfume) of durian?)

Table 1: Example of Activities from Module

MODULE 2
MY FRIEND AND I
NAME OF ACTIVITY 4 : LOOK AT Figure 8 Children drawing their friend
ACTIVITY YOUR FRIEND Meanwhile, another activity was building a snowman
was chosen. This activity reveal children’s motor skills and
TEACHING NONE
their ability to solve the problem from the materials given.
MATERIALS
Children can select the materials to build their own snowman.
Materials prepared were dough, beads, colorful wire, and
Goal/Found Exploring Build App tree’s branches.
ation/Standard Each ing lying On the second day, different approaches were used. An
: students need to Stude Stud alpha music was used with a picture to trigger’s children
Engagement look at her nt have ent need thinking and helps to be more focus.
and Persistence friends and to give to
observe the explanati compare
features of the on on with
face. their their
friend’s family(
face My
feature brother
(thick has a
eyebrow) fair skin
too!)
Figure 9
For the first activity, students were asked to draw based on
Table 1: Example of Activity from Module the picture given (as shown in Figure 9) and also based on the
sound that they heard. The sound is a nature sound with alpha

90 | P a g e
 International Journal of Technical Research and Applications e-ISSN: 2320-8163,
www.ijtra.com Special Issue 22 (July, 2015), PP. 86-93
music. There are sound of waterfall, bird’s chirping and sound (Descriptive field notes, 1st February 2015)
of crickets. It is used to increase the level of concentration From the descriptive field notes, children are able to
among students. Most of the children draw a similar concept, a relate their understanding of weather. They know the concept
lake and few trees. Some of them draw fish inside of the lake. of sunny day. Here, learning materials, and questioning from
Yet, there is student that cannot draw at all. Informant 19 see, teacher helps the children to think. By having a non-formal
draw and then she erase it. Then, she keeps on repeat the same conversation, this children can learn a lot about life. Interaction
thing. Figure 10 shows Informant 19’s drawing. It shows that between children to discuss about the topic also encourages
this child have no idea on the concept of drawing. She sketch higher order thinking.
the picture using her pencil. Results of drawing in Tabika Sri
Mawar are shown in Figure 11. They use nature’s color to color Scaffolding
their own drawings. Scaffolding follows theory by Lev Vygotsky which is
the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). ZPD is a state that
adult or older children guide children to complete their work
[14].

Fig 10 Sketch Fig 11 drawing nature Fig. 14 Make 'ABC’

Figure 14 shows play doh activity that is to shape an
alphabet.
In Tadika Sri Mawar, for the first trial on play doh
VIII. DISCUSSION
activities, student does not know how to shape doh into object.
They cannot even shape a ball. After second trial, they know
From the results, several themes had been revealed that can what they should do. As in [14] giving effort on memory yields
affects higher order thinking among preschool children through to creativity. This is shown by following formula; E + M = C.
creativity perspectives. Teacher in Tabika Kemas applied By working creatively, children can produce a lot of ideas
scaffolding method, questioning and problem solving to all the .
children in the class throughout the class activities and the daily Learning environment
conversation. The interaction is more likely as mother and Classroom
children interaction. Tabika KEMAS have a better positive learning
Question were asked during the activities to know the level environment. The preschool is very colorful. They have a very
of understanding and the concept inside children’s mind. For colorful chair and desk that is suited with their height. In
example, during recess time, they are looking at today’s chart contrast to Tadika Sri Mawar, color of the desk is dull. Their
which consists of the date, day, and weather. Children were classroom looks very dull too because there is less learning
asked about weather. materials on the wall. Figure 15 shows the classroom
differences between Tabika Kemas and Tadika Sri Mawar.

Figure 12 Chidren are looking at today's chart

“Teacher: Take a look outside the window. How is our
weather today?
Student :Sunny.Teacher: How do all of you know?
Student: it feels warm, and there is a sun!Teacher: what colour
make a sun?
Student : The color of sun is yellowish-orange”

91 | P a g e
 International Journal of Technical Research and Applications e-ISSN: 2320-8163,
www.ijtra.com Special Issue 22 (July, 2015), PP. 86-93

Figure 16 Children pointing to the aeroplane

“Student : Teacher, MH370! (pointing to the aeroplane)
“Teacher: Where did it go?
Student: crash into the sea.
Figure 15 Left- Tabika Kemas, Right - Tadika Sri Mawar Teacher: why would you say that?
In Tabika KEMAS, there is cognitive section, Student: it is in the news! Teacher, can we recite Al-Fatihah to
collection of children’s artwork and a lot learning materials at them? Poor to their family. They must be sad. They don’t have
the wall. All the materials inside the classroom help children’s father and mother anymore”
thinking and learning. At the cognitive section, children always (Descriptive field notes, 4th February 2015)
ask about the animals. Learning materials at the wall act as a It was heartbreaking to hear it from the children. They
cue for the children if they forget it. already know meaning of loss and they are aware about the
current issue. By having children been exposed to the outdoor
Friends activities, teacher can know their feelings and their expression.
Positive learning environment may affect by friends too. This children shows their sympathy towards the tragedy
Some of children in Tabika Kemas are related to each other. happened to MH370’s victims.
For example, Informant 1 and Informant 8 are cousins. Thus, External Resources
they are very close to each other because most of them in the External resources are the learning material used in the
same area and they know each other’s family. As the class preschool. In Tabika KEMAS, they use a lot of learning
combines 5 years old and 6 years old children, a child that material with variety of color and shape to make students enjoy
knows more about something will help others. This follows the learning. Tadika Sri Mawar is different because their
theory of zone of proximal development which friends will method does not stress on play itself but focus on the book.
guide their friend in order to complete the task. Thus, a good
circle of friend may provide a good motivation and positive
learning environment.
Teacher may also create a positive learning
environment. Method of communication and teacher’s
appearance may affect learning process. A positive learning
environment may triggers children thinking. Teacher in Tabika
KEMAS have a very motherly characteristics. However, in
Tadika Sri Mawar, the teacher looked very strict. In Tabika
KEMAS, children are not afraid to ask question or to share
anything in their daily life. For example, informant 9 show his
happiness when he saw his teacher comes to the school. For
example, during the outdoor activities, they saw an aeroplane.
They wave to the aeroplane and talked about recent issue,
MH370.

External sources use during play

92 | P a g e
 International Journal of Technical Research and Applications e-ISSN: 2320-8163,
www.ijtra.com Special Issue 22 (July, 2015), PP. 86-93
By having colorful and attractive learning materials,
children will have interest and passion to involve with learning.
They will involuntarily involve with learning. They also feel REFERENCES
motivated coming to school. For example, some children love [1,4] Mazjub, R. M. (2013). Critical Issues in Preschool
to use the animal shape in Figure 17. They use it for counting Education in Malaysia.
or they arrange it according to group of shape or group of color. [3,4] Zabidi, A. M., & Rahman, N. S. (2012). A Teacher’s
Thus, this makes the learning more visible instead of counting Experience of Using Critical Thinking in Classroom Teaching.
from the book. International Proceedings of Economics Development and
Research (IPEDR) , 72-76.
IX. CONCLUSION [5,6,7] Yen, T. S., & Halili, S. H. (2015). Effective
The teachers need to be creative in planning the learning Teaching of Higher-Order Thinking (HOT) In Education. The
experiences, designing the learning environment and in their Online Journal of Distance Education and e-Learning, 3(2), 41
interactions with the children for the children to learn to think - 47.
and thinking to learn. However, this work does not happen by [8, 11] McInnes, K., Howard, J., Miles, G. E., & Crowley,
teachers merely implementing a defined set of practices, but K. (2009). Behavioural differences exhibited by children when
thoughtful to model the world and so to deal with the children practicing a task under formal and playful conditions.
who are naturally creative, inquisitive and exploratory in Educational & Child Psychology, 26(2), 31-39.
nature. In this research, the development of HOTS module
derived from pedagocial documentation where students’ [9] Raising Children the Islamic Way. (n.d.). Retrieved
thinking and creativity becomes visible. It opens up the from http://www.islamicinsights.com/features/home-and-
possibility for shared reflection on the learning process. family/raising-children-the-islamic-way.html
Documentation enables educators to name what children are
learning and to makelinks to the planned curriculum. At the [10] Nani, M., Rohani, A., & Mohd, S. A. (2003). Panduan
same time, students can reflect on their learning.Such ongoing kurikulum prasekolah. Pahang: PTS Publications &
dialogue mediates perspectives – educators’, students’ and Distributors.
parents’ –to facilitate understanding.By constructing shared [13] Kuong, L. P., Puteh, S. N., & Toran, H. (2012). Using
understanding, dialogue drives future curriculum in ways Visual Art Activities For Creativity Development In Early
thatare genuinely responsive to learning needs .These Childhood Education. National Early Childhood Intervention
conversations allow educators to further their “understanding Convention .
of the concepts children are building, thetheories they are [14] Collin, C., Grand, V., Benson, N., Lazyan, M.,
constructing and the questions they are posing”.Consequently, Ginsburg, J., & Weeks, M. (2012). The psychology book.
learning becomes a deeply personalized and engaging London: Dorling Kindersley Limited
experiences

93 | P a g e

View publication stats