Effects of Teacher Lesson Introduction on Second Graders’ Creativity in a Science/Literacy Integrated Unit on Health and Nutrition

• Published in: Early childhood education journal 2014-09, Vol.42 (5), p.351-360
• Main Authors: Webb, Angela Naomi, Rule, Audrey C.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Comparative Analysis; Control Groups; Conventional Instruction; Creativity; Education; Effect Size; Elementary education; Elementary School Students; Elementary School Teachers; Experimental Groups; Freehand Drawing; Grade 2; Health Education; Interdisciplinary Approach; Knowledge Level; Learning and Instruction; Mathematics Achievement; Nutrition education; Nutrition Instruction; Persistence; Primary Education; Reading Comprehension; Science Instruction; Social Studies; Sociology; Sociology of Education; Standardized Tests; Story Reading; Teaching methods; Thinking Skills; Young Children
• ISSN: 1082-3301; 1573-1707
• DOI: 10.1007/s10643-013-0615-4

The focus on standardized testing in the areas of reading and mathematics in early elementary education often minimalizes science and the arts in the curriculum. The science topics of health and nutrition were integrated into the reading curriculum through read aloud books. Inclusion of creativity skills through figural transformation drawings allowed students to display nutrition comprehension, modeling how these subject areas can fit into a narrowed curriculum. This repeated measures study examined the weekly effect of teacher lesson introduction on 19 second grade students’ (11 female, 8 male) creativity and content knowledge of nutrition under two conditions that alternated every 2 weeks over a 16-week period: a brief, positive, standard lesson introduction (control) compared to a more enhanced introduction promoting originality, risk-taking and persistence (experimental). Students listened to read-aloud books on nutrition and completed figural transformation drawings related to the stories. Findings showed that student work evidenced more creativity during the experimental condition with a very large effect size for breaking perceived boundaries; a large effect size for depicting movement in drawings; medium effect sizes for fluency, originality, storytelling articulateness, humor, wisdom, emotion, and total creative traits; and a small effect size for elaboration. Students also evidenced greater overall knowledge of health/nutrition content during the experimental condition with a small effect size. Small changes in the way a lesson was introduced had a significant impact on student knowledge and creative performance, indicating that early childhood teachers should implement similar lesson introductions to increase student creativity.