Developing Second Graders’ Creativity Through Literacy-Science Integrated Lessons on Lifecycles

• Published in: Early childhood education journal 2012-12, Vol.40 (6), p.379-385
• Main Authors: Webb, Angela Naomi, Rule, Audrey C.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animals; Creative Teaching; Creativity; Early childhood education; Education; Elementary School Students; Freehand Drawing; Grade 2; Instructional Effectiveness; Integrated Activities; Learning and Instruction; Life cycles; Literacy; Odonata; Plants (Botany); Problem Solving; Science Instruction; Social skills; Sociology; Sociology of Education; Standardized Tests; Thinking Skills; Vocabulary; Young Children
• ISSN: 1082-3301; 1573-1707
• DOI: 10.1007/s10643-012-0532-y

Young children need to develop creative problem-solving skills to ensure success in an uncertain future workplace. Although most teachers recognize the importance of creativity, they do not always know how integrate it with content learning. This repeated measures study on animal and plant lifecycles examined student learning of vocabulary and enjoyment of schoolwork under two conditions: a control condition of drawing and labeling the parts of the lifecycle and the experimental condition of transforming simple figures into drawings of lifecycle elements (figural transformations). Twenty-two second-grade students (15 females, 7 males) alternated between the two conditions for four different 1-week lifecycle lessons featuring these organisms: dragonfly, sea turtle, horse, and bean plant. Results showed that students learned more vocabulary with a medium effect size in the experimental condition. Students also perceived the experimental condition as more conducive to learning. Both conditions were considered by students to be nearly equally enjoyable, although they at first resisted the more challenging creative tasks. Future research might explore the effects of ongoing, longer-term exposure to integration of creative skills with content learning.