Conversational Pedagogy: Exploring the Impact of Encouragement on Young Children’s Creative Experiences

• In Event: Scaffolding Play and Creativity: Infants to Preschoolers

Abstract

Visual arts experiences in early childhood classrooms often take place in small groups which allows for informal conversations between children and teachers. The exploration of arts-focused conversation can help to scaffold our understandings of the cognitive, imaginative, social, and affective components of young children’s creative endeavors. This paper presents findings from a research investigation aimed at exploring conversation during children’s collaborative art making experiences. Analysis of video-taped classroom sessions, children’s artworks, and semi-structured interviews with children and teachers reveal insights into the role of informal encouragement as part of the creative process of the young child. This research demonstrates that child-to-child and teacher-to-child conversational encouragement provides an important means to support, extend, and broaden children’s explorations and creative compositions.

Author

• Angela L. Eckhoff, Old Dominion University