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International Journal of Technical Research and Applications e-ISSN: 2320-8163,
www.ijtra.com Special Issue 22 (July, 2015), PP. 86-93
86 | P a g e
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
1nursiahfauzan@gmail.com
2farahinmatzaini@gmail.com
Abstract: The main purpose of this research is the development
of higher order thinking skills’ module with emphasis on
creativity for the preschoolers. In the development of HOTS
module, pedagogical documentation were carried out to make the
students’ thinking and creativity visible. It opens up the
possibility of shared reflection with the children who are
naturally creative, inquisitive and exploratory in nature. The
ongoing dialogues and sharing with the teachers and children on
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
creativity among young children. The module emphasized on the
learning environment and students’ engagement in learning with
emphasis on play and nature. Through play, the children seems
to more creative through their engagement with social activities,
conversation and scaffolding. These conversations allow
educators to further their “understanding of the concepts
children are building, the theories they are constructing and the
questions they are posing. Results shows that children have
better thinking skills and creativity when given freedom to learng
and scaffolding from teachers. Observation shows that learning
environments such as classroom and friends and teachers
creativity in facilitating and external resources are critical factors
for the development of higher order thinking
Index Terms— Pedagogical documentation, Creative thinking,
Higher order thinking, HOTS curriculum
I. INTRODUCTION
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
and learning. However, the common problem with the system
of education in Malaysia is its examination orientation at every
level of education, from kindergarten to higher secondary.
Meanwhile, malaysian‟s Ministry of Education, Tan Sri
Muhyiddin Yassin said that it is important to change the
curriculum from exam-oriented towards thinking critically[2] .
He also stress that 70% of Malaysian’s students student cannot
answer question out of text book [3] . Government planned to
change the curriculum to improve childhood education and to
minimize focus of using exam-oriented in school and motivate
students to think critically. In this study, we believe that
children can get creative through their engagement with
activity and social activity which then affects higher order
thinking skills. A module will be continuously developed by
using pedagogical documentation.
II. PROBLEM STATEMENT
This examination oriented culture in our system of
education is a barrier to critical thinking. The children lacked
the ability to think and solve problems in a less familiar
environment or when faced with complex and challenging
issues. There is a need to develop higher order thinking among
the children and the best time to start is at an early age.
Providing experiences at an early age affect brain’s
development and learning.
Another issue that needs to be addressed is the quality of
the early childhood education. Children that experience low
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
compared to research toward students in primary and secondary
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
because early education is the foundation of learning.
III. OBJECTIVE
The main objective of the study to develop a module based
on higher order thinking skills among pre-school children.
Specific objective
• To observe technique used by pre-school teachers in
the development of higher order thinking
• To observe childrens’ thinking behaviour and social
interaction during class activity.
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• To develop a module based on children‟s interest and
learning style.
• To implement pedagogical documentation as a
formative assessment method
• How does pedagogical documentation contribute
towards pre-school children’s learning?
IV. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
This study provides a preliminary guideline on the
development of pedagogy and module of higher order thinking
for preschool children. Teachers should take an advantage from
this module development and continuously improvise based on
childrens’needs. Other significance is to develop a module or
planned experience based on the children interest. It follows
Reggio Emilia‟s method which focus on childrens’ interest
itself. The development of the module were based on
observation on the childrens’ thinking and behavior, social
interaction with the peers and during play
V. Background of the study
A. HOTS in Malaysia
There are several strategies applied by Ministry of
Education (MOE) in order to inculcate HOTs. They implement
Integrated Curriculum for Secondary School (KBSM) that
“introduced critical thinking skills, in 1988, the Vision 2020 in
1991, the Critical and Creative Thinking Skills (KBKK) in
1996, and the concept of “smart school” in 1997” [5]. Main
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
2013-2025 [6]. There are three main aspects been focused that
is written curriculum, taught curriculum and examined
curriculum. However research in 2012 for Preliminary Report
of the Malaysian Education Blueprint 2013-2025 showed
negative result that actually does not promote HOT [7].
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
teaching methods in Malaysian preschools which are
Montessori, traditional methods that focus on academic,
Waldorf method which focus play-based approach and
international preschool that are based on their own curriculum .
Basically, there are two types of teaching either academic
based or play based. Play-based teaching style is said to be
better than educational-based [8]. In Islam, Prophet
Muhammad had divided life of a child into three categories,
which Each last for seven years [9].). During the first seven
years,
Prophet Muhammad focus for the children to play as their
source for happines and enjoyful learning [10]. Meanwhile,
during play activity, children can build inividual development.
Research had shown that children show better performance in
play-based activities compared to formal activity]. During the
play-based activity, children become more focus on solving the
problem compared to children during formal activity which
easily get distracted [11]. Thus, module developed will be on
children’s interest that focus on play based activities such as
story telling, and building block. Children that fully engage
with task have more involvement with activity and thus provide
better learning experience .
C.Pedagogical Documentation in pre-school
“Pedagogical documentation is a method used to capture
children‟s learning experiences systematically through
observations, transcriptions of classroom interaction and
analyses of their work products, and then share these with the
children throgh visual representations that provoke reflection”
[12]. Thus, pedagogical documentation can help teachers
capture critical moments among children.
VI. METHOD
A case study using qualitative approach was used to gain
better understanding of the childrens’ learning strategy and
planned the development of a module for teaching thinking and
creativity among the preschoolers.
Figure 1 shows the flow chart throughout the three
phases of the study started from a survey and pedagogical
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documentation, development of HOTS module until the trial or
implementation of activities from the module
A. Data Collection Procedure
A case study using observation and pedagogical
documentation were used to capture children’s creativity and
thinking skills especially during play and social interaction. By
observing and recording using video, audio recording and
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. 2 Three main phases in research
B. Informant and sampling Technique:
It involves both children and teachers at pre-chool.
Purposive sampling were used for selection of subjects
because the objective of the study was to observe children from
the age of five to six years old and to develop HOTS module
based on the pedagogical observation.
Instrument: Data were collected by observation, field notes,
interviews and document analysis from artifacts. Creaativity
were assessed using creativity rubric assessment adapted from
Kuong, Puteh and Toran [13]
.
VII. RESULTS
The findings will be presented based on the objectives of
the research.Three objectives of the study are to analyze the
observation, document analysis and children behavior as a
basis for development of module. Second objective is to
develop a module for creativity among preschool children
based on the pedagogical documentation. The third objective is
to analyze the implementation of creativity module in pre-
school. Some of data findings are presented in graphical form
for easier understanding.
A.First Objective: To analyze the observation, document
and children behavior as a basis for development of module
Curriculum used in KEMAS
Data were collected during semester break in Tabika
Kemas Kampung Bukit Rawa, Kulim, Kedah. There are two
teachers that responsible for each Tabika Kemas. The concept
of KEMAS is 'Learning through Play’. There are four
approaches used in Tabika Kemas. Figure 7 below shows
approaches used in Tabika Kemas.
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.
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
lives with their grandparents. From the finding, highest
qualification of their parents are at SPM level. Information
from their teachers revealed that most parents were not concern
on their children’s education from home. Observation shows
that only few parents inquire about their children’s progress.
For example, Informant 5’s mother asks about the suitable
book that she can use to revise.
Tadika Sri Mawar: In this research, a group of 6 years old
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
children than female in Tadika Sri Mawar. There are number of
races in this preschool such as Malay, Chinese, Iban, Bidayuh
and Dusun. The highest number is Chinese (12), followed by
Malay (3) and Iban (3), then Bidayuh (2) and lastly Dusun(1).
II. Teachers and Pedagogy
Individuals that work in Tabika KEMAS must at least
have diploma in early education. However, for teacher’s
assistant, the minimum requirement needed is Sijil Rendah
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.
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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,
informant 10 cannot express himself during class session,
however during outdoor activities, he able to express his
emotion. Similar to Informant 12, she refuses to interact with
teacher, but when the researcher or her friends talk and work
together with her, she able to interact normally and she can
smile.
One of methods used by the teacher is scaffolding.
Scaffolding follows theory of Zone of Proximal Development.
Lev Vygotsky in his paper stated that assistive learning can
help children solve a problem]. Assistive learning refers to the
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.4
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
part of body. According to the teacher, early themes are related
to the children itself such as their name, their face, family and
lastly to the environment.
Learning Environment
Figure 5 Cognitive section
Figure 8 shows the cognitive section in the Tabika
KEMAS. This section attract children so much. They tends to
be curious about all the learning material on that section and
that is the reason why it is called the wonder wall. When the
children have a free time, they tends to stand in front of the
cognitive section, and look at it. At the cognitive section, there
are a lot of play materials. There are student that like to play
animals, and wonder how the animals move, sound and how
they walk.
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
can be displayed.
Fig 7 Tadika sri mawar Classroom environment and
seat arrangement
Figure 7 show the classroom environment and lay out
of student’s arrangement in Tadika Sri Mawar. Compared to
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.
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Second Objective: To develop a module for creativity
among preschool children based on the pedagogical
documentation.
From the findings based on children’s interest, a
creativity module was developed. The module focuses on
developing higher order thinking through creativity. Teacher’s
ability, learning environment and external sources have an
impact on developing higher order thinking skills. This factors
influence the intrinsic motivation among children while they
are playing. Table below shows some of the activity and
learning outcomes of the modules.
MODULE 1
SEE, TOUCH AND SMELL!
NAME OF
ACTIVITY
ACTIVITY 1 : STORY
TELLING
TEACHING
MATERIALS
BIG STORY BOOK
Goal/Founda
tion/Standard:
Engagement
and Persistence
Explorin
g
Give
explanation
on human’s
body
function.
Build
ing
Relati
ng with
real life
stuff
(Give
student to
smell
perfume)
Applyi
ng
Questio
ning on
their daily
life
experience
(What is
the smell
of durian?)
Table 1: Example of Activities from Module
MODULE 2
MY FRIEND AND I
NAME OF
ACTIVITY
ACTIVITY 4 : LOOK AT
YOUR FRIEND
TEACHING
MATERIALS
NONE
Goal/Found
ation/Standard
:
Engagement
and Persistence
Exploring
Each
students need to
look at her
friends and
observe the
features of the
face.
Build
ing
Stude
nt have
to give
explanati
on on
their
friend’s
face
feature
(thick
eyebrow)
App
lying
Stud
ent need
to
compare
with
their
family(
My
brother
has a
fair skin
too!)
Table 1: Example of Activity from Module
A. Third Objective: To analyze the implementation of
creativity module in pre-school.
The modules were put on trial in another pre-school
, Tadika Sri Mawar, Kuching to validate the creativity module
created. For the first day, two activities were conducted that is
‘draw your friend’ and ‘Make a Snowman’. Drawing friend’s
activity was chosen in order to compare with the previous
result conducted in Tabika Kemas.
Their drawing is much smaller and tidier compared to the
drawing in Tabika Kemas. Their pattern of drawing and color
selection is also almost the same. Only a few children have a
different drawing which they draw more than one friend.
Although, their teacher scold them to draw only one of friend,
but still some of them draw more than one. Figure 20 shows
drawing by children in Tadika Sri Mawar. One of the drawings
illustrate three person holding hand together. From this
drawing, it displayed the friendship that the child wants to
show.
Figure 8 Children drawing their friend
Meanwhile, another activity was building a snowman
was chosen. This activity reveal children’s motor skills and
their ability to solve the problem from the materials given.
Children can select the materials to build their own snowman.
Materials prepared were dough, beads, colorful wire, and
tree’s branches.
On the second day, different approaches were used. An
alpha music was used with a picture to trigger’s children
thinking and helps to be more focus.
Figure 9
For the first activity, students were asked to draw based on
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
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music. There are sound of waterfall, bird’s chirping and sound
of crickets. It is used to increase the level of concentration
among students. Most of the children draw a similar concept, a
lake and few trees. Some of them draw fish inside of the lake.
Yet, there is student that cannot draw at all. Informant 19 see,
draw and then she erase it. Then, she keeps on repeat the same
thing. Figure 10 shows Informant 19’s drawing. It shows that
this child have no idea on the concept of drawing. She sketch
the picture using her pencil. Results of drawing in Tabika Sri
Mawar are shown in Figure 11. They use nature’s color to color
their own drawings.
Fig 10 Sketch Fig 11 drawing nature
VIII. DISCUSSION
From the results, several themes had been revealed that can
affects higher order thinking among preschool children through
creativity perspectives. Teacher in Tabika Kemas applied
scaffolding method, questioning and problem solving to all the
children in the class throughout the class activities and the daily
conversation. The interaction is more likely as mother and
children interaction.
Question were asked during the activities to know the level
of understanding and the concept inside children’s mind. For
example, during recess time, they are looking at today’s chart
which consists of the date, day, and weather. Children were
asked about weather.
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”
(Descriptive field notes, 1st February 2015)
From the descriptive field notes, children are able to
relate their understanding of weather. They know the concept
of sunny day. Here, learning materials, and questioning from
teacher helps the children to think. By having a non-formal
conversation, this children can learn a lot about life. Interaction
between children to discuss about the topic also encourages
higher order thinking.
Scaffolding
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. 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
activities, student does not know how to shape doh into object.
They cannot even shape a ball. After second trial, they know
what they should do. As in [14] giving effort on memory yields
to creativity. This is shown by following formula; E + M = C.
By working creatively, children can produce a lot of ideas
.
Learning environment
Classroom
Tabika KEMAS have a better positive learning
environment. The preschool is very colorful. They have a very
colorful chair and desk that is suited with their height. In
contrast to Tadika Sri Mawar, color of the desk is dull. Their
classroom looks very dull too because there is less learning
materials on the wall. Figure 15 shows the classroom
differences between Tabika Kemas and Tadika Sri Mawar.
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Figure 15 Left- Tabika Kemas, Right - Tadika Sri Mawar
In Tabika KEMAS, there is cognitive section,
collection of children’s artwork and a lot learning materials at
the wall. All the materials inside the classroom help children’s
thinking and learning. At the cognitive section, children always
ask about the animals. Learning materials at the wall act as a
cue for the children if they forget it.
Friends
Positive learning environment may affect by friends too.
Some of children in Tabika Kemas are related to each other.
For example, Informant 1 and Informant 8 are cousins. Thus,
they are very close to each other because most of them in the
same area and they know each other’s family. As the class
combines 5 years old and 6 years old children, a child that
knows more about something will help others. This follows
theory of zone of proximal development which friends will
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.
Figure 16 Children pointing to the aeroplane
“Student : Teacher, MH370! (pointing to the aeroplane)
“Teacher: Where did it go?
Student: crash into the sea.
Teacher: why would you say that?
Student: it is in the news! Teacher, can we recite Al-Fatihah to
them? Poor to their family. They must be sad. They don’t have
father and mother anymore”
(Descriptive field notes, 4th February 2015)
It was heartbreaking to hear it from the children. They
already know meaning of loss and they are aware about the
current issue. By having children been exposed to the outdoor
activities, teacher can know their feelings and their expression.
This children shows their sympathy towards the tragedy
happened to MH370’s victims.
External Resources
External resources are the learning material used in the
preschool. In Tabika KEMAS, they use a lot of learning
material with variety of color and shape to make students enjoy
the learning. Tadika Sri Mawar is different because their
method does not stress on play itself but focus on the book.
External sources use during play
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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
motivated coming to school. For example, some children love
to use the animal shape in Figure 17. They use it for counting
or they arrange it according to group of shape or group of color.
Thus, this makes the learning more visible instead of counting
from the book.
IX. CONCLUSION
The teachers need to be creative in planning the learning
experiences, designing the learning environment and in their
interactions with the children for the children to learn to think
and thinking to learn. However, this work does not happen by
teachers merely implementing a defined set of practices, but
thoughtful to model the world and so to deal with the children
who are naturally creative, inquisitive and exploratory in
nature. In this research, the development of HOTS module
derived from pedagocial documentation where students’
thinking and creativity becomes visible. It opens up the
possibility for shared reflection on the learning process.
Documentation enables educators to name what children are
learning and to makelinks to the planned curriculum. At the
same time, students can reflect on their learning.Such ongoing
dialogue mediates perspectives – educators’, students’ and
parents’ –to facilitate understanding.By constructing shared
understanding, dialogue drives future curriculum in ways
thatare genuinely responsive to learning needs .These
conversations allow educators to further their “understanding
of the concepts children are building, thetheories they are
constructing and the questions they are posing”.Consequently,
learning becomes a deeply personalized and engaging
experiences
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International Proceedings of Economics Development and
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