Identification of Plesk's creativity model elements in the literature of  age group

Zandvanian, Ahmad; Mirhosseini Niri, Fatemeh Sadat; Kian, Maryam

doi:10.22055/slis.2019.25273.1463

Identification of Plesk's creativity model elements in the literature of age group "B” children, using content analysis

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Ahmad Zandvanian

Fatemeh sadat Mirhosseini Niri

Maryam Kian

yazd university Department of Education

https://doi.org/10.22055/slis.2019.25273.1463

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Fostering wisdom and intelligence, reflective thinking and creativity reinforcement is always one of the main goals of any educational system. In order to achieve these goals, in addition of the formal school curriculum, extracurricular activities and children's literature are effective. Children's literature, while broadly applicable, can be seen as a kind of educational tool for achieving educational goals. Through understanding the literature, children can better understand different life issues and visualize the different ways to face them. Each story shows them facing a problem or difficulty and finding an enterprising solution. Because children`s literature is ever changing, it provides countless opportunities for discovery, creativity, and problem solving. Childhood is the peak time to nurture children's creativity, especially imagination. Einstein said, "Imagination is more important than knowledge." Imagination is one of four elements in Plsek's creativity model. According to Piaget theory, children in age group "B", from the age of 7 to 11, are in the period of concrete operational stage, as well as, in the period of primary school. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to identify the elements of Plsek's creativity model in the story books of age group “B” children in Yazd city in Iran. Paul Plsek has boiled creative thinking cycle down to four phases: preparation, imagination, development, and action. Plsek's creativity model includes components: attracting attention, targeted observation, concept extraction, flexibility, magnification, minimization, inverting, substitution, composition, attention to detail, reinforcement, evaluation and implementation in action.
Methodology: Descriptive-survey method and content analysis were used. The statistical population consisted of all boy and girl students of the first, second and third grade elementary schools (age group B) in the academic year of 2017-2018 (12933 students), of which 1000 samples were selected using cluster random sampling. In the first step, using a quantitative questionnaire a sample of thousands of students was asked to rate their favorite books. Then, using descriptive statistical methods, and SPSS 23 software, twenty of the most popular books were identified and their frequency was determined. The research tools included a researcher-made questionnaire and the Plsek creativity checklist. With Plsek creativity checklist, we analyzed the quantitative and qualitative content of fiction books.
Findings: The findings showed that the most readable fiction books among children, including Snowy White, Cinderella, Shengol-Mangol-Habe Angour, red riding hood, good stories for good kids, Hassani as a wise boy, girl selling matches, a sleeping beauty, magical pumpkin, marine fairy, beetle house, biography of Imam Ali, an ugly duckling, biography of The Prophet Muhammad, the stories of the grandmother's night, biography of Imam Hussein, biography of Imam Musa Kazem, human to the size of a fingernail, Alice in the Land of Wonders, biography of Hazrat Fatemeh. The findings showed that the "snowy white" has the highest frequency of studying among children, and "Hazrat-e- Fatemeh" has the lowest frequency. The results showed that, among the components of the Plsek creativity model, the component of "attention" has been used in all the books, but some other components, such as "concept extraction" and "inverting" has been less considered. Unfortunately, the "reinforcement" component is not absolutely used. In summary, the storybook " good stories for good kids " has the highest frequency of components of the Plsek creativity model. In general, in story books, the element "nutrition of fantasy" is considered in order to pave the way for the growth of child's imagination, and the need to pay more attention to other neglected elements of creativity in these books seems necessary.
Discussion: Children, reading and creativity are three beads to link together to form the chain. Today's children and adolescent`s need to be able to do more than score well on tests, but they must be creative thinkers and problem solvers. Teaching creativity is, of course, not something that can be done directly. Instead, creativity and creative problem solving must be fostered, encouraged, not "taught". Teachers and parents can do a lot to foster creativity in children. Obviously, children literature can inspire creativity in them. In the present study, we tried to show how many components of the Plsek creativity model were observed in children's story books.

Keywords

children's literature

story book

Plesk creativity model

content analysis method

20.1001.1.20085222.1400.13.2.10.6

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