Developing Creative Thinking Skills In Early Childhood

A distinction can be made between the term "creativity" and creative thinking skills. Creativity typically refers to a talent for original and masterful production in the arts and sciences, and there is scant evidence that teachers have any influence on creativity of this kind. Creative thinking refers to a group of six thinking skills that if encouraged by teachers and practiced by students might lead to the emergence of creative traits; the content of creative thnking is the skills themselves. Awareness is the skill of noticing on purpose; awareness promotes data gathering behavior, and data are the "stuff" of thinking. Fluency is skill in generating multiple responses to a problem where the criterion is quantity. Perseverance means becoming self disciplined in ways appropriate to the time and energy required for a problem solving task. Elaboration is a skill apparent in the preference for complexity. Speculation skills make possible the generation of hypotheses. Curiosity is manifested behaviorally in attempts at answering "what if" questions. (The paper concludes with a chart that suggests several student activities related to reading instruction which promote the application and practice of each of these six thinking skills.)