ERIC Number: EJ1212607
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2019
Pages: 22
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0950-0693
EISSN: N/A
How Children's Creative Visual Imagination and Creative Thinking Relate to Their Representation of Space
Jankowska, Dorota M.; Gajda, Aleksandra; Karwowski, Maciej
International Journal of Science Education, v41 n8 p1096-1117 2019
This article explores how creative visual imagination and creative thinking can help children to construct mental models of space. A mixed-method study, integrating quantitative and qualitative approaches and involving 98 five-year-old children (54 girls and 44 boys) demonstrated that creative visual imagination, rather than creative thinking, is linked with the knowledge and understanding of space. These results support the notion that creative visual imagination contributes to improvements in children's understanding of basic astronomical concepts. Interestingly, creative thinking was not associated with understanding and knowledge of cosmic phenomena in models taking into account creative imagination. The qualitative analysis showed differences in children's representations of space. We discuss the consequences of these findings for science education, particularly the teaching of elementary astronomy.
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Preschool Children, Creative Thinking, Visual Learning, Visualization, Imagination, Schemata (Cognition), Astronomy, Scientific Concepts, Science Education, Elementary School Science, Concept Formation
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Poland
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A