Early Child Development and Care, Vol. 90, pp99-111
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© 1993 Gordon and Breach Science Publishers S.A.
Printed in the United States of America
MARGARET H. WHITE
Institute of Early Childhood, Macquarie University
(Received 20 May 1993)
The role of the arts in the development of imagination in early childhood is linked with children's need to explore and learn about their world. Learning to imagine is a crucial step in symbol-making in early childhood. Decentration skills are hypothesised as the
link between fantasy or pretense play activities and development in areas such as communication, co-operation, perspective-taking ability, creativity, problem-solving skills and many areas of cognitive development. Children develop their own theories of the world well before starting school and, by being aware of these theories, teachers can build on children's prior learning rather than negating it. Examples of children's symbol-making are used to illustrate the process of making meaning. Aspects of children's learning environments are considered in terms of how effectively they facilitate children's exploration and the development of imagination.
Key words: imagination, decentration, the arts, symbol-making, apprentice-ship, childhood Educational forecasting _judging what children need to equip them for the future ¾ has been a preoccupation of educators for many generations. The following quotation, while rather quaint from current perspectives, illustrates this and raises some interesting questions about the place of the arts in education:
Much that is now done in schools is the little importance in the after-life of the child. But if at school a child has been taught to hold his part in a madrigal, to play an instrument in an orchestra, to use a chisel or pencil, paintbrush or modelling tool, to act, to hear, to feel, he will have gained something of infinite worth, something that will enable him to resist the rush and standardization and futile amusements of the modern world, something that will remain when much that is now given so much importance is consigned to the limbo of forgotten and useless things.
F.C. Happold (British Headmaster, 1937)
cited in Cunningham (1939:378)
Happold seems to suggest that there is some particular experience of “infinite worth” in the arts, which will assist in resisting change. However, the statement also raises wider issues about attitudes to change and the relationship between school and society. This headmaster sees the children's experiences in school as separable from their interactions with the outside world, and the school's role as creating a buffer against the implied vulgarity of that world.
Such attitudes were not uncommon in the 1930s and they had an obvious influence on the role of the arts in education. The arts were often seen as accomplishments, an added extra, the experience of which would encourage refinement and possibly enhance social status, particularly for girls.
As interest in aspects of development such as perspective-taking, (Flavell, Botkin, Fry, (Jr), Wright and Jarvis, 1968) and the use of symbols (Piaget 1951) has increased, the place of the arts in education has gradually been reassessed. The linksbetween cognition, symbolic functioning and the arts have been the focus of extensive research, such as that of Project Zero founded at Harvard by Nelson Goodman in 1967. Consequent to these studies, it is now widely accepted that children transform their experiences of the world in order to express and interpret them. Images of significance are transformed by the very act of committing them to paper as children paint and draw. In a similar way, the ability to imagine different outcomes or perspectives enables children to deal constructively in finding solutions to problems. This understanding about children's development is in direct contract to Happold's statement and allows the conceptualisation of a broader role for education, that of involving all children in the excitement and imaginative processes that lead them to explore their world.
DIVERGENT THINKING AND PLAY
Connections between imagination and learning are evident to the observer of early child development. The key factor is play. Play is often appreciated by adults as fundamental to early childhood, yet is rarely recognised in terms of the significance it has in overall development. When young children use a broom or a stick as a horse, they are under no illusions about it's real function, yet for the purposes of their play, they are able to see it as a horse in addition to being a broom or a stick.
In social play when children take on another role they are also able to retain their awareness of themselves as a child at the same time as taking on a role, “being mother” or “doctor”, or “cat”. Through participation in such role play children acquire ways of making inferences about other people's thinking and roles and seeing actions from another person's perspective as illustrated in the following example from a case study of Emily aged five:
After a thorough search of the house one day, Emily was finally found, laughing, under the dining table. A few minutes later, assessing the impact of her actions she said, “Next time, when you are looking for me you'll think to yourself, ‘I won't look under there because she was there last time' won't you?! (White, 1985:16)
Fantasy or pretense play activities such as these have been hypothesized as contributing to many aspects of development. The following exchange between two four year olds illustrates this:
Sophie: You're the doctor and I'm the Mum.
David: OK, (puts on a jacket). Now let's have our tea.
Sophie: You don't say that, you say, is that the sick baby, get it?
There is evidence in this exchange of the use of communication, perspective-taking, social problem-solving, meta-linguistic awareness, role definition and some degree of co-operation!
This hypothesis is based on Piaget's (1970:109) explanation of the development of decentration skills or the ability to consider multiple aspects of situations or things simultaneously. These skills are at least partially responsible for the emergence of the aspects of development mentioned above as well as of dramatic play. Decentration is seen to be the basis not only for the abilities to communicate and take the perspective of others into account, but also for the ability to consider simultaneously the classificatory relationship between parts and the whole.
While Piaget focussed on this area of cognitive development largely in isolation from social or other environmental influences, Vygotsky (1987) pointed to the influence of the social context in shaping the child's point of view. Gardner (1992:99) observes that social context provides the setting in which children learn to give public form to their mental representations in service of communication with others. Clearly, play facilitates children's construction of the world through the opportunities it provides to try out different roles and to engage in interactive situations in which children experience responses to their ideas and actions.
EDUCATORS WORKING WITH DECENTRATION
What impact could this understanding have on the way in which adults work with children? The illustration in Figure 1, Mrs Sideby and Sarah, is a useful example. In a school where children are encouraged to maintain cross-age friendships, two older girls dressed up and appeared in the Kindergarten room where they introduced themselves as Mrs Sideby and her daughter Sarah and said we've come to see if this would be a good school for Sarah. Entering into the spirit of the visit the teacher answered many questions and encouraged the children to show the visitors around. Finally Mrs Sideby and Sarah left after giving their considered view of the school and saying that they were visiting lots of schools but they thought they would like to come back for another visit here.
A few minutes after they left the older girls reappeared without their costumes and casually asked if there had been any visitors around lately. The younger children earnestly told them about Mrs Sideby and Sarah. Afke, four years of age, joined in with a detailed description of their appearance and one of the older girls said can you do me a painting of how they looked? Afke eagerly went and painted the first of many paintings of the visitors. After the success of their first visit, the older girls continued to make further visits, usually joined by a few other older children keen to join in the play. Afke painted her response to each visit and gradually started to suspend her belief that the characters were real. Finally she persuaded the older girls to take her on as the younger sister of Sarah!
Afke's participation in these episodes raises some interesting questions. Was her ability to decenter influenced on these occasions by her strong desire to participate in the play with the older girls? Did she deliberately suspend her belief that Mrs Sideby and Sarah were older girls dressed up in order to participate by taking the role of audience which she perceived was expected of her? An episode such as this can give teachers many insights into the perspective-taking ability of children. By facilitating such interchanges, teachers can enhance children's participation in dramatic play as well as their experiences in considering social situations from different perspectives.
Figure 1 Mrs Sideby and Sarah
INTUITIVE UNDERSTANDING
Children's comments often indicate the way they are making sense of their world. The following example illustrates this: three children were sitting in a sandpit surrounded by pools of water enclosing hills of sand. Caleb commented I'm making the Water-Sculpture Centre. The teacher, puzzled by this, asked for more details. Suddenly she put together the relevant facts. Across the road from the school was a Horticulture School which the children visited often. In the gardens was a huge lake with fountains. The children had also been making clay sculpture recently. These experiences had been combined into a new understanding. It appears quite an obvious connection to combine sculpture, fountains and water, yet how many comments such as Caleb's are passed over daily by teachers without recognition of the significance of the connections which children are making for themselves?
Children's Theories of the World
In recent years Gardner (1991) has focussed on the development of four-and-five-year-olds, looking at what he calls The emergence of their intuitive understanding. Above all, children of this age are exploring and experimenting with their world and starting to relate that experience to what they gradually understand to be the adult world. Gardner (1991:84) identifies what he calls senses of three overlapping realms which children have developed by this age and which he explains as follows:
In the world of physical objects, they have developed a theory of matter; in the world of living organisms, they have developed a theory of life; and in the world of human beings, they have a theory of the mind that incorporates a theory of the self.
These theories both inform and are informed by the experimenting and exploration which young children pursue, whatever their circumstances. They allow children to make sense of the world in a way that is appropriate for them and yet be flexible enough to encompass further experiences. An example of a child making sense of his world which incorporates several aspects of these “theories” follows in Christian's story:
Christian, aged 5 years was the youngest child in a much older family. He had many people who were interested to explore ideas with him, to ask and answer questions. At the time of this anecdote he was in a group of five-year-olds from diverse backgrounds. He entered group as a rather anxious child, separation from his mother was uneasy, and his experience with many adults meant that it was quite difficult for him to be a member of a peer group, to listen to other opinions and take the perspective of others.
One child in particular, Michael, was very confronting for Christian. He was seen by the other children as cool, that is, he had a wry sense of humour, was mischievous at times and was very adventurous. Christian, in contrast, was very concerned about right and wrong, was physically cautions, and more involved with creating an accurate view of the world than inverting facts to create humour. Interestingly, Michael came from a background where he too had a lot of adult attention as he was an only child in an a very close family. His grandparents were Jewish and it was clear that Michael had a close relationship with his grandmother who told him many stories. This often led to him raising complex questions at school such as Did the Jews kill Jesus?, Was Noah's Ark in Ancient Times?. Another parallel here was that Christian attended an Anglican Sunday School fairly regularly.
The story (as seen in Figure 2-4) was drawn by Christian towards the end of the year, and an adult acted as scribe for him. In essence, this overview of the life of Christ, expressed in four drawings includes the most graphic moments, explained with apparent simplicity.
The drawings are simple outline shapes with emphasis on the communication of detail, for example, the nails and the relative size and number of people. (The representation of people was a fairly recently-developed skill.). In his use of the Southern Cross (a constellation of stairs in the southern Hemisphere), Christian
The baby got laid in
the manager and the
King wanted to put
him on the Southern Cross.
Figure 2.1 Christian's Story.
They hammered him
Into the Southern
Cross. You can
See the Nails.
Figure 2.2 Christian's Story.
is drawing together details of his general knowledge in a way that satisfies his need to describe a powerful image and which makes sense for him.
The facts as we understand them are retold making an explicable story, (They all thought that he was so bad that he didn't know about God) out of information which, for a five-year-old, is largely inexplicable.
As Christian drew he talked about the characters in a way that suggested that he was in the process of making meaning of the stories as he was drawing. Finally, when the book was finished, Christian ran up to Michael to show him the story.
Michael's response: It wasn't the Southern Cross! That's in the sky!
Christian: Well Jesus is in the sky, he's everywhere.
Michael: Well I know, it WASN'T the Southern Cross
Christian: Well I can have it the southern Cross if I want to, it's MY book!
They all thought that he |
Figure 2.3 Christian's Story.
Outside the drama of the story another agenda was being played, that of the validity to Christian, of his own representations and meaning-making, and his increasing confidence to assert his independence while also recognising that Michael could hold a different view without his threatening his own view.
Returning to Gardner's view of children's theories of the world, what does Christian's story tell us about his theories? How should a teacher respond to such an
There he is on the |
Figure 2.4 Christian's Story
episode? In this instance, Christian's theory involving God, the stars and Jesus on the Cross, suggests that he is taking a stance towards the world and creating his own theory which combines some powerful images. The fact that this theory does not coincide with that held by those around him raises some significant questions for educators. Should the teacher intervene in the situation between Michael and Christian? Should Christian be “taught” factual information about the solar system and the Bible story? Should he be left with his intuitive understanding until he further develops his own theories? Christian's clarity about himself as a separate entity is evident, suggesting that his theory of self is serving him well as he negotiates the world of school. To attempt an answer to the earlier questions, there are several other aspects of learning which need to be explored.
INTUITIVE LEARNING AND SCHOLASTIC LEARNING
So far, the examples used have shown children engaged in learning by making sense of their world. All these examples have been collected from young children. What happens when these children enter the world of school? How is this intuitive learning harnessed within a school environment?
Somehow the natural, universal, or intuitive learning that takes place in one's home or immediate surroundings during the first years of life seems of an entirely different order from school learning that is now required throughout the literate world. (Gardner, 1991:2)
Gardner (1991) contrasts intuitive learning with scholastic learning. He suggests that even when schools are seen to be successful, they fail to achieve their goals. He also documents research with honours-level college students who are unable to solve basic problems and questions encountered in a form slightly different from that on which they have been formally instructed and tested. Clearly there is a large gap between early childhood experiences and later modes of learning. It seems that Happold's view of school and society being separable is still pervasive in many Western educational settings.
EDUCATING THE SENSES: AESTHETIC EDUCATION AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF SYMBOL-MAKING
The term “aesthetic” has, in some areas of education, become a concept to be avoided. In recent years the term has come to denote to many people an esoteric and elitist view of the arts. This reaction to previous use of the term has resulted in temporary confusion in a vital aspect of education. Peter Abbs (1989:4) addresses the meaning of aesthetic by citing The Oxford English Dictionary derivation of aesthetic from the Greek word meaning through the senses to clarify his use of the word as follows:
The aesthetic, far from being esoteric is the most basic mode of human response. The tiny child, the new-born baby, begins to mediate its world aesthetically: through touch, taste, smell, sound, feel.
The way in which children respond to the perceptions of the senses is clearly most effective starting-point for education. The development in early infancy from dependence on direct bodily expression to the use of more symbolic expression (eg crying to asking, grabbing to pointing) and later from spontaneous responses to more sociocultural forms of representation (eg subjective portrayals to realism) is fundamental to our understanding of the development of creativity and imagination in human functioning.
As cited earlier, children are negotiating between the real world and the imagined one. In each child's development, the point at which expression of experiencing (using all the senses) takes on a symbolic form, is possibly one of the most crucial in terms of education. Educators need to be aware that symbolization occurs at both a private and a shared level, and children need to achieve a balance between these two aspects. Transforming and elaborating upon experiences through symbol-making or another expressive form, is one of children's major ways of learning about their world.
HOW CAN ADULTS ENGAGE CHILDREN WITH THEIR LEARNING?
Time to play (not only in the early childhood years), an environment to explore and investigate, materials which are basic to exploration and support from adults who observe, respond and encourage reflection are four basic requirements which need attention if children are to have the possibility of developing an open and enquiring mind and engaging in fruitful and satisfying forms of expression.
Time
The time which was available to today's adults as children, to explore and reflect in a familiar environment, is often taken up for today's children with television, homework and other commitments. While one would certainly not advocate a Luddite-view of restricting children's experience of their world, it takes initiative on the part of adults to ensure that children have unstructured time in which to play and hence to construct their own world.
Environment
Children are resourceful and, if left to their own resources, find many things to explore in environments which adults may view as limited. Physical environments which encourage exploration generally have tactile qualities, plants and contrasting surfaces, things to handle, space to construct, and preferably earth, sand and water.
Materials
Leading on from elemental materials, the availability of basic materials for symbol-making need not involve large expense. Clay, paint, paper, pencils, adhesive, form the basis for a collection of materials which children can add to as their needs develop.
Support
By far the most significant of these requirements is the need for support. The adult to observe, to share the experience, to respond to the symbol-making and to reflect upon events, enhances the insights which each child gains from their exploration. Of course, much of the time to explore is with peers, siblings or alone. The adult can become a reference-point, and as children grow older they are able to seek the support they need from a variety of people.
A Reappraisal Of Two Familiar Modes of Learning
There are two ways of learning which are being increasingly considered with interest by those people who believe that there is urgent need for a reappraisal of the way in which genuine understanding is developed.
The learning environment of museums
As museums have developed more interactive ways of functioning, so people are becoming aware of the rich potential they hold for engaging children with a wide range of experiences; in the arts, science, history, in fact almost any area of human experience. The open-endedness of museums enables children to ask questions and explore ideas in an environment which is full of potential for discovery and which feeds the imagination of both children and adults.
Apprenticeship as a model
Earlier we considered the circumstances that children encounter when they approach scholastic learning. Open enquiry which has been so much part of early childhood, and the symbol-making which enables children to represent their world and to develop meaning, are frequently at odds with the agenda of the school.
Over the past decade some attention has been focused again on the apprenticeship model which was previously the method by which tradespeople were trained by more experienced “teachers”. As researchers have looked more closely at the interactions and learning patterns which occur in this working relationship, they have realised that many of the most valuable elements of education are embodied within it. And most significantly, this learning is contextualised. That is, the reasons for learning are evident in the situation in which the learning takes place.
Mention was made earlier of Vygotsky's work in relation to the influences the social context has in shaping the child's point of view. Contemporary research by Rogoff (1990) draws on the work of Vygotsky and his theory of the zone of proximal development. Rogoff (1990:141) outlines the way in which social interaction facilitates cognitive development. As children work closely with a person with more skill (this may be another child or an adult), they are able to participate in tasks which would be beyond them if they worked independently. The emphasis in this situation is on sharing skills and collaborating rather than the traditional adult-child instructional model.
Recalling the questions that were posed in relation to Christian's story, it becomes apparent that working in a context which encourages a child to explore, to test out theories, and experience the stimulus of exchanging ideas in a collaborative situation, more effectively serves the child's needs than didactic or prescriptive approach which would be likely to both frustrate the enthusiastic search for knowledge and limit an imaginative approach to exploring the world.
How then, can adults engage children with their learning? The implications of Rogoff's research are for teachers to recognize that in any context their interactions with a child may be a potent influence in shaping the child's point of view. By being aware of the significance of the connections which children are making, how they are theorising about the world and the role imagination plays in their learning, teachers can collaborate with children to open up the possibilities for more responsive interaction, thereby building on and enhancing children's intuitive learning.
References
Abbs, P. (1989). The Symbolic Order . London: Falmer Press
Cunningham, K.S. (Ed.). (1938). Education for Complete Living . Melbourne: Australian Council for Educational Research
Flavell, J.H., Botkin, P. T., Fry, C.L. (Jr.), Wright, J. W., and Jarvis, P. E. (1968 ). The Development of Role Taking and Communication Skills in Children . New York: Wiley.
Gardner, H. (1991). The unschooled Mind: How children think and how schools should teach . USA: Basic Books.
Gardner, H. (1992). The Cognitive Revolution: Consequences for the Understanding and Education of the Child as an Artist. In B. Reimer, & R. A. Smith , The Arts, Education, and Aesthetic Knowing . Chicago: National Society for the Study of Education.
Piaget, J. (1951). Play, Dreams and Imitation in Childhood. New York: W. W. Norton
Piaget, J. (1970) In P. H. Mussen (Ed.). (1983), Handbook of Child Psychology (Vol. 1). New York: Wiley.
Rogoff, B. (1990). Apprenticeship in Thinking . Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Vygotsky, L. (1987). Thought and Language , edited by Alex Kozulin. Cambridge: MIT Press.
White, M. H. (1985). Three Case Studies of Children involved in the Performing Arts . (Unpublished paper). University of Sydney.