The Importance of Fostering Creativity in Young Learners

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Research informs us as educators that creativity within curriculums enhances intellect, metacognition, creative, independent thinking, and innovation, skills essential to the future of our children and society. At the Western International School of Shanghai (WISS), we believe that every child is an individual with unique talents. As part of the WISS Education, we aspire to empower students to unlock their talents and reach their potential as creative thinkers, innovators, and problem solvers.

Within the Primary School at WISS is a multitude of creative ways through which students are provided opportunities to explore and unlock their imaginations and develop innovative thinking skills through nurturing their creativity and expression. This is achieved by exploring ways different cultures utilize creative expression to share and convey their emotions. Students learn cultural dances within Physical Education sessions, inquire into cultural perspectives, and create their own cultural masks to express their emotions.

Throughout Primary School classrooms, flurries of creative activities form part of student exploration into the traditional art of written and oral Storytelling. These explorations allow students to examine how different cultures share similar traditional tales and how perspectives and viewpoints can shift, and how characters are perceived as either protagonists or antagonists within stories. This creative element to their literacy motivates students to write powerful and innovative narratives with new and insightful twists to traditional tales.

Our transdisciplinary approach to learning underpins the academic programme at the Western International School of Shanghai. As students unleash their creativity, they become more motivated to explore literary elements which enhance their written expression as they examine how to use their senses to add description to setting. Applying adjectives to describe personality and their character’s physical traits brings their characters to life. Students further discover how onomatopoeia and dialogue enhance not just their written expression but how it supports their desire to improve their reading expression and fluency.

Students bring their stories alive as a culminating challenge by dramatizing and creating puppet theatres, dioramas, models, posters, or digital books to enhance their storytelling and presentation skills.

Contributed by Lisa Ellery, Primary Principal at the Western International School of Shanghai.

研究告诉我们作为教育工作者，课程中的创造力可以增强智力、后设认知、创造性独立思考和创新技能；这些技能对我们孩子的成长和社会的未来都至关重要。在上海西华外籍人员子女学校（西华），我们相信每个孩子都是一个具备独特才能的个体，我们的目标是培养学生解锁技能，激发潜力，使他们成为有创造力的思想者、创新者和解决问题的高手。

最近小学开展了多种创造性形式的活动，学生们有机会探索和释放他们的想象力，并通过创造力和表达能力培养创新思维技能。学生通过探索不同文化利用创造性表达来分享和传达情感的方式。他们在体育课上学习文化舞蹈，探究文化视角，创造自己的文化面具来表达自己的情感。

小学的课堂中也进行了一系列创造性活动，内容是通过书面故事和口述故事形式对传统艺术的探索。他们研究了不同文化中共享相似的传统故事，以及视角和观点如何塑造出与众不同主角和反派的角色。这种创造性的元素激励学生在创作过程中，运用对传统故事的把控力和洞察力，写出属于自己的生动而又强有力的故事。

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The Importance of Fostering Creativity in Young Learners

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