Development of Creative Abilities in Schoolchildren through Self-cognition Lessons

Abstract

Self-Cognition lessons at Kazakhstani schools are aimed at the harmonious development of child’s intellectual, spiritual capacity building, and moral empowerment. The purpose of the study is to analyze self-cognition teaching experience for creativity development in schoolchildren and to propose methodological recommendations for improving the learning process at self-cognition lessons. The self-cognition syllabus from the 1st grade through the 11th grade has been reviewed to identify a theme on schoolchildren’s creative development. For the purpose of this paper, content analysis of 5th grade textbook was done. The review showed that Lessons 33-34 are marked as “Creativity Lessons”. Pupils present their creative works from their Portfolios. The methodological framework developed by the researchers included curriculum that involves art-technologies for 5th grade schoolchildren and corresponded to themes from Lesson 17 through 34. 100 5th grade schoolchildren of School 55 in Almaty took part in Stage 1 of the diagnostic study. Assessment of creative abilities was carried out through tests from Zievert (2014) and Rogov (1999). The curriculum was conducted with only one class, which showed the lowest creative ability values versus the four 5th grades (n2 = 24) in the formative stage. After the Art Technology lessons, a high creativity level was demonstrated by a higher number of pupils. With the use of newly developed system, the number of pupils with high and average creativity levels increased.