RE-ENGINEERING EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION THROUGH FOSTERING AND PROMOTING CREATIVITY IN CHILDREN

This study examined Re-engineering of Early Childhood Education through Fostering and Promoting Creativity in Children, in Rivers State Education Zones. Descriptive Survey research design was adopted in carrying out the research. The population of the study consist of two thousand, eight hundred and sixty (2,860) public nursery school teachers in Rivers State local education authority. A total of one hundred and forty-three (143) nursery school teachers were purposefully sampled for the study. Three research question guided the study. The researchers developed a thirty (30) item structured questionnaire titled ?Practices for Fostering Creativity Questionnaire (PFCQ)? which was used to source information from teachers. The instrument was face validated by three experts, two in the Department of Early Childhood and Primary Education and one in Measurement and Evaluation unit of the Department of Educational Foundations all from Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Rivers State. The corrections and suggestions which they made were carefully made in the final draft of the questionnaire. Reliability test was conducted using Cronbach Alpha to ascertain the internal consistency and a reliability index of 0.82, 0.95 and 0.76 were obtained for the three clusters. The overall reliability obtained was 0.84. Mean and Standard Deviation were used to analyze the research questions. The findings of the study revealed that to foster and promote creativity in early childhood education, the classroom should be flexible and very spacious for children to easily and freely play around, and explore without undue restraints. Furthermore, emphasis should be laid on process rather than product while solving problem with children. Parts of the findings also identified preparing children for a successful future, and helping children to gain confidence in their capacities and raise their self-esteem; as the benefits of fostering and promoting creativity in early childhood education. Based on the findings, it was recommended that more Emphasis should be laid on process rather than product while solving problem with children.

Creativity, Early Childhood Education, Practice, Fostering, Rivers State,

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