The Effect of Supervision on

Verbal Creativity in Children

Setting The Stage

At the end of the basic 12 years of

education, students should be resilient and resolute, have an entrepreneurial and creative spirit and be able to think

independently and creatively.

- Minister of Education Heng Swee Keat

“”

Setting The Stage

The Importance of Creativity

•  Exam-driven, rigorous academic approach

Practice of…

•  Collectivism •  Long-term Orientation •  High Power Distance

Culture of…

In Reality Students that have:

•  Discipline & Conformity •  Diligence & Persistence •  Obedience to authority

Students that are:

•  Spoon-fed; feel lost when told to think out of the box

Setting The Stage

The Importance of Creativity

An education system that does

not favor it

What can we do to stimulate creativity? Training programs

Creative arts

Reading programs

Curricular arrangements designed to foster creativity

Common underlying theme?

What can we do to stimulate creativity? Teachers play a key role in establishing a classroom context facilitative to creativity education.

22.3% felt they were well-trained to handle this.

98.4% agreed that it was their responsibility.

Judgments for favorite student correlated negatively

for creativity, whereas judgments for least favorite student correlated positively

for creativity.

The Paradox of Promoting Creativity

Many teachers dislike personality traits associated

with creativity.

Adding it all up

1.  Teachers implement almost all

creativity programs; play a key role

in establishing a classroom context

facilitative to creativity education

2.  Only a small number of teachers

feel well-equipped to do so

3.  Teachers may unwittingly

discouraging creativity in children

Pay closer attention to the

way supervision is carried out

Supervision

Creativity

Supervision

The act of watching over and directing children by adults. { }

Verbal Creativity

Verbal creativity is the articulation of novel and

original ideas. { }

Absence of supervision

Absent

Presence of an encouraging supervisor

Active

Mere presence of supervision

Passive Verbal Creativity

Task

Creativity

IV DV

Hypothesis

Children in the passive condition will receive the lowest creativity scores amongst three conditions. Children in the active condition will receive the highest creativity scores amongst the three conditions.

1. 2.

Participants Methodology

60 children from Primary 2 (random sample from three local primary schools)

Equal proportion of both genders

Pass obtained in English Language

Consent obtained from parents

Overview Methodology

Actual Study

Training Phase

Testing Phase

Rating Phase

Pilot Study

Verify difficulty level of test pictures

Calibrate confederate behaviors in conditions

Detect unforeseen problems

Study Design Methodology

Cross-sectional; between subjects

Type of Supervision (IV): Three conditions – Absent, Passive, Active

Verbal Creativity (DV): Measured via rating of participants’ stories.

•  Consensual Assessment Technique (Amabile, 1996)

The Effect of Supervision on Verbal Creativity in Children

Study Design

Participants Children in Primary 2

Absent

Passive

Active R

Training

•  Instructions are given. • Children asked to

repeat instructions • One training trial to

ensure transfer of instructions

Testing

•  6 wordless pictures are shown on a computer screen. • Children are required to say

what they see in one sentence (audio recording)

Rating • Creativity rated by panel of

elementary school teachers on a scale of 1.0-5.0 • Other measures: Mood, Task

Enjoyment,

1.  Children in the passive condition will receive the lowest creativity scores.

2.  Children in the active condition will receive the highest creativity scores.

Hypothesis

• Absent: No supervision • Active: Supervision with

encouragement (note, not praise) • Passive: Silent Supervision

Definitions

• Ensure clear distinction of conditions • Fine-tune confederate behavior for each

condition • Verify difficulty (and suitability) of pictures

Pilot Study

Training Phase Methodology

Once done, participants click to

show the next picture

Training is common to all three randomized conditions: Confederate briefs participants on instructions for the storytelling task

Participants to repeat instructions back to confederate and undergo one trial of the storytelling task.

String of 6 wordless pictures presented sequentially on a

computer screen in the same order

Participants to say only one sentence into a

tape recorder to describe the picture

Testing Phase Methodology

Participants undergo actual storytelling test (different set of 6 pictures used)

Extent of confederate supervision is manipulated accordingly for each condition

Rating Phase Methodology

Consensual Assessment Technique

Independent ratings by 3 experts

Have never met or worked together; not trained to agree or allowed to influence one another

CAT shown in previous studies to be reliable and valid measure

Primary School English Language teachers

Familiar with children’s storywriting

Other Variables we measure too, just in case: •  Task enjoyment •  Participant Mood

Other Measures Methodology

The Effect of Supervision on Verbal Creativity in Children

Study Design

Participants 6-8 year

old children

Absent

Passive

Active R

Training

•  Instructions are given. • Children asked to

repeat instructions • One training trial to

ensure transfer of instructions

Testing

•  6 wordless pictures are shown on a computer screen. • Children are required to say

what they see in one sentence (audio recording)

Rating • Creativity rated by panel of

elementary school teachers on a scale of 1.0-5.0 • Other measures: Mood, Task

Enjoyment,

1.  Children in the passive condition will receive the lowest creativity scores.

2.  Children in the active condition will receive the highest creativity scores.

Hypothesis

• Absent: No supervision • Active: Supervision with

encouragement (note, not praise) • Passive: Silent Supervision

Definitions

• Ensure clear distinction of conditions • Fine-tune confederate behavior for each

condition • Verify difficulty (and suitability) of pictures

Pilot Study

Expected Results

Absent Passive Active

Ver

bal C

reat

ivity

Lack of monitoring;

freedom

Silent pressure Informational

Feedback

 Limitations

Imagined Supervision

Cohort Effect

Learning Effect

•  Smaller  class  sizes,  higher  teacher  student  ra3o.  (for  subjects  where  verbal  crea3vity  is  emphasized)  

•  Remedial  classes,  reduce  the  class  size,  be@er  a@en3on.    

•  Day  care.  •  It  means  that  teachers  should  

ac3vely  employ  ac3ve  supervision  to  children  to  enhance  their  crea3vity.  This  can  also  extend  not  just  to  school  teachers  but  also  playschool  teachers.  

•  If  you  cannot  afford  the  3me  of  ac3ve  supervision,  create  a  curriculum  for  children  to  do  work  unsupervised.  [MOE  teacher  shortages]  

Train  students  to  learn  unsupervised.  

Implications

Active Supervision is best… but Absent is better than Passive.

High Teacher-student Ratio

Smaller classes

Day Care Remedial

Unsupervised Learning

Incorporate in curriculum

The Future

Creativity

Other Types

Across Subjects

Age Range

Q&A.