Contemporary Perspectives on Research in Creativity in Early Childhood Education

Recently, a new understanding of creative thought and creative performance has surfaced. In addition, aninterest has emerged in professional organizations especially those in early childhood education. In addition,current creativity researchers have initiated a far more sophisticated understanding of young children'screative thinking, ways to assess creativity, strategies to promote creativity, and research methodologies. Thepurpose of this volume is to present a wide range of different theories and areas in the study of creativity tohelp researchers and theorists work toward the development of different perspectives on creativity withyoung children. It focuses on critical analyses and reviews of the literature on topics related to creativityresearch, development, theories, and practices. It will serve as a reference for early childhood educationresearchers, scholars, academics, general educators, teacher educators, teachers, graduate students, andscientists to stimulate further dialogue on ways to enhance creativity. The chapters are of high quality andprovide scholarly analyses of research studies that capture the full range of approaches to the study of creativity --- behavioral, clinical, cognitive,cross-cultural, developmental, educational, genetic, organizational, psychoanalytic, psychometric, and social. Interdisciplinary research is alsoincluded, as is research within specific domains such as art and science, as well as on critical issues (e.g., aesthetics, genius, imagery, imagination,insight, intuition, metaphor, play, problem finding and solving). Thus, it offers critical analyses on reviews of research in a form that are useful toearly childhood researchers, scholars, educators, and graduate students. It also places the current research in its historical context. The volume is alsoof interest to the general readers who are interested in the young children's creativity. The chapters are authored by established scholars in the field ofyoung children's creativity.