Dr Nicole Leggett is researching the importance of developing creative thinking through early childhood education and care.

Creativity, in particular, the creative thought processes of young children, is an area often neglected in a world of education that focuses on testing regimes and structured learning contexts. However, School of Education researcher Dr Nicole Leggett is working to highlight the importance of fostering creative thinking in early childhood education settings.

Nicole engages in international research collaborations with Italian academics who put creativity at the core of the Reggio Emilian approach to early childhood education. In 2018 she formed the ‘Creative Collaborations’ partnership with her Italian counterparts with the aim to open dialogue on creativity in early childhood between teachers who belong to different educative and cultural contexts. The focus of this research centred on creativity in early childhood and how it is understood and implemented as part of differing international early childhood pedagogical practices within Australia and Italy.

“Italian developmental psychologists believe that creativity emerges in preschool age and according to the pedagogistas from Reggio Emilia, every act of learning is a creative act, not in terms of product but rather in terms of process,” Nicole said. “On the other hand, within Australian contexts, our early childhood governance doesn’t show as clear an understanding of creativity for children’s learning, we still have a way to go.”

In 2019/2020 Stage two of the ‘Creative Collaborations’ project ‘La Sorella’ which means ‘the sister’, is linking early childhood teachers in Italy and Australia to share their conceptions of creativity within learning environments for children 0-5 years and to discuss how the creative thinking of children is being made visible through their documentation processes and daily practices.

A first for Australia, this research partnership shows promise for drawing significant interest for informing government on policy direction and curriculum development, including a more robust understanding of creativity as part of the learning and teaching process in early childhood contexts.

“Four early childhood centres in Correggio, Italy, and four early childhood centres from the Newcastle/Central Coast region of NSW, Australia, were invited to participate in the study. Centres from each context were paired together forming four sets of ‘sister centre’ partnerships,” Nicole said.

“Through this project we are connecting with some of the leading researchers in the field of creativity and early education. Early childhood educators world-wide flock to take part in Reggio Emilia study tours. While scholarly research collaborations are highly sought after in the early childhood education and care field, Reggio Emilia academics rarely seek out such international collaborations. The establishment of this strategic network was therefore a unique, rare, and significant opportunity.”

The centres involved in the La Sorella project are experts in implementing the Reggio Emilia approach and were able to share much of their practice with the Australian educators. In turn, the Australian educators were able to share their love of nature, the outdoors, bush programs and the benefits of risk-taking activities for children on their creative development.

“Educators from Italy and Australia were able to form respectful professional relationships that I am sure will continue for some time. It was also great to put Australia on the map in European research, who would not think otherwise to include us – given the distance.”

She says that play and opportunities to be creative are how children make sense of their world.

“There is abundant evidence available today to support the idea that early childhood is a critical period for the development of creative thinking in children. For the developing child, this involves an intellectual search for solutions to everyday problems as they arise through play.Through creative thinking, children learn to hypothesise, make and solve new problems, experiment with ways to represent their new knowledge and to analyse and critique this knowledge in order to make sense of their world.”

Nicole says that today more than ever, ordinary people around the world are seeking innovative, creative solutions in order to keep themselves financially viable amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, again emphasising the need for the early development of creative thinking skills.

“The necessary changes for how we conduct business, sport, exercise, socialise and educate has been in response to keeping each other alive. What we once knew and practiced daily was suddenly no longer useful; for many, survival has meant creative and futuristic thinking. This has huge implications for the way we educate children. If we are to solve future world problems, we need to light the fuse of creativity and lay the necessary neurological creative-cognitive functions early in the minds of young children.”

Seeing people come together from around the world who share the same passion for creativity in early childhood is what excites and motivates Nicole to further her research.

“Despite the language barrier, we all speak the same language – a love for children and their learning. I am excited about the prospects of using technology in the future to bring other worlds together and forming a wider international partnership with Creative Collaborations. There is the potential for educators around the world to form sister centre relationships and to share their ideas, philosophies and practices together, which in turn will strengthen the quality and professionalism of early childhood worldwide.”

Intercultural understandings study tours

Each year, Nicole leads a group of 18 students on an international study group to Italy, providing them with an opportunity to experience early education in Reggio Emilia centres and to learn more about this renowned approach to early childhood education and care from researchers at the local University.

“Developing intercultural understandings in students means putting away the laptops and venturing out of their comfort zones into unknown worlds. Learning based on experience is an integral part for how humans learn and is necessary for personal change and development. Faculty-led student study tours showcase how learning based on experience is integral for not only knowledge formation, but to learn how to participate in a human community,” she said.

“Having walked in the shoes of an untrained assistant, an early childhood teacher, an early childhood centre director and lastly an academic and researcher, I understand the journey of education for students. I believe that having Work Integrated Learning experiences such as the study tours, alongside classroom learning, is essential for students to not only draw from prior knowledge but to learn how to apply creative thinking to problems that arise daily.”

The teaching team for the study tour course were the 2018 recipients of the Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence and Contribution to Student Learning - Faculty of Education and Arts.