A cognitive psychology perspective of the effect of supervision on verbal creativity in children

1. The Effect of
Supervision on
Verbal Creativity
in Children

2. Setting The Stage

3. “
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

4. Setting The Stage
The Importance
of Creativity

5. In Reality
Culture of…
• Collectivism
• Long-term Orientation
• High Power Distance
Practice of…
• Exam-driven, rigorous
academic approach
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

6. Setting The Stage
The Importance
of Creativity
An education
system that does
not favor it

7. What can we do to
stimulate creativity?
Training programs
Creative arts
Reading programs
Curricular arrangements
designed to foster creativity
Common underlying theme?

8. What can we do to
stimulate creativity?
Teachers play a key role in establishing a classroom
context facilitative to creativity education.
98.4% agreed that it was their responsibility.
22.3% felt they were well-trained to handle this.

9. The Paradox of
Promoting Creativity
Judgments for favorite
student correlated negatively
for creativity, whereas
judgments for least favorite
student correlated positively
for creativity.
Many teachers dislike
personality traits associated
with creativity.

10. 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

11. Supervision
Creativity

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

13. Verbal Creativity
{
Verbal creativity is the
articulation of novel and
original ideas.
}

15. IV
DV
Absent
Absence of supervision
Creativity
Passive
Mere presence of
supervision
Active
Presence of an
encouraging supervisor
Verbal Creativity
Task

16. Hypothesis
1.
2.
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.

17. Methodology
Participants
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

18. Methodology
Overview
Pilot Study
Actual Study
Training Phase
Testing Phase
Rating Phase
Verify difficulty level
of test pictures
Calibrate confederate
behaviors in conditions
Detect unforeseen
problems

19. Methodology
Study Design
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)

20. The Effect of Supervision on Verbal Creativity in Children
Study Design
Training
Absent
Participants
Children in
Primary 2
R
Active
Passive
Definitions
• Absent: No supervision
• Active: Supervision with
encouragement (note, not
praise)
• Passive: Silent Supervision
Testing
Rating
• Instructions are given.
• Children asked to
repeat instructions
• One training trial to
ensure transfer of
instructions
• 6 wordless pictures are
shown on a computer
screen.
• Children are required to say
what they see in one
sentence (audio recording)
• Creativity rated by panel of
elementary school teachers
on a scale of 1.0-5.0
• Other measures: Mood, Task
Enjoyment,
Pilot Study
• Ensure clear distinction of conditions
• Fine-tune confederate behavior for each
condition
• Verify difficulty (and suitability) of pictures
Hypothesis
1.
Children in the passive condition will
receive the lowest creativity scores.
2. Children in the active condition will
receive the highest creativity scores.

21. Methodology
Training Phase
Training is common to all three randomized conditions: Confederate briefs
participants on instructions for 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
Once done,
participants click to
show the next picture
Participants to repeat instructions back to confederate and undergo one trial of
the storytelling task.

22. Methodology
Testing Phase
Participants undergo actual storytelling
test (different set of 6 pictures used)
Extent of confederate supervision is
manipulated accordingly for each condition

23. Methodology
Rating Phase
Consensual Assessment Technique
Independent ratings by 3 experts
Primary School English Language teachers
Familiar with children’s storywriting
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

24. Methodology
Other Measures
Other Variables we measure too,
just in case:
• Task enjoyment
• Participant Mood

25. The Effect of Supervision on Verbal Creativity in Children
Study Design
Training
Absent
Participants
6-8 year
old children
R
Active
Passive
Definitions
• Absent: No supervision
• Active: Supervision with
encouragement (note, not
praise)
• Passive: Silent Supervision
Testing
Rating
• Instructions are given.
• Children asked to
repeat instructions
• One training trial to
ensure transfer of
instructions
• 6 wordless pictures are
shown on a computer
screen.
• Children are required to say
what they see in one
sentence (audio recording)
• Creativity rated by panel of
elementary school teachers
on a scale of 1.0-5.0
• Other measures: Mood, Task
Enjoyment,
Pilot Study
• Ensure clear distinction of conditions
• Fine-tune confederate behavior for each
condition
• Verify difficulty (and suitability) of pictures
Hypothesis
1.
Children in the passive condition will
receive the lowest creativity scores.
2. Children in the active condition will
receive the highest creativity scores.

26. Verbal Creativity
Expected Results
Absent
Lack of
monitoring;
freedom
Passive
Active
Silent pressure
Informational
Feedback

27. Limitations
Imagined Supervision
Cohort Effect
Learning Effect

28. Implications
Active Supervision is best…
but Absent is better than Passive.
High Teacher-student Ratio
Unsupervised Learning
Smaller classes
Incorporate in curriculum
Day Care
Remedial

29. The Future
Other Types
Creativity
Across Subjects
Age Range

30. Q&A.