Teacher's Reflection: Learning Activities for Stimulating Preschool Children's Creative Thinking Skill

Abstract

Teachers play crucial roles in delivering a successful learning process, as optimal learning outcomes will only be achieved with support from competent teachers. In this study, we delved into a teacher's experience in stimulating 5-6 years old children's creative thinking during the learning process. Creative thinking skill is one of the important skills in 21st-century education. This study involved teachers of 5-6 years-old children (Class B of Kindergarten) in Surakarta, who focused on stimulating creative thinking in an A-accredited institution categorized as a Sekolah Penggerak in Surakarta City. This study presents a teacher's experience in successfully stimulating children's creative thinking through in-depth interviews and reflective journals. The narrative approach was used to analyze the interview transcript and reflective journals to identify the teacher's learning method for stimulating 5-6 years-old children's creative thinking. This study identified the teacher's creativity-stimulating learning process from the narrated experience. Creative thinking was stimulated through intentional learning, which was conducted based on the need analysis, learning principle, and learning achievement at the ECE level, i.e., project-based learning. The learning was conducted through play activities and involved various learning media in delivering more meaningful education and promoting children's learning enthusiasm through digital media. Challenges in stimulating creative thinking should also be addressed seriously. The study finding showed that stimulating creative thinking requires serious preparation based on each child's needs, characteristics, and learning principles.