An Action Research In Employing Creative Drama Instruction To Improve Preschoolers' Creativity

Creative drama instruction encourages students to use their imagination and mimetic or imitative capacity in performance, to use their body and language in expressing emotions, and to improve their interpersonal communications during dynamic group interactions. The purposes of this study were (a) to improve preschoolers' creativity via creative drama instruction; and (b) to increase teachers' professional knowledge as well as their motivation to grow professionally via action research. The participants in this study included 4 teachers and 19 preschoolers in a kindergarten in Taipei City. An action research design and the following instruments were employed in this study: the Preschoolers' Creativity Test, the Checklist of Multiple Intelligences, several interview questions, and digital equipment. This study concluded that (a) creative drama instruction contributed to the kindergarten students' creative performance, especially with regard to novelty; (b) creative drama instruction contributed to improving kindergarten children's learning motivation; and (c) the undertaking of action research indeed enhanced the teachers' professional knowledge with regard to the teaching of creativity as well as enhancing their over-all ability to teach.