CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
The on-going global challenges are threatening many nations of the world like Nigeria. The need to face the challenges squarely motivated the executives of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (FRN) since its inception in 1960 to plan ahead of time. An adage says that the best way to solve a problem is to prevent its occurrence. Therefore, to prevent the occurrence of a problem is to get the people concerned well informed. Being well informed means being well educated about the present situation in the environment. That was why the FRN chose education as an ‘instrument par excellence’ for effective national development.
Owing to the above reasons, the Nigerian Educational Sector made a policy, which since 1981 had been hammering on the need to inculcate in the child the spirit of inquiry and creativity. This recommendation implies that inquiry and creativity are important life skills. The inquiry approach to problems has to do with scientific investigation while creativity is a skill that leads to invention. Creative critical thinking according to Marvin (2006: 1-10 Online: Retrieved on April 25, 2008) is so essential as a survival and success skill in today’s world. Similarly, Boon (1997: 19 Online: Retrieved on March 27, 2008) outlined that creativity can solve most problems.
The word ‘creativity’, according of Oxford’s English Etymology is derived from the Latin word ‘creatus’ that means “to bring forth, produce and cause to grow”, (Boon, 1997).
Furthermore, Oxford English Dictionary defines creativity as:
“an ‘art’ and that ‘art’ is also ‘creativity’. The
Principle especially in the production of visible
Works of imagination, imitation, or design. A skill
Acquired as a result of knowledge and practice”.
Creativity according to Koestler (1966) is not an act of creation in the sense of Old Testament. It does not create something out of nothing; rather it uncovers, selects, reshuffles, combines and synthesizes already existing facts, ideas, faculties and skills
The more familiar the parts, the more striking the new whole.
An important point made by Rogers cited in Boon (1997:71) was that
“creativity is an emergence in action of a novel relational
Product, growing out of the uniqueness of the individual on
The one hand, and the material, events, people, or
Circumstances of his life on the other”.
Equally, Jones cited in Diogu (2000:52) defined creativity as:
“the combination of flexibility, originality and
Sensitivity of ideas which enables the thinker to break
Away from usual sequences of thought into different and
Productive sequences, the result of which gives
Satisfaction to himself and possibly others”.
Therefore, creativity is the ability to coordinate or combine intelligence, feelings, thoughts, desires, manipulative power and talents to solve problems; or the use of available resources in a conducive environment to produce a new whole or amend the existing parts or whole towards problem-solving.
Moreover, many people regard creativity as the ability of the talented few. This misinterpretation of creativity by some people falls out of the belief of the expressionist theorists. These theorists maintain that a release of tension as a result of feeling is achieved through creating and not just an attribute of the talented. Therefore, creativity can be learned by everybody more especially when it is well taught with the use of adequate materials.
Creative art taught in primary schools will help children learn that they can create images with materials and that the activity of making such images can provide intrinsic forms of satisfaction. They learn that images they create can functions as symbols, which serve as means of communication through which they convey what they know to others. The symbols that children create and manipulate afford them opportunities to learn such skills as empathy, to feel like, as well as feel for others. The knowledge gained from creativity help children in making internal judgments. In this case, the child must learn to rely upon his own sensibilities and perceptions in order to determine the adequacy of the symbolic images he or she creates. They learn to relate images to form a whole – this is one of the expressions of maturity. Children develop skills or competence in creative activity and this is one of the major sources of self-satisfaction in learning especially when they realize that they can bring images into existence through exploration. Children also develop a special relationship with the world through the cultivation of what is called an “aesthetic attitude” (Elliot, 1978).
In creative art classes, the teacher sets up models, which children try to imitate, thus sharpening the child’s power of observation. Hence, the development of creativity in an individual is essential to the survival and growth of that individual and the nation. It is because of this that the National Policy on Education (FRN. 2004) hammers on the need for inculcating in the child the spirit of inquiry and creativity.
The policy makers believe that creative art has far reaching influence on the development and life of man that was why they recognized that it requires as much attention and time as other subjects in the primary school curriculum.
Curriculum, according to Wheeler (cited in Offorma, 2002) is the planned experiences offered to the learner under the guidance of the school. In other words, creative art curriculum can be defined as the arranged, planned and structured creative art learning experiences offered to learners under the guidance of the school. To make a significant creative contribution to the world usually demands years of dedicated study and practice, thus developing the cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains of learning. Mkpa (1987) made it clear that a balanced personality is the individual who in addition to his cognitive development also develops his affective and psychomotor dimension. Creative art contributes in developing a balanced personality.
At the primary school level, Creative Art Curriculum was presented as the ‘Cultural Arts’. The Cultural Arts Curriculum intended to inculcate into the learners the societal aim for basic education. It was planned for the purpose of achieving the objectives of the National Policy on Education, which stressed among others, the need for inculcating in the child the spirit of inquiry and creativity. This curriculum that was specifically planned to be taught within the first six years of primary education with the old 6-3-3-4 system of education in Nigeria.
