Initially, it is crucial to define what creativity is within the early years. Bruce (2004) says that creativity bring new ideas into existence; it brings about original ways of doing things and new creations of all kinds. Similarly, creativity is defined by Wegerif (2003) as the tendency to generate or recognize ideas and come up with different possibilities or alternatives when solving problems. For someone to be creative, they need to be able to view things in new ways or from another persons perspective (Jeffrey and Craft, 2003). Creativity is the act of trying new things and bringing imaginative ideas into reality. Jeffrey (200) reiterates this and claims that it is seen as the ability to perceive the world in new ways by experimenting, questioning situations, making assumptions and using your imagination and synthesizing information. Francis Gardner (998) defines creativity as the ability to make what you picture exist and says that to be creative one requires skills including passion and commitment. Csikszentmihalyi (934), meanwhile, sums up creativity as a central source of meaning in our life. He believes that most of the things that are interesting, important and human are the
results of creativity and when we are involved in it, we feel that we are living more fully than the rest of life. As we can see, it is clear that many scholars are agreed on the definition of creativity it can transform a childs imagination and ideas and turn those ideas into a reality. When children are given well-structured creative learning experiences, they make connections which impact their holistic development.
Scholars have produced a plethora of definitions regarding creativity within the early years. Many believe that creativity has been undervalued as a skill throughout the curriculum for a long period of time (Pollard and Triggs, 2000). Indeed, historically many early year settings and schools have focused on more academic subjects due to a feeling that these would be more important for a childs development and would make a bigger impact throughout the childs life. In recent years, creative learning experiences have become more embedded in the curriculum and are now granted official recognition as one of the main areas that a child should explore and engage in (Craft, 2000). As such, practitioners have a duty to provide these creative experiences within early years settings.