AUTHOR(S)
KATUNGI JUMA , GODFREY EJUU , GRACE LUBAALE
ABSTRACT
Children are able to make greater gains in their early development when the
teachers possess the necessary competencies to provide quality experiences (Litjens
&Taguma, 2010). However, in Uganda, despite the existence of early childhood
teacher education training, teachers still lack key creativity competencies to use
learning materials to enrich children’s learning experiences (MoES, 2018). This study
was conducted in two teacher training institutions located in urban-rural Uganda
to examine how the Art World Design Thinking Process can be used to improve
teacher material utilisation creativity in early childhood teacher education. A quasiexperimental design used a concurrent embedded mixed-methods design of nonequivalent groups (Bhattacherjee, 2012). The study worked with 64 participants
from two cohorts, the control group and the experimental group. The treatment
was a one-month experiment using the Art World Design Thinking Process. The
data collection instruments used were the teacher creativity observation tool and
the focus group interview guide. Quantitative data was analysed using a t-test for
independent groups, whereas qualitative data was analysed using thematic content
analysis.Results from the post-test data showed that teachers had developed personal
creativity in material utilisation. In conclusion, the study shows that the Art World
Design Thinking Process has the potential to improve the development of material
utilisation creativity skills for early childhood teachers. The study contributes to the
discussion on how the Art World Design Thinking Process can be used to develop
teacher creativity in Early Childhood education.
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