Scamper: Improving creative imagination of young children

Abstract

Young children are accepted to have creativity abilities. Creativity is a feature that needs to be improved. Many techniques are used to improve creativity. SCAMPER (substitute, combine, adjust, modify/magnify/minify, put to other uses, eliminate, reverse/rearrange) is one of the techniques used to improve creativity. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of SCAMPER in improving creative imagination of 5-year-old children attending kindergarten. For this purpose, 49 children from the age group of 5 year attending a kindergarten in the Southwestern part of Turkey participated in the study. There were an experimental group and a control group in the study. SCAMPER technique was applied to the children in the experimental group. The control group continued to the normal education program. The data were collected by using Test of Creative Imagination (Child Form), which was developed by Aysun Gündoğan in 2019. At the end of the study, it was found that creative imagination levels of the children in the experimental group receiving education with SCAMPER technique increased. Differences among children receiving SCAMPER education were found in the fluency sub-dimension of creativity. The SCAMPER technique was effective in improving the creative imagination. Therefore, techniques and activities that enable the development of creative imagination should be applied to individuals from an early age. © 2019 The Author(s).