| dc.description.abstract | Drawing on research that sought to explore the characteristics of ‘Possibility
Thinking’ as central to creativity in young children’s learning, this paper considers
question-posing and question-responding as the driving features of ‘Possibility
Thinking’ (PT). This qualitative study employed micro-event analysis of peer and
pupil–teacher interaction. Events were sampled from two early years settings in
England, one a Reception classroom (4- to 5-year olds) and the other a Year 2
classroom (6- to 7-year olds). This article arises out of the second stage of an ongoing
research programme (2004–2007) involving the children and practitioners in these
settings. This phase considers the dimensions of question-posing and the categories of
question-responding and their interrelationship within PT. Three dimensions of
questioning were identified as characteristic of PT. These included: (i) question
framing, reflecting the purpose inherent within questions for adults and children
(including leading, service and follow-through questions); (ii) question degree:
manifestation of the degree of possibility inherent in children’s questions (including
possibility narrow, possibility moderate, possibility broad); (iii) question modality,
manifestation of the modality inherent in children’s questions (including verbal and
non-verbal forms). The fine-grained data analysis offers insight into how children
engage in PT to meet specific needs in responding to creative tasks and activities and
reveals the crucial role that question-posing and question-responding play in creative
learning. It also provides more detail about the nature of young children’s thinking,
made visible through question-posing and responding in engaging playful contexts. | en_GB |
