Integrating creative movement in the classroom and its connection to children’s cognition

The creative move is an active method of learning where the connection of cognitive and physical development of an individual comes to the fore. In the master’s thesis, we researched the connection between exercising lessons with the method of the creative move and the geometry knowledge of the students who are on the preoperational level of the development of cognition, on the operational level of the cognitive development, or in the transition between the levels. Firstly, in the theoretical part, we presented Piaget’s theory and the levels of the cognitive development of a child, and Piaget’s tasks for ascertaining the level of the cognitive development. A great emphasis was put on the connection between moving and learning, and moving and cognition. We concluded the theoretical part with the presentation of the characteristics of the creative move in lessons and with the ascertainments of research in the field of movement and the cognitive development. We acquired data for the empirical part in the project The Significance of the Creative Move for Various Fields of Development in Students of the Primary School. The part which relates to the cognitive field was presented. The greatest emphasis was put on the possible differences in the geometry knowledge (fields: geometric shapes and bodies, lines and points, and symmetry) among the students on the preoperational level of the cognitive development, among the students in the transition between the levels, and the students on the operational level of the cognitive development after the use of the creative move during the lessons. Three classes of the second year students (N = 68) of the elementary schools in Ljubljana and the surroundings were included in the research. The data on the level of the cognitive development was acquired by means of replies of the students to four Piaget’s tasks. The data on the geometry knowledge was acquired by the test of knowledge in geometry. The results showed that 13.2% of the second year students are still on the preoperational level of the cognitive development. 25% of the second year students are in the transition between the levels, and as much as 61.8% of the second year students are on the operational level of the development of the cognition. There are statistically significant differences in the geometry knowledge with regards to the average grade between the students on the operational level of the development of cognition and the students on the preoperational level, and between the students of the operational level of the development of cognition and the students in the transition between the levels – both times in favor of the operational level. We ascertained that on all the three geometrical levels, there are statistically significant differences in the knowledge of the students on the operational level and the students on the preoperational level of the cognitive development in certain tasks in the examination. Other differences among the groups are not significant. In all the three levels, the students on the operational level achieved a better result as the students on the preoperational level of the cognitive development. However, measures of variability showed that the most divergent to each other (with regards to the achieved points on the average and with regards to the grades in the examination) are the students in the transition between the levels