Creative stories inspired by humor and by a self-made character – Child-centeredness creates room for differentiating
Submitted by:
Juli-Anna Aerila
Abstract:
In this study we present a holistic learning process implemented in Finnish pre-school groups. During the process children produce stories motivated by humorous drawings and self-made characters. The central theme in this study is humor. Humor is used widely in teaching settings, but mostly from the adult’s perspective. In this study, children are encouraged to produce their own perceptions of humor as an inspiration for telling a story. This is in accordance to the studies of Roger Piret (1941) who constructed a research model aiming at child-centered and individual information on humor. The stories are produced trough story crafting method since the children participating to the study are not literate. The storytelling is supported with collaborative activities and making a personal character using craft techniques. The data of this study consists of children´s humorous stories supported by drawings, verbal explanations and soft toys all made by children themselves. The data is analyzed using qualitative content analysis supported by Piret´s categories of children’s humor. The study aims at evaluating children’s stories from the perspective of children’s humor and their literacy skills. The stories could be categorized in three: portrayals, traditional stories and combinations of portrayals and traditional stories. These categories highlight how giving children an inspiring starting point and letting them to express themselves freely, allows children to differentiate their learning themselves. The preliminary results show that different activities and enhancing humor prior storytelling give children ideas to their stories and help them get their voices heard. It seems that children’s humorous stories reveal something about children’s sense of humor and differences of humor between different genders.
Aerila, J.-A., Laes, T., & Laes, T. (2015). Tulkintoja alkuopetusikäisten lasten humoristisista piirroksista. [Interpretations of humorous drawings in early childhood education]Kielikukko, 1–2/2015.
Loizou, E., Kyriakides, E., & Hadjicharalambous, M. (2011). Constructing stories in kindergarten: Children’s knowledge of genre. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 19(1), 63–77.
Piret, R. (1941). Recherces genetiques sur le comique. Acta Psychologica, 5, B103–B142.