The Analysing Children's Creative Thinking framework: development of an observation‐led approach to identifying and analysing young children's creative thinking

Increased international recognition of the value of supporting creative thinking suggests the value of development of approaches to its identification in children. Development of an observation‐led framework, the Analysing Children's Creative Thinking (ACCT) framework, is described, and a case made for the validity of inferring creative thinking in young children from observations of their behaviour in meaningful, everyday contexts. The paper identifies particular aspects of behaviour which may be related to creative thinking, and a copy of the framework shows its organisation into three major behavioural categories of exploration, involvement and enjoyment, and persistence, further subdivided into a total of 10 items. Operational definitions and examples, along with an extract from an analysed observation, illustrate its use. It is suggested that, as well as being a useful research tool, the ACCT framework has the potential to support professional development, with the coded observations providing a contextually‐rich, focussed picture of what children do and say about their experiences, affording individual and shared reflection, discussion and analysis. In an English context, this may be particularly relevant with the advent of a revised Early Years Foundation Stage profile in 2012.