Innovation education in preschool: Children’s ideas about redesigning their preschool playground

Abstract

Nowadays, more often than before, children are encouraged to take part in shaping the society they live in. Children are considered strong and capable of giving their opinions and having the right to be active participants in society. The methods of innovation education have been used with children to enhance their participation in their learning and giving them opportunities to present new ideas they have developed. The purpose of the project presented here was to use the approaches of innovation education to foster preschool children’s ideas about redesigning the playground in their preschool. The participants were children, four to five years old, in a preschool located in a rural area in Iceland. The children got opportunities to use multiple methods to develop and make their ideas visible and had support to present them to the re-designer. The children took photographs, drew pictures and their discussions were documented. They visited the planning- and building officer in the area and presented their ideas to him. He made sure that some of their ideas influenced the re-design of the playground. The children proved that they were capable of coming up with useful ideas which they were pleased with and proud of. The children thus experienced agency and were empowered through the participation. Bringing together the children’s ideas, the educators’ and the professional designer’s, the outcome was according to the children and educators a successful playground which supports children’s play and learning. This project is an example on how the methods and approaches of innovation education can be used in preschool in order to make children’s ideas visible; support their creative capacities and have influence on their environment.