Cognitive Activity and Creativity of Junior Schoolchildren with the High Intellectual Abilities in the Different Educational Environment ²⁷²

The social situation of personality development is the starting point for all dynamic changes. The analysis of the literature of authors who worked before, and continue working on the subject, has been carried out. The range of questions raised by them that have points of intersection with this study was outlined. The article analyzes the preliminary results of the formative experiment, which is taking place over the course of two years at Art-Zebra creative studio of the Moscow Zoo Training Center. Changes in the creative works of twenty children from four to ten years old reflected in the individual sheets, giving an idea of how the means of expression of images of animals and birds created by children grew up. The article contains three individual characteristics-one of the most vivid examples of the unique way of forming creative features in each child in the social environment of the sculpture classes. Particular attention is paid to the experience that runs like a red thread through all stages of children's creative activity. Preliminary results showed that initially the children owned no more than two means of expression. During the experiment, most children mastered four to five means of expression, adding two more in the process of growth. It is argued that the mastery of creative strategies as means for the transformation of the psyche is the key to unlocking the creative potential of each child.

Keywords: Social situation of creative developement, creative growth, formative experiment, creative strategies, expressive means, emotional experience, the zone of proximal developement, L.S. Vygotsky's method

Column: Developmental Psychology

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17759/psyedu.2019110106