J.W. (Hanneke) Saaltink, MA

PhD research:

"I'm going to make something special and I don't know what it will  become, yet" 

Imagination and the interaction between teachers and young children (3 - 7 years)

Around the age of four, children develop a preference for an imaginative way of thinking that becomes visible in their handling of artefacts. Education, however, is primarily aimed at teaching more abstract academic skills as early as possible and less at working and playing with artefacts. This difference in thinking and acting between teacher and child may cause friction.

The PhD research investigates the interaction between the imaginative thinking child and their more abstract (conceptual) thinking teachers and how this interaction can support early-childhood-learning in the most optimal way. Both the development of imagination itself and the transition to a more conceptual way of thinking, are the subject of this research.

Furthermore, we investigate the added value of the use of art and cultural education in developing imaginative thinking in early childhood.