The Physical Elements of Educational Spaces and the Indicators of Fluency of Thinking, Elaboration and Exploration in the Process of Raising Creativity in Children.

The development of creativity is a significant topic in educational psychology studies. This issue is especially important in childhood due to the completion of several development stages, particularly the development of personality. In childhood, a person gains various experiences and their personality and character develop gradually. Therefore, creativity can be studied and examined as one of the critical areas in research. Creativity involves various stages, levels, components and elements that occur in the creative process. Factors affecting creativity are divided into two categories: personal and environmental. The personal category, also known as internal category, includes emotional, cognitive, intellectual and characteristics skill. The environmental category, or external category, includes factors related to the positions that a person has in relation to others such as family environment, social environment and partnerships, educational factors and physical environmental factors. This article examined the physical elements of the environment among the external factors. Based on the process of cognitive development, children's perception becomes more practical from the age of 6 years old and is increasingly influenced by the environment and its elements. During this period, children can spend most of their time outside the home in spaces such as educational environments. The main purpose of this research is to identify the physical elements that affect the creativity of children aged 6 to 11 years old in educational spaces. Another purpose of this research is to identify the correlation between the physical elements and the components of developing creativity in children within this age group. The methodology of this research is a mixed-method approach incorporating both qualitative and quantitative research. A substantial amount of information about the physical elements and creativity indicators was collected through a literature review of theoretical and experimental background records and documents. To measure the relationship between physical elements and creativity indicators, a quantitative method using descriptive strategy and correlation technique. The required data for the analysis were collected using a researcher-made questionnaire. The questionnaire was distributed through three types of schools in different area of Zanjan: public schools, non-profit schools, and private educational centers known as self-sufficient schools. The collected data was analyzed using two analytical software programs: SPSS22 and Amos22. Results revealed a significant relationship between the environmental components and creativity indicators: "fluidity", "expansion" and "exploration". regarding the degree of influence, the component of "space design to create different feelings" have the greatest impact on creativity and its indicators. Other indicators that significantly impacted creativity included: "diversity in open spaces", "package, shape and geometry of space and architecture", "use of various materials and colors in space", "connection with open spaces and green spaces", "use of different furniture and various arrangements of furniture", "variety of use and application of space" and "interaction between children and participation of children". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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