Effect of a Creative Dance-Based Physical Education Intervention on Primary School Children’s Creativity and Self-Regulation: A Pilot Study

Abstract

While creativity is a skill that may allow young adults to adapt to a rapidly changing job market, creativity decreases over the course of childhood, possibly because of structured schooling. This study investigated the effects of a creative dance intervention integrated within the physical education curriculum on creativity and self-regulation processes in primary school-aged children (N= 104, 6–7 years old). Three classes within two schools were randomly assigned to either a creative dance intervention (n= 40), a yoga intervention (n= 32), or teaching as usual (n=32). Compared to teaching as usual, the creative dance intervention led to improvements in cognitive creativity,while both the creative dance and yoga interventions led to improvements in motor creativity. Compared to yoga, the creative dance intervention also led to improvement in strengths for creativity and maintained prosocial behavior but was associated with reduced self-control at 6-month follow-up. The impact of both the creative dance and yoga interventions on motor creativity only was partially mediated by improvements in strengths for creativity. Improvements specific to the creative dance group were not sustained at 6-month follow-up; a longer duration of practice may be required to sustain the beneficial effects. Taken together, the results showed that a creative dance school-based program improved creativity and prosocial processes beyond typical development in the short term. Thiswas a first attempt to understand not only whether this type of curriculum influences outcomes but also the potential mechanisms of change.