A Comparative Study On The Influence Of Chinese And American Scientific Paintings On The Creativity Of Middle School Children

Picture book, as an important medium to promote children’s physical and mental development, is a hot research in the field of preschool education. According to the content, picture book can be divided into two types: picture book of story and Informational picture books. Chinese scholars paid more attention to the former, yet studied less on the latter. The study on Informational picture books has increased rapidly since 2012, focusing on the aspects of teaching application, reading language and design etc. There is a lack of deep discussion on comparison of Informational picture books between China and USA. Thus there is a lot of space for studying Informational picture books.Developmental psychology believes that preschool period is the first peak of human’s creativity. American psychologist Torrance believes that children’s creative performance mainly refers to the fluency, flexibility, originality and elaboration of thinking. This paper based the theory framework on four aspects of creativity. Then we asked the middle class children to read Chinese and American Informational picture books within three months and carried out qualitative and quantitative research on their creativity with methods of experiment, observation and interview. It is found that(1)Informational picture books are useful for children’s development of creativity.(2)Informational picture books of both nations are helpful for the development of originality.(3) Informational picture books of two nations have little influence on children’s thinking fluency and flexibility.(4)Chinese Informational picture books have an significant influence on children’s elaboration of thinking. On the basis of observation and interview,we put forward three suggestions:(1) Family and the kindergarten should provide more Informational picture books to make a good reading environment books for young children.(2) Informational picture books should be compiled according to children’s reading characteristics.(3) Teacher guiding is the precondition of improving children’s interest in reading Informational picture books.