Play and specifically the imaginative play is something that appears in man’s life in a very early stage. Children experiment within play, they
adopt different roles, they try to discover new ways of behaving and they see the actions and the reactions towards those behaviours. In the
creative Learning this play becomes more organised (and this is where arts in general contribute) and they have more specific educational aims.
Furthermore, the Creative Learning takes the frame and the content of these games and not only does it transfer it to the real every day life but in the Creative Learning we also look for the universal meanings of life. Play and Creative Learning are closely interrelated (a lot of times we use games in the process) but still have some basic differences. The similarities and differences are the following:
– Both activities are based on the human need for playing/enacting, for working I an imaginative context that suspends the real time, place, roles
and actions.
– The time, place, characters and actions receive a more symbolic character in both activities and our ability to participate in both these
activities depends on our ability to forget the reality for some time and on our ability to read and understand the symbolic actions and meanings.
– Both activities have rules and principles. However, in games and imaginative play the rules are more clear cut, while in the Creative Learning are
more internal.
– Both activities need a physical, mental, intellectual and emotional commitment and involvement.
– Both have the elements of tension, surprise and the focus is clear. But in Creative Learning we need to consider the further elements that have to do
with the arts.
– The Creative Learning unlike play has specific educational goals and we use Creative Learning in order to teach our objectives.
– The Creative Learning offers us the opportunity to avoid repetition, something that is common in the play, and we can choose from an indefinite
number of imaginative situations and human contexts.
– In the Creative Learning there is no superficial imitation where students just mime actions but they participate with the whole selves, they work
intellectually and emotionally within a particular context, an experience that resembles the reality but does have the consequences of real life.
The children bring themselves in this imaginative context and they do not try to escape to an imitation.
– In the Creative Learning we have a very conscious implementation of the dramatic form on the creation of the meaning.
– Finally in the Creative Learning the elements of the Arts hold a very high position.