Research and Evidence

You can use a multitude of research to provide evidence for creative ideas in early years practice, as well as use it as a basis to explore new strands of creativity focussed on all areas of learning in the EYFS. Discover more about the impacts different approaches have on young children's learning and development, and help make sense of creative practice in your early years setting.

Here's some useful evidence to help you build your case for creative environments:

A Sure Start with Books: This study takes a random sample of 43 pupils who were given Bookstart packs at the age of 9 months, and compares their Key Stage 1 SATS scores with a control group who did not participate in Bookstart.
All Our Futures: Creativity, Culture and Education: Report published in 1999 by the National Advisory Committee on Creative and Cultural Education. The report's recommendations offer guidance to government departments and agencies, schools, Local Education Authorities, teaching and subject associations and cultural and arts organisations.
Arts and Cultural Education at School in Europe: This Agenda acknowledges the value of arts education in developing creativity.
Backing Our Creativity: research - policy - practice National Education and the Arts Symposium 2005: The Backing Our Creativity symposium was convened by the Australia Council for the Arts in Melbourne on 12-14 September, 2005.
Born Creative: In a series of 2010 essays, Born Creative brings together the experiences of creative practices in early years education. It shows the importance of cultures, environments and networks in the enrichment of early years learning and interrogates the role of leaders, policy and parents in creating them.
Briefing Paper: Delivering Children's Services in the UK and Other Parts of the World: This 2011 paper provides a rapid review of policy context, aiming to articulate the variety of models for children’s services delivery that exist internationally and place these in the context of current UK policy and practice.
Bringing Theatre to the Early Years: Peter Wynne-Willson urges settings to bring live theatre to their children.
Capturing the Impact of Libraries: Final Report: This very useful literature review on the impact of libraries includes quantitative evidence about the impact of school libraries on educational attainment, the value of reading programmes for early years, primary and secondary achievement and young people volunteering in libraries.
Centre for Experiential Education: Making care and education more effective through wellbeing and involvement: an introduction to Experiential Education by Ferre Laevres.
Champions of Change: The Impact of the Arts on Learning: This useful collection of research studies shows that the arts can positively affect educational attainment, especially among high-risk, disadvantaged or hard-to-reach groups
Charting Antartica Project Report: This conference report follows the "Let's Pretend" Early Years Creative Forum run by Birmingham Repertory Theatre in April 2007. 120 Early Years practitioners, theatre practitioners and local parents and children celebrated the growth in theatre and arts provision for children aged 0-6.
Charter of Children's Right to Art and Culture: The latest project of La Baracca, the "Charter of Children's Right to Art and Culture", is a document that collects 18 principles to state the right to all children, all over the world, to enjoy art and culture. The charter contains drawings specifcially created by 22 illustrators, each representing a point of the charter, which has also been translated into 26 different languages.
Children and the Arts: developing educational partnerships between pre-school, school and tertiary sectors: This article describes a developing joint venture for Arts education in Adelaide, South Australia, from 2001 to 2003.
Children's Right to Play: In this working paper, Wendy Russell and Stuart Lester of the UK's University of Gloucestershire examine the importance of play in the lives of children worldwide.
Communicative Musical Funniness: This small piece of qualitative research focuses on the relationship between musicality and funniness in two-year-old children's free play in a daycare nursery setting. It observes various sophisticated, and sometimes surprising ways in which children use communicative musical funniness to create strong complicit relationships with each other. A paper by Charlotte Arculus.
Confident, capable and creative boys: supporting boys' achievements: Excellent guidance for all early years practitioners, professionals and teachers on different creative approaches to supporting boys' own learning journeys. It provides examples of good practice and encourages practitioners to reflect on the quality of their provision. Still relevant for the revised EYFS.
Creative Spaces: This report, entitled 'Creative Spaces: Children as Co-Researchers in the Design of Museum and Gallery Learning', asks the question: in what different ways do gallery and museum spaces foster learning for Key Stage 2 visitors? The research programme was commissioned by Renaissance North West for four of its venues in 2007 and led by CapeUK.
Creativity and Possibility in the Early Years: An article exploring the concept of 'possibility thinking' in the early years setting, by Professor Anna Craft of Exeter University and the Open University.
Creativity in Education: A link to Trentham Books' publications on creativity in education.
Creative Connections in the Early Years Phase One Report June 2012: The Creative Connections in the Early Years project has
examined the role of creativity through the arts in the lives of young children in Tasmania.
Cultural Entitlement in a Nutshell 2012: This book provides the rationale behind why all children and young people should achieve their entitlement to culture. It poses twenty big questions that should be asked before designing a cultural offer, and identifies the latest policies and initiatives that can support meaningful cultural experiences.
Developing Young Children's Creativity Through the Arts - What Does Research Have to Offer?: This paper sets out to provide an overview of the state of research and thinking on the relationship between the arts and creative development in young children (aged three to six years). The main purpose of the exercise was to identify issues, gaps and priorities for further research. By Caroline Sharp, published by NFER in February 2001.
Digital Beginnings: Young Children’s Use of Popular Culture, Media and New Technologies: This report presents the findings of a study which took place from September 2004 to July 2005. The study explored young children’s (aged from birth to six) use of popular culture, media and new technologies in the home through a survey of 1,852 parents and carers of children who attended 120 individual maintained and non-maintained early years settings in England. Funded by BBC Worldwide and the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation.
Digital Childhoods: Briefing papers for Digital Childhoods, a research programme presenting and discussing findings from the last decade on the role of digital technologies in the lives of young children. The Digital Childhoods programme is a partnership between The University of Strathclyde and The University of Stirling, working with CBeebies, London Knowledge Lab, Futurelab and Learning & Teaching Scotland.
Drawings of People by the Under-5s: Written by Dr Maureen Cox and published by Routledge, this book traces the development of the human figure in children's drawings, showing how they add to and alter figures as they grow older.
Early Years Education: Perspectives from a review of the international literature: Scottish Executive Education Department
Early Years Evidence Review - Assessing the outcomes of early years music making: A systematic review of published research on the effects of early year’s music making carried out to update Youth Music’s strategic focus.
Early Years Education: An International Perspective: The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) (had) responsibility in England to monitor and evaluate the early years curriculum and as part of this programme commissioned an international review of the early years curriculum in 20 countries. The review was in two parts: firstly, the production of an interim document which formed the basis for a discussion of key issues across the participating countries at an international seminar; and secondly, the production of a final document, which summarises international perspectives on the early years curriculum and presents an agenda for future action.
Engage in the Foundation Stage: A research programme exploring the contribution that galleries and artists can make to the new Foundation Phase curriculum in Wales. Access the project overview, case studies and the 'How Red Is Red?' toolkit for art in the early years.
Environmental Education and Nature Schools in Denmark: A study of the role of nature schools in environmental education and environmental awareness rising among school children.
Expecting the Unexpected: A 2003 publication from OfSTED on good practice in the promotion of creativity in primary and secondary schools.
Experiencing Reggio Emilia: Implications for Pre-school Provision: This book reflects the impressions and experiences of the Italian Reggio Emilia approach gained by a range of early childhood educators following a study visit to the region. It focusses on key issues such as staffing, training, working with parents, play, learning, the culture of early childhood, and special educational needs. By Professor Lesley Abbot and Cathy Nutbrown, published by Open University Press.
Eyes and Silences: Research paper written by Roberto Frabetti, Director, La Baracca Theatre, on engaging with, understanding and listening to nursery children.
Good Childhood Inquiry: The Good Childhood Inquiry was commissioned by The Children's Society and launched in September 2006 as the UK's first independent national inquiry into childhood. Its aims were to renew society's understanding of modern childhood and to inform, improve and inspire all our relationships with children.
How Do They Do it in Sweden? Part 1: A teachers.tv documentary exploring the differences in early years education between Sweden and the UK. Part 1/3.
How Do They Do it in Sweden? Part 2: A teachers.tv documentary exploring the differences in early years education between Sweden and the UK. Part 2/3.
How Do They Do it in Sweden? Part 3: A teachers.tv documentary exploring the differences in early years education between Sweden and the UK. Part 3/3.
Imagine Nation - The Case for Cultural Learning: This publication is a contribution by the cultural Learning Alliance to the current debate about the transformative role played by the arts and heritage in the lives of children and young people.
International Education and Global Leadership: This paper provides a contextual framework for international education and describes an arts - based global program to train future global leaders.
International Creative Practice in Early Years - 2010: A pocket guide from Earlyarts. Following on from the 2005 report, this publication highlights some of the tremendous opportunities happening for very young children and their families through creative partnerships on a global scale. It demonstrates the power of global collaboration and the unexpected positive impacts this can have on supporting young children's growth.
International Creative Practice in Early Years - 2005: In November 2003, Arts Council England, Yorkshire, commissioned Earlyarts' Ruth Churchill Dower to carry out research into three international models of creative practice in early years settings. The research was gathered over a period of six months, then collated into this report and prepared for the national early years and creativity conference, New Worlds, at West Yorkshire Playhouse in November 2004.
Learning, Arts, and the Brain: The Dana Consortium Report on Arts and Cognition: This collection of studies highlights the possible impact of arts study on the brain. It includes links between music training and skills in geometrical representation, reading acquisition and sequence learning and training in acting and memory improvement.
Learning: creative approaches that raise standards: This evaluation of 44 schools which use creativity across the curriculum found evidence of higher standards and personal development. It also suggests that the benefit may be greater for children and young people from more disadvantaged backgrounds.
Let's celebrate art for small children!: Sille Grønberg explains why art with young children is simply about being present in the moment and feeling the natural flow of being a human being.
Little Acorns - Early Years Creativity Programme: The Little Acorns project, in celebration of the city of Liverpool's 800th birthday, aimed to engage three distinct sectors including Liverpool’s 124 private and voluntary nurseries, the 321 childminders within their networks and the nine established children's centres. The project would see artists develop inclusive practice hand-in-hand with the early years setting’s staff and children, and in some instances also extend to families.
Live Arts / Arts Alive: Starcatchers Research Report, 2011. Starcatchers is an innovative project which works in partnership with artists, arts venues, child-care settings and families to experiment artistically with audiences of very young children, to encourage their participation and to develop exciting, inspiring performing arts experiences for children, aged 0-4.
Making of Me: A report written by Jen Lexmond and Shelagh Wright in October 2009 on families and cultural engagement. This paper looks at how families could be better supported and how we might get more from our existing investments in this area.
Meeting the Goals of Te Whāriki through Music in the Early Childhood Curriculum: The purpose of this article is to examine the strands and goals which arise from the four principles of „Empowerment; Holistic Development; Family and Community and Relationships‟ (Te Whāriki,1996) and to propose how music can be used in an integral way not only to meet the stated goals but also to promote them to their fullest potential.
MERYC - Impacts of Music on Young Children's Development: Abstracts from the Fourth Conference of the European Network of Music Educators and Researchers of Young Children, 2009.
Montessori Life: A Publication of the American Montessori Society 20 (3): This study finds that students who received music-enriched Montessori instruction had higher levels of mathematics achievement than students who received traditional Montessori instruction.
More great childcare: Raising quality and giving parents more choice: More great childcare is vital to ensuring we can compete in the global race, by helping parents back to work and readying children for school and, eventually, employment. This government paper outlines the need for parents to have more choice of high-quality childcare.
Network for Children and Culture Strategy 2010-2012: The strategy of the Network carries on the good initiatives
while at the same time pointing out future central areas of collaboration with particular focus on art and culture in the everyday lives of children and youth.
Nurturing Creativity in Young People: Nurturing Creativity in Young People is the report that follows the Creativity in Schools Review, which was led by Paul Roberts, Director of Strategy at IdEA (Improvement and Development Agency). Jointly commissioned by the DCMS and DfES, the report sets out what more the Government can do to nurture young people.
Opening the Door... Experience, learning and legacy from the Kids’ Own Being and Belonging project: This is a full project report including case studies and high level findings, about what is unique about an artist working in an early years setting - a good read for anyone who is working in this sector and in policy.
Places + Children = Learning: A publication from Places Projects. This book is for teachers, parents and other collaborators, about the way children respond to the things they find in the city.
Play in education: the role and importance of creative learning: The Guardian Teachers Network Asks: Can learning through play really help teachers to achieve their formal lesson goals?
Play as Culture: A guide to how play can be incorporated into local authority cultural strategies. Designed to assist Officers leading the process of cultural strategy development, Play Officers within local authorities, voluntary sector play providers and support organisations, and advocates for children’s rights. It has been researched and written by PLAYLINK, commissioned by the Children’s Play Policy Forum and funded by Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).
Project Approach: The Project Approach, a specific kind of project-based learning, brings a number of advantages to any classroom and represents best practices in 21st-century education. The Project Approach refers to a set of teaching strategies which enable teachers to guide children through in-depth studies of real world topics. The website provides project examples, topics, study guides and an online resource store.
Project Zero (USA): Project Zero is an educational research group at the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University. Project Zero's mission is to understand and enhance learning, thinking, and creativity in the arts, as well as humanistic and scientific disciplines, at the individual and institutional levels.
Rainbow's Gold: A glimpse of the emergence of performing arts for the early years in Cork. The partners: La Baracca - Testoni Regazzi; Baboro International Arts Festival for Children; The Cork College of Commerce.
Review of the Office of the Children's Commissioner (England): The government wants to make sure that the children’s commissioner can act as a strong advocate for children, and to improve the effectiveness of the role. This review outlines recommendations including: giving the commissioner a statutory remit to ‘promote and protect children’s rights’, and introducing changes to make the commissioner more independent from government
Reclaiming Kindergarten: Making Kindergarten Less Harmful to Boys: The kindergarten curriculum has undergone fundamental change over the past 50 years. The shift in curriculum in favour of reading preparedness has had the effect of emphasising boys' weaknesses and girls' strengths.
See the Theatre, Play the Theatre: Starcatchers Final Report on their early years theatre programme, 'See the Theatre, Play the Theatre'. The Starcatchers project was a two-year pilot project, funded by NESTA and the Scottish Arts Council, which aimed to explore the creation of theatre for children under the age of three with their parents or carers. By Susan Young and Niki Powers.
Something Different: A pilot study evaluating family outreach activities at the Fitzwilliam Museum: This report evaluates family learning days with mothers (all aged 17-22) and children (all aged under 3) at the Fitzwilliam Museum. It finds evidence of enjoyment among the children and mothers, and changing attitudes to museums and galleries among the mothers.
Sir Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity: Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining and profoundly moving case for creating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines) creativity.
Sticky Fingers and Toes Report - Take Art: Reports on Take Art's research projects: Little Big Bang (on developing a new role and a new conception for the arts in early years); Sticky Fingers and Toes (an exciting collaboration between Somerset Arts Promoters and Somerset’s early years professionals); and Zest (an action research project on the relationship between creativity and materials).
Supporting Creativity and Imagination in the Early Years: Book written by Bernadette Duffy and published by the Open University Press. This book draws on the author's experience of promoting young children's creativity and imagination in a variety of settings over the last twenty years.
Supporting Young Artists: A Professional Development Program for Early Childhood Teachers: With grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Art Education Foundation from 2003-2005, the High/Scope Educational Research Foundation implemented Supporting Young Artists: A Professional Development Program for Early Childhood Teachers in which early childhood teachers received onsite training to implement a comprehensive visual arts curriculum with preschool children.
Teaching Artists Research Project (TARP): NORC at the University of Chicago has released a landmark report on a three-year study of teaching artists (TAs)-artists who make teaching a part of their professional practice.
The Arts and Academic Achievement: What the Evidence Shows: This research project analyses existing data on the impact of the arts in education. It finds that there is a relationship between listening to music and spatio-temporal reading, learning to play music and spatial reasoning, and classroom drama and verbal skills.
The British Kodlay Academy, Music Education in Early Years: All quality pre-school institutions profess that music is an integral part of their programme. The recent pre-school expansion in Britain has seen a corresponding expansion in demand for a properly structured approach to music education. Where can teachers find a high quality, educationally proven and affordable early years music scheme?
The Effect of Music Instruction on Phonemic Awareness in Beginning Readers: This study finds that kindergarten children who received 4 months of music instruction showed significantly greater gains in development of the phoneme segmentation fluency when compared to children who did not receive music instruction.
The Genius of Children in Role-Play: Michael Jones, author of 'Let's get talking' and 'Supporting quiet children' discusses the genius of children in Role-Play.
The Influence of Music on the Development of Young Children: Music Research with Children between 6 and 40 Months: A three-year study compared children exposed to musical influences with those exposed to little singing or music in nursery schools. Findings indicated that the experimental group exceeded the control group in frequency of vocalisations, rhythmic movements, initiations of social contact, and positive emotional reactions.
The Playing Learning Child: Towards a pedagogy of early childhood: From children's own perspective, play and learning are not always separate in practices during early years. The purpose of this article is, first, to scrutinise the background and character of early years education in terms of play and learning. Second, to elaborate the findings of several years of research about children's learning in preschool related to the curriculum of early years education and, finally, to propose a sustainable pedagogy for the future, which does not separate play from learning but draws upon the similarities in character in order to promote creativity in future generations.
'Their learning becomes your journey': Parents respond to children's work in creative partnerships: This study uses interviews with parents and teachers at schools that have participated in Creative Partnerships activities to explore the impact of cultural activities on how children communicate with their parents about their experiences at school.
Thinking Skills and Creativity: A journal providing a peer-reviewed forum for communication and debate for the community of researchers interested in teaching for thinking and creativity.
Time for Playful Learning?: A cross-cultural study of parental values and attitudes toward children’s time for play. LEGO Learning Institute decided to conduct a major quantitative research study in five countries around the world: France, Germany,Japan, U.K., and the U.S.A. The survey was conducted in the spring of 2002. The purpose of the study was to investigate parents’ attitudes, beliefs and values concerning children’s use of time.
Too Young to Notice: A report by Paul Connolly, Alan Smith and Berni Kelly on the cultural and political awareness of 3-6 year olds in Northern Ireland. The children were shown a range of objects and photographs representing some of the most common events and symbols associated with the Protestant and Catholic communities in the region and were asked what they knew about each one. The children’s responses were then coded and statistically analysed.
Turning Their Ears On: Turning Their Ears On... Keeping Their Ears Open: research exploring the impact of musical activities on the development of pre-school age children. This research led to a new training handbook, Tuning in to Children, which offers a set of guiding principles for early years practitioners and music specialists devising new programmes of activity or enhancing existing music practice.
Under 2s at the Museum of London and Museum of London Docklands: With the revised Early Years Foundation Stage published in March 2012, this is a good time to examine the learning value of museums to very young children. It is also timely to gather evidence of the positive impact museums can have on children’s development and family relationships, with the early intervention agenda still high on the political agenda.
What did you learn at the museum today? Second study: Commissioned by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA), this research project explored the impact of Renaissance funding on museum education, looking specifically at the impact on pupils’ learning following school visits to museums.
When is Yesterday Coming Again?: A report by Professor Anne Bamford and Sally Dennis, March 2007. The project was designed to promote the creative capacity of children, and increase access and engagement in the arts, whilst providing high quality, participatory arts and promoting children’s cultural citizenship.
Wild Rumpus Research: Wild Rumpus commissioned this report because they feel strongly that it can be completely different and more transformative when families play, dance, paint, listen to and watch amazing art in beautiful outdoor spaces, than indoors.
Young Brains: Birth to Three Matters: A Review of the Literature. By T David, K Goouch, S Powell, and L Abbott, 2003.
Young in Art - a development look at child art: All young children take great pleasure in moving a crayon or pencil across a surface and leaving a mark. This paper examines children progress through certain stages of development in their art making.
Youth Music Spotlighting Evaluation of Earlyarts Professional Development Days: Earlyarts contributed to Youth Music’s Spotlighting programme by filming and evaluating its professional development events for early years, arts and creative practitioners. This is the resulting evaluation report.

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