The study presented in this article is part of a larger study called
Progressive Feedback (blogs.helsinki.fi/orientate), which is an early
childhood education and care (ECEC) research and development project.
The aim of this article is to find out (a) how childreńs tested creative
thinking abilities, fluency, originality and imagination correlated
with childreńs social orientations in kindergarten and (b) how childreńs
participative orientations occur in relation with the teacher and
peers. The data consist of Reunamo’s child interview tool and the
Thinking Creatively in Action and Movement (TCAM) test. The data (280
children from 23 kindergartens and pre-primary schools) were gathered
from two municipalities in southern Finland. The results show that the
participative orientation was strongly connected with creative thinking
abilities, but it was rare in social situations concerning adults. In
participative orientation, children concern the situation and intend to
change it.