Mother Tongue Textbooks and the Possibilities of Creativity Development through Their Use in Mother Tongue Lessons in Early Primary School

Introduction Creativity as one of the most desired contemporary human qualities is closely related to self-expression, but self-expression to self-assessment, self-esteem, and further to self-actualisation. Therefore the early primary school stage becomes especially crucial which involves the development of creative abilities as one of the most fundamental tasks. The article focuses on the early primary text-books in the mother tongue (Latvian, Lithuanian, Estonian, Polish, Ukrainian, Russian) in order to clarify to what extent and exactly what kind of creativity promoting tasks the authors include in them. Aim of the study The aim is to analyse the mother tongue early primary school text-books of various nationalities in order to establish the number and type of the tasks promoting children's creativity. Materials and methods Analysis of theoretical literature and the tasks provided by the text-books, a survey of children. Results Mother tongue early primary school text-books, including Latvian, Lithuanian, Estonian, Polish, Ukrainian and Russian by various authors, were analysed for in accordance with their rating for tasks which foster creativity. The pupils were surveyed about the assigned tasks, and the attitudes of different authors for opportunities of fostering creativity in mother tongue lessons were assessed. Conclusions In the early primary school stage it is significant to foster children's creativity during mother tongue lessons as such tasks in opposition to boring and monotonous) are fulfilled with greater enthusiasm and pleasure, so they foster self-assessment, development of positive relationships, and faster achievement of teaching/ learning aims. Some tasks fostering children's creativity are included in mother tongue early primary school text-books of different nationalities. Nevertheless we have to conclude that some authors pay more attention to them than others. Consequently, text-books do not fulfil their function as an idea bank for the teacher, and the teachers have to make great effort to develop creative, exciting and joyful educational experiences.