Research workshop/team: Methodology and research workshop of Children- and playing culture, childhood, education through arts in connection with mental health/health promotion

Theme explanation

The team circumscribes those relevant childhood activities which are determinant from mental health point of view in the today’s technicalised world: play and free play, tales, visual culture, puppetry, dramatics, contemporary children literature, learning in the museum. The workshop also examines the potential ways of traditional handing downs of the cultural activities; calls attention to the positive effects of artistic activities and free play to the personality development, the cognitive activity, the promotion of cognitive and emotional processes as well as the behavioral control. 

The research workshop has fruitful relationship with the following research workshops:  Visual education, Education for health consciousness, Tale-teller, the ongoing social science-researches of the faculty and museums and civil organizations. 

Research project: "New Cultural Playgrounds for Young Children and Families"

Museums that apply the methodology designed for preschoolers' developmental characteristics (ELTE-TINLAB Museum for the Little Ones) experience an increase in the number of child and adult visitors. The growing museum visits provide opportunities for intergenerational dialogue, self-cultivation, and facilitate positive emotions. Initial measurements (DES scale) and interviews conducted with children and adults confirm positive changes in mental health. The method offers the possibility of implementing placed-based and community-based education, expanding children's attention beyond preschool and school to the real world and actual events, and fostering the development of local connections. Other positive aspects of social innovation include the transmission of enjoyable and value-conveying methods of culture and self-cultivation, preparation for lifelong learning, interdisciplinary learning methods for children, educators, university students, and parents, preservation and creation of values, and active shaping of child culture in a museum environment. An essential part of social innovation is the integration of public education and higher education in the field of public culture.