The Creative Arts: A Process Approach for Teachers and Children (4th Edition)

This novel book engages teachers in the processes of creativity to encourage creative growth and participation in their classrooms.  It emphasizes process, rather than product, so teachers learn that once they tap into their own creativity they are better equipped to help children participate in the creative process.

New and expanded content in the fourth edition includes:

• National standards for drama, visual arts, dance, and music and examples of how teachers can address them
• A new Families feature in each chapter explaining how families can support children's creative activities at home
• Expanded and deepened multicultural content in the prose and in exploring the arts through a multicultural context
• Children's literature and recommended books in each chapter for integrating literature and the arts

Linda Carol Edwards is a professor of Early Childhood in the School of Education at the College of Charleston, Charleston, South Carolina, where she teaches both graduate and undergraduate courses in the visual and performing arts.  Her degrees include a BA from Pembroke State University, and an MEd and EdD from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.  Before moving to the college level, she taught kindergarten for 12 years in the public schools of North Carolina.

Dr. Edwards is the author of Music: A Way of Life for the Young Child, Fifth Edition (Merrill Education/Prentice Hall).  She has been published inYoung Children, Science and Children, Journal of Early Education and Family Review, Dimensions in Early Childhood, and the Delta Kappa Pi Record.  She also serves on the advisory board of Annual Editions: Early Childhood Education.  In addition, Dr. Edwards's experience has enabled her to create graduate programs in early childhood education that have received NCATE/NAEYC approval.  

As an advocate for arts education for young children, she takes the opportunity to present at local, state, and national conferences about the importance of the visual and performing arts in the lives of young children.