Educational researchers’ personal explicit theories on creativity and its development: a qualitative study

Teachers’ Beliefs About Creativity and Possibilities for its Development in Polish High Schools: A Qualitative Study

“…Creativity researchers have shown that teachers from both Western and Eastern cultures are convinced of the importance and role of creativity for the modern world (Aljughaiman & Mowrer-Reynolds, 2005;Westby & Dawson, 1995). In the majority of cases, they associate creativity with creative products (Aljughaiman & Mowrer-Reynolds, 2005), rather than the creative process or creative people (Lee & Seo, 2006;Levenson, 2015;Liu & Lin, 2014;Maksić & Pavlović, 2011;Newton & Beverton, 2012). In studies on teachers' understanding of creativity, hardly any references are made to conditions in which creativity can be supported, even though this category of understanding creativity is apparently the closest to pedagogical activity.…”

“…Such actions may be both explicit and planned, as well as of a completely accidental nature. Teachers are perceived as key persons in developing students' creativity through initiating specific activities, and taking advantage of teaching methods whose aim is to encourage students to ask questions, to make them perceive various aspects of a given problem, to stimulate creative thinking, to support inno-vation, as well as to foster critical thinking and experimentation (Maksić & Pavlović, 2011). In general terms, this is connected with giving students challenges and tasks, as well…”

“…A review of research devoted to teachers' implicit theories of creativity shows that while describing creative students, teachers focus chiefly on their cognitive functioning, personality traits, and motivation (Aljughaiman et al, 2005;Andiliou & Murphy, 2010;Chan & Chan, 1999;Gralewski & Karwowski, in press;Maksić & Pavlović, 2011;Montgomery, Bull, & Baloche, 1993;Runco, Johnson, & Bear, 1993). A detailed analysis of research results on this subject, performed by Gralewski and Karwowski (in press) indicates that, when describing creative students, teachers mention their characteristics relatCreativity.…”

“…Very often, teachers associate creativity with novelty, originality, the ability to do something differently from others, uniqueness or imagination (Aljughaiman & Mowrer-Reynolds, 2005;Andiliou & Murphy, 2010;Cheung, Tse, & Tsang, 2003;Diakidoy & Kanari, 1999;Fryer & Collings, 1991;Lee & Seo, 2006;Levenson, 2015;Liu & Lin, 2014;Maksić & Pavlović, 2011). The features of creative products considered by teachers seldom include their merit, understood as usefulness, utility and adequacy to task requirements (Andiliou & Murphy, 2010).…”

“…Teachers themselves admit that creative products are the outcome of the creative process, which is usually connected with finding many solutions to a given problem (Lee & Seo, 2006;Levenson, 2015;Liu & Lin, 2014;Newton & Beverton, 2012). Teachers' beliefs about creativity usually refer to everyday creativity, which is manifested in various kinds of activities and situations connected with hobbies and free time (Maksić & Pavlović, 2011), through curiosity, imagination, asking questions and giving untypical answers.…”