Teachers' perceptions of creativity and creative students.

摘要

This study used a qualitative framework to explore teachers' perceptions regarding creativity, how they viewed children who they saw as highly creative, and what they believed should be done to address the needs of these children. The following questions framed the study. (1) What are the perceptions held by classroom teachers about creativity? (2) How do teachers conceive creative students' characteristics? (3) What kind of teaching strategies do teachers provide for children to foster creativity? (4) What kinds of obstacles do teachers believe prevent them from providing opportunities for creative behavior? The methods used to generate data in this study were participant observation, informal and formal interviews with classroom teachers, and a questionnaire consisting of qualitative and quantitative questions. Thirty-six elementary school teachers were surveyed using the questionnaire and 12 elementary school teachers took part in the interviews and observations. The findings indicate that teachers have positive attitudes and perceptions about creativity, know many of the positive characteristics of creativity, only appreciate the creative students who exhibit positive attitudes and are average and above average academic achievers, like to encourage creativity but they do not know how, and believe that a lot of responsibilities, time limitation, burden of teaching basic skills, lack of knowledge, and fear of discipline problems are five major obstacles toward encouraging creativity in the classroom in which they have no control.