Implicit theories of creativity among teachers and special educators

Abstract

School curriculum and environment, as well as teachers, special educators and parents play an important role in scaffolding creative development of young people. Parents, teachers and special educators utilize their knowledge of implicit theories of creativity and by interacting with children in different manners they influence the child's personal development, and especially the child's creativity. We started with the premise that all individuals have, in a varying degree, potential for creativity and by reviewing literature that focuses on implicit theories of creativity in special educators we found that non-such studies exist in our region. With this in mind the aim of the study was to determine the implicit creativity theories of special educators and teachers that work in schools and special education schools. An additional goal was to examination the relationship between sociodemographic variables (residence, sex, age, occupation, type of school, level of education) and formed implicit theories. We interviewed 62 subjects, 33 teachers and 29 special educators. For the purpose of this study we used a modified version of Implicit Theory of Creativity Scale. A majority of our subjects believe that the school setting can influence the development of creativity in children to a great extent. In terms of concrete contribution to the development of creativity the school climate is defined as the most frequent answer, then the stimulating teaching activities. There is almost a unique perception of creative and desirable qualities, independent of gender, education and age. The distinguished difference was found between special educators and teachers and it relates to the difference in the perception of the least characteristic features of the creative personality. Therefore, teachers should have training in scaffolding creativity in children based on scientifically based evidence.

Školski nastavni program i okruženje, defektolozi, nastavnici i roditelji igraju značajnu ulogu u kreativnom razvoju mladih ljudi. Roditelji, defektolozi i nastavnici svojim očekivanjima nastalim na osnovu implicitnih teorija kreativnosti i načinom i vrstom interakcije sa detetom, utiču na lični razvoj a posebno na razvoj kreativnosti kod deteta. Imajući u vidu da potencijal za kreativno ponašanje poseduju sve individue u različitom stepenu kao i da pregledom dostupne literature nismo naišli na izučavanje implicitnih teorija kreativnosti kod defektologa osmišljen je cilj ovog istraživanja kao ispitivanje implicitnih teorija kreativnosti kod defektologa i nastavnika koji rade u redovnim i školama za decu sa smetnjama u razvoju, kao i ispitivanje odnosa sociodemografskih varijabli (prebivalište, pol, starost, zanimanje, tip ustanove, stepen obrazovanja) sa formiranim implicitnim teorijama. U istraživanju je učestvovalo 62 ispitanika, od toga 33 nastavnika. Korišćena je skala za ispitivanje implicitnih teorija kreativnosti kao i odnosa kreativnosti i poželjnosti. Na ispitanom uzorku nastavnika i defektologa preovladava uverenje da škola može podstaći kreativnost u velikoj meri. U pogledu konkretnog doprinosa razvoju kreativnosti izdvajaju se školska klima, kao najfrekventniji odgovor, zatim podsticajne nastavne aktivnosti. Na našem uzorku postoji skoro jedinstvena percepcija kreativnih i poželjnih osobina, nezavisna od pola, obrazovanja i godina starosti. Izdvojena razlika odnosi se na razliku u percepciji najmanje karakterističnih osobina kreativne ličnosti i dobijena u odnosu na profesiju. Stoga, nastavnici treba da budu obučeni za praktičnu nastavu i učenje koje promoviše razvoj kreativnosti a koje se zasniva na empirijskim istraživanjima.