Date of Award

3-2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Organizational Unit

Morgridge College of Education, Research Methods and Information Science, Research Methods and Statistics

First Advisor

P. Bruce Uhrmacher

Second Advisor

Duan Zhang

Third Advisor

Christy MacConnell

Keywords

Creativity, Education, Students, Teachers

Abstract

Researchers do agree that creativity is an ability that can be developed and should be fostered (Guilford, 1958; Parnes, 1961). Teachers play an important role in creativity development and often serve as gatekeepers to identify gifted and talented students (Bianco et al., 2011; Novak & Jones, 2021; Schack & Starko, 1990). However, teachers’ judgment of their students’ creativity often only correlates weakly with the results of creativity measures (Kettler et al., 2018; Torrance, 1963). Therefore, in this study I explored teachers’ perception of creativity and creative students as well as factors that support or hinder creativity. The findings revealed that the perception of teachers regarding creativity aligned with the literature stressing that all children are creative. However, creativity and learning only occurs if students are motivated. To motivate students, teachers try to find interesting topics. Teachers defined creativity as something unique however they emphasized that it is expressed differently in the arts and sciences. The process of creation is fun and exciting and innately intertwined with learning. Teachers described creative students as confident, open-minded, and imaginative. Teachers, parents, the school system, and the school district all play an important role in the development of children’s potential and in fostering creativity. Participants expressed that creativity is difficult to measure because of its subjective and personal nature. Implications for practice of the findings are discussed.

Copyright Date

3-2024

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

All Rights Reserved
All Rights Reserved.

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Rights Holder

Katalin Grajzel

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Format

application/pdf

Language

English (eng)

Extent

214 pgs

File Size

2.2 MB

Discipline

Statistics

Available for download on Saturday, April 26, 2025



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