Spanish Teachers Conception of Creativity

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    FACULTAD DE EDUCACINCAMPUS ESPINARDO S/N, 30100.MURCIA

    Editor/a: FACULTAD DE EDUCACIN. VICEDECANATO DE INVESTIGACIN YTRANSFERENCIA DE RESULTADOS

    I.S.S.N: en trmiteN DEPSITO LEGAL: MU 1215- 2013

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    Boletn de Investigacin. Facultad de Educacin

    I

    NDICE

    INTRODUCCIN...................................................................................... 1

    GRUPOS DE INVESTIGACIN:E012-01. (DICSO) Didctica de las Ciencias Sociales ............... 5

    Los contenidos de ciencias sociales y lascapacidades cognitivas en los exmenes de tercerciclo de educacin primaria Una evaluacin encompetencias?

    Cosme Jess Gmez y Pedro Miralles ................................ 15 E012-02. Didctica de las Matemticas ...................................... 55E014-06. Didctica de la Lengua y Educacin

    Literaria ................................................................................ 65

    Educacin literaria (una lnea de investigacin) .Pedro Guerrero y M. Teresa Caro ................................. 75

    E042-06. (EVASALUD) Educacin, Valores,Adicciones y Salud ............................................................. 103

    E073-03. (EIE) Equidad e Inclusin Educativa ........................... 107La educacin inclusiva, una cuestin de derecho .

    Juan M. Escudero ...................................................... 117E073-01. (GITE) Tecnologa Educativa ...................................... 135E017. Investigacin en las Artes Plsticas ............................... 141

    E042-04. Altas Habilidades .......................................................... 145Teachers conception of creativity . Mercedes

    Ferrando, Carmen Ferrandiz, RosarioBermejo, Marta Sinz, Gloria Soto, JavierValverde & Lola Prieto................................................ 155

    E050-02. Educacin en Valores ................................................... 173

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    Teachers conception of creativityMercedes Ferrando. Carmen Ferrndiz. Rosario Bermejo. Marta

    Sinz. Gloria Soto, Javier Valverde & Lola PrietoMurcia University (Spain)

    Submitted to Creative Education 2013-11-06

    Abstract

    Schools are pressured to foster their students creativity in theirclassrooms, because creativity has become a valuable skill in our days.Many programs and techniques have been published over the years, but thechange in the school will not occur at least teachers believe in it. Teachersare the fundamental pillars in which national education remains. Theirbeliefs, expectations, fears and worries facing a new teaching methodologywill determinate both the implementation and the success of suchmethodologies. This study aims to better understand the explicit and implicittheories of creativity hold by teachers and what are the activities and taskusually used to foster creativity. A total of 29 aged between 21 and 50 yearsold (M= 35.63 SD= 14.36) took part in this study. They had different degreesof teaching experience. They complement a questionnaire, which asked fortheir previous knowledge about creativity, their pedagogical experiences,

    and beliefs about creativity. Results are discussed in terms of comparisonwith similar studies which have analyzed teachers believes about creativity.

    Keywords: Teachers beliefs; Creativity; Pedagogical practices; CREANET. ______________________

    THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKCreativity is among the most valued yet least understood of

    psychology constructs. Our society value creativity almost in everyproduction, creativity is what differentiates the human kind from otheranimals. Since Guilfords famous discourse in 1950 creativity have been

    studied from different approaches (Ferrando, 2013). Creativity has beenstudied as the interaction among aptitude, process, and environment bywhich an individual or group is able to produce original (unique, novel,unusual) and adaptive (useful, appropriate, meaningful) interpretations,ideas, behaviours, solutions, or products (Plucker & Ronald, 2008). Amongthe topics within the creativity research field how to improve it is the mostpractical approach and also the most productive one. Different techniqueshave been identified to develop creative thinking such as brainstorming,

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    creative analogies, ideas modification, etc. (i.e. Bowkett, 2007; De Bono,2005; Ferrando, Sinz, Soto, Fernndez & Valverde, 2013; Nickerson, 1999;Prieto, Ferrandiz & Lpez, 2003; Renzulli, 1973).

    Within the childhood context fostering creativity is one of the mainconcerns, and many programs have been developed with this propose(Ferrando & Ferrndiz, 2013). Being important the specific activities andtask proposed to work with children, another important element in thisequation should not be underestimated: the teacher. Teachers attitude andknowledge about creativity will determine how it (creativity) is worked in theclassroom. As expressed by Diakidoy and Kanari (1999) regardless of theavail-ability of standardised measures and specific training programmes, thefacilitation of creativity in the classroom will ultimately depend on theteacher's ability to identify creative potential in students, to recognisecreative outcomes, to encourage personal attributes and cognitiveprocesses that have been found to relate to creativity, and, finally, tostructure the educational environment in a way that will render it moreconducive to creativity. Therefore, when the objective is to promote creativityin educational settings, there are two issues that require attention, (a) theextent to which training prepares teachers to successfully undertake the taskof identifying and facilitating creativity in the classroom, and (b) teachers'theories of and beliefs about creativity and the factors that have been foundto influence it. To foster student creativity, teachers need to identifycharacteristics of the creative personality, recognize creative production,understand the cognitive processes used by creative students, andultimately establish an environment that promotes the childs interests (Hill,1992).

    Since teachers relieves and attitudes toward creativity are thatimportant many studies have try to understand teachers believes, attitudesand actions regarding creativity. We will expose the results of those researchreferring in particular to 4 areas: teachers educative practices; teachersbelieves about the nature of creativity the concept; teachers conceptions ofcreative individuals and finally teachers previous training on creativitydomain.

    Teachers Educative PracticesIn a teachers survey conducted in Sweden by Bjerstedt (1976, cited

    by The creative centre 2006) found that Swedish teacher prefer to promotecreativity through free practical exercises and group work.Probably one of the most extended work about teachers believes

    about creativity is the one conducted b y Fryer and Collings (1991), in thisresearch teachers recognize the importance of foster creativity andexpressed that they usually work it with techniques related to creativeproblem solving According to teachers, creativity could be fostered by:

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    building confidence, having a creative teacher, enjoying some free choice athome, having an involved and supportive family, and enabling pupils to havesome degree of choice over learning methods.

    In the university teachers survey conducted by Aljughaiman andMowrer-Reynol (2005) the authors found that teachers did believe creativityto be an important skill, and that it should be develop, but they did not seemteachers as the responsible for students creative development doing so.

    In a more recent study conducted by the Creative Centre (2006) theyfound that English teacher prefer to promote creativity by stimuli forimaginative thinking or heuristic strategies; learning in a particular context orthe provision of a suitable context for creative work; supportive factors suchas the relationship between tutor and students; paying attention to studentspersonality characteristics; using teaching skills for use in creative work andsetting tasks which require creativity.

    Recently in Spain Ruiz Gutierrez (2010) has conducted a researchabout what the author call teachers creativity footsprint analysing teacherscreativity and their teaching practices. This authors do not ask teacher howthey foster creativity they have develop a questionnaire to assess creativepractices in the classroom.

    In the study conducted by Marquis & Vajoczki (2012) universityteachers reported that the most commonly noted techniques to fostercreativity included: collaborative projects; presenting and discussingexemplars of creativity; challenging students to find new answers to existingproblems; and encouraging and/or allowing students to present their ideasusing nonstandard formats (e.g., video, imagery, narrative, poetry, etc.)

    Teachers understanding on Nature of creativityMany studies have been conducted to better understand people

    implicit theories about creativity. Many of the studies have similar findingsregarding teachers understanding of creativity, in many of them the idea ofdivergent thinking, originality and imagination is repeated.

    For instance Bjerstedt (1976) found that the most common definitionof creative ability was in terms of independent work, followed by richness ofideas, originality and the ability to combine. Fryer and Collings (1991)found that 70% of the teachers thought creativity was rare, 53% thought

    that creativity involved nothing more than divergent thinking, while 33%thought it involved valuable ideas. Optimistically, however, most teachersstated that creativity could be developed. Around two thirds (65% andabove) of the teachers agreed to the descriptors of creativity as beingimagination, original ideas, self-expression, discovery and seeingconnections, while one third (34%) or less endorsed aesthetic products,valuable ideas, unconscious activities, converging thinking, mysterious

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    processes and tangible products as descriptors. Tan (2000) reported thatteachers describe creativity as imagination and uniqueness but mostoften associate creativity with artistic ability. The creative centre survey(2006) found that aspect more related to creativity were: imagination (90%),seeing unusual connections (86.7%), original ideas (80%) and combiningideas (80%). The teachers identify least with the notion of mysteriousprocesses (14.4%) or the idea that tangible products (18.9%) are involved.In the study conducted by Cachia et al. (2009) in which teacher fromdifferent European countries were asked, most responders view creativity asa skills that can be applied to every domain of knowledge, and therefore to

    every school subject. Those teachers understood creativity as a fundamentalskill to be developed in school and that anyone can develop it, accordinglymost of them did not see creativity as an inborn talent.

    The study conducted in Korea about science teachers perception ofcreativity by Seo, Lee, and Kim (2005) revealed that those teachersunderstanding of creativity emphasized only cognitive components, whilethey largely ignored personality and environmental components.

    Aljughaiman and Mowrer-Reynol (2005) reported that teachers frequentlyagree with experts in what they consider to be creative characteristics butdo not accurately weight the relative importance of these characteristics.

    Teachers view about the creative individualTorrance (1963, 1975) who have explored teachers attitude to

    personality characteristics regarded as typical of creative individuals usingthe ideal Child Checklist. His findings suggested that teachers mightencourage obedience and popularity at the expense of intuition and risk-taking. Behaviours of creative students, such as being playful, emotional,open, critical of others, and stubborn, are discouraged and thought to bedisruptive to the existing organization.

    Bjerstedt (1976) also requested teacher to identify the characteristicsof highly creative pupils was answered with 280 different responses, mostlyembodying the notion of intellectual capacity, including flexible, full ofideas, keen to discuss things, curious and conscious of problems.

    According to the Swedish teachers, the distinguishing personalitycharacteristics of creative pupils included independent, unconventional,open and confident. The pupils they considered creative were alsodescribed negatively: want to do everything differently, are a worryingelement, do not co-operate, adjust badly to tuition and listless at theprospect of some subjects. In the same line, Guncer and Oral (1993)reported that teachers perceived highly creative students as nonconformists,easily distracted, experiencing obstacles in fulfilling their academicobligations.

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    A more positive image is described in the study conducted by Runco,Johnson, and Bear (1993) who found that teachers describe creativestudents as cheerful, easy-going, emotional, friendly, and spontaneous.Similarly Chan & Chan (1999) found that teachers in Hong Kong listcharacteristics of creative and uncreative students as being imaginative,always questioning, quick in response, active and high intellectual abilitywere the most frequently mentioned for creative students. Conversely, themost frequently mentioned characteristics of uncreative students wereconventional, timid, lack of confidence and conformity. In the study of Tan(2000) students in teachers training program described a creative person as

    one who was talented, intelligent, innovative, dared to be different, taskmotivated, imaginative, quick, witty, open-minded, adventurous, curious,knowledgeable, confident, well-exposed, individual and flexible.

    Aljughaiman and Mowrer-Reynol (2005) teachers often confusecharacteristics of gifted high achievers with creative characteristics. Theydescribe creative students as possessing high intelligence, verbal ability,and intrinsic motivation. In this study, no teachers mentioned the ability ofstudents to arrive at multiple solutions for a problem or their ability toapproach a task from a variety of directions. Nor did the teachers addresscreative aspects such as fluency, or flexibility, or elaboration

    Quek Khiok Seng et al 2008) conducted a comparison study betweenHong Kong teachers and Singapour teachers conception of creativity.Whereas Hong Kong respondents believe more strongly that creativity isdependent on birth order, effort, health, logical thinking and youth and thereis a critical period beyond which creativity may not develop, The Singaporerespondents stronger belief in that everyone can be creative in one way oranother seems encouraging. However, the view that everyone can becreative is contradicted by their stronger belief that intelligence is a pre-condition of creativity.

    EMPIRICAL STUDYThe aim of the research was to know about the Creativity perceptions

    and practices of Spanish teachers, in order to do so we were interested onstudy and answer the following questions:

    How do teachers perceive and understand creativity?Do teachers foster creativity in their classrooms?Which are the characteristics that teachers attributing to creativity?Which are the weights of factors that influence to creativity?How teachers perceive adults vs. childrens creativity?What previous training on creativity teachers have?

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    The general objectives defined were: to understand the pre-schoolteachers perceptions of creativity; identify the activities and methodologiespreferred by teachers to foster creativity in young children and what activitiesteachers identify as inhibitors of creativity in pre-school settings; to reflectupon the processes and products of creation of children and attitudes ofprofessionals.

    We intended also to know the projects being developed, and teacherstraining in the field and their expectations/training needs.

    MethodParticipants A total of 29 teachers (69% female) from 21 to 50 years old (M= 35.63

    SD= 14.36) took part in the study, the mean of year of experience was 11.46with a SD= 8.93 (48.28% < of 10 years of experience, 17.24% between 11and 20 years of experience, 20.69% > of 20 years of experience, and 13.79missing). All of them worked in public education. Of them a 27% worked inPre-school and Primary Education, a 9% to Pre-school and a 64% toPrimary Education in Murcia Region (Spain).

    InstrumentThe instrument used was a questionnaire (designed within CREANET:

    Network on Creativity in Pre-School Education) oriented to know the

    teachers practices to foster creativity in Pre-school education in differentcountries involved in the Project.The research instrument was an anonymous survey, containing a

    short introduction to the topic and 27 questions. The questionnaire has avery open structure and integrates both close and open-ended questionsand is structured in three main themes educational practices, nature ofcreativity and training in the field of creativity . The questionnaire wasdesigned having into account both: the questions that CREANET membershad consider important and the previous work conducted Diakidoy andKanari (1999).

    Due to the nature of the questions, some of them were analysed usingqualitative methodologies, whereas those which allowed for a quantitativetreatment were analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences(SPSS version 19).

    Data AnalysisDescriptive analyses provided preliminary information about

    demographic (i.e., gender, age) and the variables of creativity perception theteachers. Independent-samples t-tests were also conducted to analyse

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    difference between the conceptions of creativity that teachers attribute toadult and child.

    ResultsThe results will be presented following the organization of the

    instrument in the 3 main themes: educational practices; nature of creativity;training in the field of creativity.

    Educational PracticesThe aim of this study was to know whether teachers had ever

    developed any activity or project to foster creativity in their classroom, and ifso, to analyse the kind of task developed to improve creativity. The resultsshow that 29 participants (84%) answered positively. After reviewing theiranswers, the kind of projects that teachers apply in their classrooms to workcreativity can be grouped into the following categories: a) stories (usingstories to work creativity: ending stories, making up beginnings, mixingcharacters from different tales), a total of 8 references were focus in it; b)plastic art activities in which a total o 8 references were founded; c) working projects, a total of 3 teachers made reference to the use of thatmethodology to work creativity, finally the rest of references (8) were aboutenvironment arrangement and conditions and teaching methodology (mainlyfocused on ideas generation and assessment of previous knowledge) (seetable 1).

    When asking teachers which activities they believe would fostercreativity in children, their answers show a preference for aesthetic, artisticand expression communication languages, revealing that creativity ismainly developed through such domains and this seems to be a commonfeature, both at national and international studies (Fryer, 1996; Diakidoy &Kanari, 1999; Bahia, 2002, 2009; Morais & Azevedo, 2008). Also there werereferences to problem solving, stories, creating something new, give newexperiences of learning, symbolic play and classroom distribution.

    The results concerning to the educational practices that inhibitchildrens creativity, show a great unanimity among the participants. Themajority of responses (21) were referenced to task structure, in this sensethey refer to:

    Structured works, the famous handwriting exercises

    To spoon-feed children, it means, to say them first you must to do so, thenso. Very sequenced; not letting space for open answers,

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    End-task, where there is an unique solution

    Table 1. Working creativity in classroom

    Category/ Subcategory Speech UnitsExamplesN of

    references

    1. Reference to stories 8

    Ending storiesInventing a story withpersonages. Inventingdifferent stories with asame beginning

    5

    Making activities usingstories

    Use a story to proposeactivities aimed todevelop imagination,creativity andorganization

    2

    Using stories to workemotional intelligence

    Using story reading,to express emotionsand feelings

    1

    8Finishing drawings Unfinished draws 3

    Using different techniquesand materials

    Using differenttechniques, plasticsand materials

    2

    Free drawings Free drawings 2

    2. References toPlastic and drawing

    Originality Originality crafts 13.References to

    Projects Work in discovery learning projects 3

    4.References tointerest corners Using interest corner learning 2

    5.References tobrainstorming Work in previous ideas and ideas generation 2

    6. References to makestudents look fordifferent solutions

    Looking for different ways to raise the contents oflessons and look for different solutions 1

    7. References toactivities but not in asystematic way (notin a specific project)

    To raise different activities using brainstorming 1

    8.Reference toenvironment To accompany the activities with music 1

    9. Reference tostudents preparingthe classrooms

    I like that students prepared the class before, becausein these way they interest go up, also when Isuggested exercises about sentences, I tried that theychanged it using their-self ways and strategies.

    1

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    The second main concern of the teachers asked made reference toaffection domain (dont give value to the ideas of children ), not facilitatingresources and do not allowing time to play.

    This results are according with the authors that argument that creativethinking need of an environment of freedom and open-task (Amabile 1998;Csikszentmihalyi, 1990; Prieto, Lpez & Ferrndiz, 2003; Sternberg &Lubart, 1995).

    Nature of CreativityIn order to know about teachers perception on creativity, they were asked

    what they understood by creativity in their school practice. Their answerswere organized into the categories shown in table 2.

    Table 2. Conceptions on the Nature of Creativity

    Category/ Subcategory Speech Units Examples N ofreferences1. Reference to

    freedom andexpression

    Allow students freedom forexpress ideas, and usingmaterials

    12

    10

    Give opportunitiesand resources

    Give to studentsopportunities to expressthem by different languages(corporal, musical etc.) withdifferent materials

    3

    Considering studentsopinion

    Work over studentsinterests

    Allow students ideas andusing it as learninginstrument

    3

    Flexibility Be flexible to get objectivesby other ways 2

    2. ReferencesregardingTeachers

    Motive your students Show attractive task tostudents 2

    3.References toOriginality The capability to create something new 4

    4. References to goBeyond the basis Investigate and dont keep the ideas of text-book 2

    5. References toCapability

    Creativity is a capability that we must to develop in thechild, in creativity factors as intelligence, context andmotivation are involved

    2

    6. References toSpontaneity 1

    7. References toOpen mind 1

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    From table 2, one of the most important factors that teacher attributeto creativity is that it needs to be shown and expressed, thus divergentthinking needs some freedom. Another interesting finding was the notion thatteachers role have an impact on childrens divergent thinking, which atsome point is transmitting the idea that creativity is a capability that can beimproved.

    As a prompt of these questions, we asked teachers to describe thecharacteristics/behaviours of a child to be considered creative. The answersof teacher were related to Originality (17 references); Intrinsic motivation (6references); going Beyond the basics (4 references); Unexpectedness (4mentions); Elaboration (2 references), and other attributes that received onemention such as: clarity, fluidity, self-expression of imagination, andsensitivity.

    Some of the answers of teachers for originality were:Give different and originality solutions, no expecting, also to

    provide varied possible answers for the same situationWhen a child is able to achievement every task in a original

    and different way from their Partners doesFor intrinsic motivation some of the references were:Enjoy with activity

    Research responsibility and not resign oneself with a resultmore o less expectedFinally within the questionnaire section about the nature of creativity,

    teachers were asked to select among a list of attibutes those which theyconsider important for creative person The results are showed in figure 1.

    As we can see, the categorie with a higher selection was divergent thinkingabiltiy (79.31%), followed by imagination (75.86%), the options of self-confidence , ability to set own goals and intelligence received the samepercetange of elections (72.41%). It is worthy to notice that option need toavoid mistake didnt was elected and f ear of failure only received a 3.45%.

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    Figure 1. Creative person: Characteristics and abilities

    The results presented are consistent with those obtained in otherstudies, like the investigation conducted by Fryer (1996) and Diakidoy andKanari (1999).

    Finally teacher were asked to weight the importance of the factors thatimpact creativity, to do so they should attribute a certain percentage to eachof the factors listed in such way that the sum of all selected factors equals100%. The listed factors were: Personality, Environment, Intelligence,Knowledge, Domain, Previous knowledge, Task/activity , and there was alsoa space to add other factors not listed that teachers may consider important.

    Figure 2 shows the value given by participants to the describedfactors. The percentage is spread among all and most of such factors get avalue between 10% and 20%, being the most important aspects P ersonality (18.48%) and Intelligence (17.73%) and less important for them wereDomain (9.75%) and P revious knowledge (10.25%).

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    Figure 2. Creativity factors weight

    The results are agreed with the studies of Fryer (1996), Diakidoy andKanari (1999) and Morais and Azevedo (2008), in which the relevance givento personality exceeds the other factors.

    Another research question was to know in which areas and in whichdegree is more likely for adults and children to show their creativity. Theresults are showed in figure 3, in general teachers think that is more likelythat children show their creativity in inventions, symbolic play andexperiment, and less in solving logical-mathematical challenges. With

    respect to adults, the areas with higher scores were story telling andbuildings things, whereas drama & corporal expression and symbolic playobtained the lower scores.

    Figure 3. Mean scores of believes about creativity shown by adults vs. children

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    The differences between child and adult creativity were statisticallysignificant for story telling (t (22)=-2,64, p = .015) favouring adults and forsymbolic playing (t (20)=2.44; p =. 024) favouring children.

    Training in the field of creativityThe third theme of the questionnaire was aimed to know about

    teachers training on creativity, how this training was achieved and whattraining needs they feel should be meet referring creativity. Results are

    represented in figure 4.

    Figure 4. Teachers training on creativity

    This group of pre-school teachers indicated that their training in thefield of creativity was mainly achieved through training courses andworkshops (42%) and also during their university studies (38%).

    They indicated that their training needs were oriented to grasp a betterunderstanding of creativity and how to develop it in children, also they askedfor training courses that can teach them creative activities and methodology.

    DiscussionThe result found indicated that the majority of teacher participating in

    this study develop activities in to foster creativity in their classroom.Specifically they point out to the use of stories (making up endings orbeginnings, creating new characters), plastic art activities and learning

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    projects. In fact, when asked about what type of activities would fostercreativity they highlight the domains related with aesthetic, artistic andexpressive communication, this finding agrees with others found in theliterature reveiew (Fryer, 1996; Diakidoy & Kanari, 1999; Bahia, 2002, 2009;Morais & Azevedo, 2008) and also with the results founded by other partnersof the project (Santos & Andr, In press).

    Regarding the educational practices that are thought to inhibitchildrens creativity, the participant teacher do agree almost unanimously tounderline as the most important factor the structure of the task, letting somefreedom of action and using flexible task that are not constrained by a rigidstructure and close answers. that agree with experts who points out theimportance of task and environment when developing our creativity,although the participating teachers did not highlight the importance ofchildrens liking of the task and the matching between the task difficulty andrequirements and childrens own abilities (Amabile, 1998; Csikszentmihalyi,1990; Perkins, 2003; Prieto, Lpez & Ferrndiz, 2003; Sternberg & Lubart,1995).

    The results concerning to the nature of creativity showed that ourteachers thinks that creativity in school practices is identified mainly asfreedom and expression and in addition teachers attributed to teachersfigure an important role to provide materials and resources, motivate for newideas, etc., in the same line other research carried out about teachersperceptions have founded the freedom and teacher role as the best signal ofcreativity in school (Bjerstedt (1976, cited by The creative centre 2006 Fryer&Collings, 1991). Regarding what characteristic would exhibit a child to beconsidered creative, results indicated that originality is one of the cores ofcreative behaviour, like many research have suggested. Also they agreewith the literature on the characteristics and abilities necessary for a creativeperson, underling personality and intelligence as the main components(Ferrando, Prieto, Ferrndiz & Snchez, 2005; Prieto et al., 2006; Sternberg& Lubart, 1995). In fat, the studies carried out by Torrance (1963, 1975)showed that teachers perceived behaviours of creative students, such asbeing playful, emotional, open, critical of others, and stubborn, arediscouraged and thought to be disruptive to the existing organization, are ofthese could be considered as personality characteristics of creativity. Also

    the results of Chan & Chan (1999) and Tan (200) pointed out thatintelligence were the most frequently mentioned for creative students. Another research question concerns about the differences between

    adults and childrens creativity, specifically to know in which areas and inwhat degree is more likely for children and adults to show their creativity.The results show significant differences in story telling favouring adults, andsymbolic play favouring children.

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    Respect to teachers training in the field of creativity, the majority ofteachers underlined seminars, workshops and university studies as the mainprocedure to their creative formation, and indicated concept of creativity andmethodologies, strategies and activities to foster creativity as necessaryareas of future formation and training.

    In summary our research have been focusing on understandingteachers perceptions of creativity in order to know the and to foster itsteaching. Within our context teachers seems to have a understanding ofcreativity as part of personality and intelligence, and by the methods theyprefer to foster creativity they associate its development to personality traitssuch as freedom and self expression in the first years.

    LimitationsThere is necessary to underline some limitations of study results.

    Firstly, the reduced number of participants must be in considering, also thereis important research questions that there is not be considered in ourresearch, in this sense could be very interesting to know how teachersassess creativity in their students, how and also which instruments andtechniques they use to allow that creativity of children flow.

    AcknowledgementsThis investigation has bee possible thanks to the Comenius life-long

    learning programme CREANET: Creativity in preschool education (ref:510473-LLP-1-2010-1-IT).

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