Proceedings of The 7th World Conference on Teaching and Education
Year: 2024
DOI:
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The Challenges of Creativity: A Word from Teachers
Ilaria Stragapede, Maria Vittoria Battaglia
ABSTRACT:
The paper reports a case study (Yin, 2009) involving a sample of 10 primary school teachers that was designed to investigate how creativity is used and perceived in the context of formal education, to further design appropriate didactic strategies for the development of creativity. In order for the school to be a place that fosters the development of creativity, teachers must be aware of what it is and of the strategies to be implemented for an adequate didactic intervention (Kettler et al., 2021). The research was divided into three phases: an individual phase (teachers reflected individually on what creativity is and expressed it through an artefact); a second phase of sharing; a third cooperative phase (teachers produced an artefact representing a pedagogical model of creativity in the classroom). In all phases teachers were videotaped. The verbatim transcription of the recording was subjected to a both descriptive and comparative qualitative thematic analysis, carried out using Atlas.ti (Paulus, Lester, 2016). Findings revealed that to recognize creativity as a pedagogical resource, a creative literacy should be integrated into teaching and learning processes, and it is pivotal for teachers to develop awareness of their strategies and receive training on integrating creativity into the classroom (Kaplan, 2019). Additionally, there was a tendency to associate creativity only with art, rather than recognizing its transversal nature across all subjects. Emphasising creativity as a transversal educational competence would enable students to not only assimilate concepts but also process them, integrate personal considerations, and find alternative solutions.
keywords: acreative literacy; creative pedagogy; didactic strategies; focus-group; transversal competence