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TRAINING TEACHERS TO TEACH FORCREATIVITYEunice M.L. Soriano de AlencarPublished online: 04 Jan 2007.

To cite this article: Eunice M.L. Soriano de Alencar (1991) TRAINING TEACHERSTO TEACH FOR CREATIVITY, European Journal of High Ability, 1:2, 222-226, DOI:10.1080/0937445910010214

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0937445910010214

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TRAINING TEACHERS TO TEACH FORCREATIVITY

Eunice M.L. Soriano de Alencar

Abstract: One of the misconceptions about creativity which prevail among teachers is the beliefthat it is present only in a small proportion of children. This leads to underestimation of theinfluence of school and society on the creative process. The creativity training program describedhere was designed with the main purpose of arousing teachers' awareness of their own creativeabilities and introducing basic concepts about creativity and how to nurture it into the schoolsetting. Several studies were conducted to investigate the effects of this program on teachers'creative thinking abilities and behaviour in the classroom. The results obtained indicated thatthe program was successful in developing teachers' creative thinking and in helping them tolearn the skills which are related to creative thinking and how to further it in the classroom.

Growing recognition of the role that education can play in the development of creative abilities isobserved nowadays. This recognition is much more substantial in some countries, such as theUnited States, where since the 1950s several scholars-Guilford (1950), Rogers (1959), Parnes(1960), May (1975), Treffinger (1979), Torrance (1983), among many others-have pointed out theneed to cultivate creative behaviour and prepare students for creative endeavours. The contributionof creativity to the process of changing history and increasing innovative accomplishments hasbeen acknowledged, and research on creativity development has become common both in industryand education.However, in most countries teachers are not prepared to teach for creativity, and a number of factorsinhibit the development and expression of students' creative abilities. In the majority of schools,students are taught that there is only one correct solution to each problem, and the time availablefor handling questions with more than one solution is almost nonexistent. Fantasy and imaginationare not encouraged. Failure is not tolerated, and there is no reinforcement of experimentation andrisk taking.Another condition which inhibits creativity is the predominance of prohibitions, recommendationsand criticisms; these occur daily in the life of millions of children, who learn very early that thebehaviours most valued by parents and teachers are not the ones conducive to exploration anddiscovery, but those which lead to conformism and passivity. Consequently, creative potential iscommonly blocked and inhibited in most students, a limiting condition which is reflected inchildren's and adults' comments even among the highly gifted. Many declare frequently: 'I have

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no ability to ...,' 'I know that I am not capable of...,' 'I have no creativity.' These comments arealso frequent among teachers, and are a reflection of what is learned during the years of schooling.

This is the case in Brazil, as well as other countries where I have been lecturing, such as Portugal,Argentina and Colombia — many misconceptions about creativity and ways of implementing itprevail among teachers. One of them is the belief that creativity is a characteristic confined togeniuses and artists. According to many teachers, creativity occurs in artistic activities only, theart teacher being the one responsible for the nurturance of children's creativity. Also common isthe belief that creativity is a divine gift present only in a small number of subjects. Creativity isalso visualized as a question of all or nothing. Consequently, every person is seen as either creativeor noncreative, and most people do not understand that creativity is a question of degree, someindividuals being more creative and others less. The following statements are heard frequentlyfrom teachers, and illustrate this belief: 'I have absolutely no creativity,' or 'I do not have anycreative students in my class.' The idea that creativity consists of a flash of inspiration which occursin some individuals without an explainable reason, as if it were a magical touch, is also commonamong elementary school teachers, as well as the belief that creativity depends only on personalfactors, with an underestimation of the influence of school and society on the creative process.Beside these misconceptions and lack of information about creative abilities among teachers,several obstacles to the development of creativity in the school setting are observed in manycountries. One of these is the traditional view of teaching which predominates in the educationalsetting: Teaching is seen as the transmission of information (this being the teacher's duty) with thehelp of the textbook. According to this view, if the subject is clear, the textbook well written, andthe student receptive (motivated and moderately intelligent), the information presented in thetextbook and by the teacher will be acquired by the student. There is a tendency for the books tobe expositive and informative. Situations created to stimulate children to think and to reason arerare. Children are not seen as responsible for the construction of knowledge, and the emphasis ison memory and not on comprehension. This teaching model reduces to a minimum the presentationof problems with more than a single correct solution; it inhibits curiosity and does not encouragechildren to ask questions, elaborate hypotheses, reflect or criticize.

Another obstacle is exaggerated emphasis on children's discipline and good behaviour. Successfultransmission of the required content of the program, which should be reproduced by the students,requires certain characteristics from them, such as obedience and attention. The ideal student, theone desired by most teachers, is quiet and attentive, does not ask questions, criticize, suggestalternative means or new approaches. This student model is conducive to uniformity of behaviour,thinking and expression, repressing divergence and spontaneity.These factors led me to develop a creativity training program (Alencar, 1987) designed to: arouseteachers' awareness of their own creative thinking abilities, which most of them ignore; providethem with techniques and instructional materials to be used in the classroom; teach basic conceptsabout creative thinking and problem solving; make teachers aware of the several obstacles to thedevelopment and manifestation of creativity in school and society.

THE CREATIVITY TRAINING PROGRAM

This program has usually been conducted in 15 weekly sessions of 120 minutes each, although ithas also been conducted as a workshop in a condensed form. Different topics related to creativity

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are discussed in each session, such as:— Misconceptions about creativity;— Cultural and emotional obstacles to the development of creativity;— Creative thinking abilities;— Personality traits associated with creativity;— Obstacles to the development of creativity in the school setting;— Ways of fostering a creative classroom climate;— Techniques for creativity training (Brainstorming, Attribute Listing, Forced Relationships);— Use of imagination and visual images.Practical activities are also developed in each session with the purpose of training teachers in theproduction of multiple ideas in response to problems, and in the evaluation of different solutionsfor tasks and problems.In some sessions teachers are requested to develop exercises or activities which could be used inthe classroom to implement creative thinking abilities or strengthen personality traits related tocreativity. These exercises and activities are typed and distributed to all teachers, with thesuggestion that they be applied in their classrooms, reporting children's responses in a later session.During some sessions teachers also apply different creative thinking techniques to solvingproblems faced in their own work in the classroom. Some of the problems suggested by groups ofteachers who participated in the program were: How to handle students with learning difficulties;how to decrease violence in the schools; how to decrease apathy among the students. In eachsession, teachers are given a brief text to take with them to their schools. These texts constitute asimplified version of the main topics of the program extracted from the book 'Psychology ofCreativity' (Alencar, 1986).

EVALUATION

Our first evaluative study of this program (Alencar, Fleith, Shimabukuro & Nobre, 1987) evaluatedits effects on the creative thinking abilities of students taught by teachers who had participated inthe program. Five students of each teacher who had participated in the program and five whoseteachers had not were randomly chosen. Four tasks from Torrance's Tests of Creative Thinkingwere administered to both groups of students before and after the completion of the program. Itwas observed that teachers responded highly favourably to all aspects of the Creativity TrainingProgram. However, immediately after its completion differences between children from theexperimental and the control group were observed only in some items of a questionnaire whichmeasured traits and characteristics related to creativity. No significant differences were observedon the tasks of the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking.In a second study with this program (Alencar, Fleith & Rodrigues, 1989), two verbal and two figuraltests of the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking were administered to the teachers prior to thebeginning of the Creativity Training Program, at its conclusion, and five months later. Teacherswere also interviewed five months after the completion of the program, answering, among others,the following questions:1. In the first semester you participated in a Creativity Training Program. What is your opinion ofthis training?2. Did the Creativity Training Program contribute in some way to the development of:a. Your creative potential?

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b. Your pupils' creative abilities?3. Did the Creativity Training Program modify to some extent:a. Your way of thinking?b. Your relationship with other people?c. Your methods of teaching?d. Your students' perceptions?The results indicated that the teachers who had participated in the program scored higher on severalcreativity measures, both immediately after completion of the program and five months later.Furthermore, teachers evaluated the program very favourably, as could be observed in thefollowing responses obtained during the interview:— The training was wonderful. I liked it very much, although I had a completely different idea ofhow it would be before its beginning.— The training was very good. Do you know why? It gave me a space to do something. Whathappened during the creativity program, I tried to do in my classroom with my students.— In my opinion the program was valid, because I did not know I had students who were creative.I thought this didn't exist.The main reasons given by teachers for evaluating the program positively were making availableof new knowledge, provision of suggestions for practical activities, and encouragement of theteacher's own creativity. Most teachers considered the Creativity Training Program very useful,reporting that changes occurred especially in their teaching methods and in their students'perception, as a consequence of the program. They also reported that the program increased theirawareness of their own creative abilities and of ways to use these abilities in their work.Finally, an investigation (Alencar, Araújo, Fleith & Rodrigues, 1989) has just been completed ofthe effects of the Creativity Training Program on teachers' behaviour. For this study a checklistwas prepared for observing teachers' behaviour in the classroom. This checklist includes severalbehaviour categories, such as: giving positive feedback; encouraging the use of imagination;stimulating curiosity; maintaining discipline, etc. It was used to observe teachers' behaviour beforeand immediately after the program, and one semester later. The results indicated an increase in thefrequency of several behaviour categories on the part of the teachers who had participated in thecreativity program. This occurred, for instance, in relation to giving positive feedback, promotingparticipation, encouraging the use of imagination, stimulating curiosity, and chatting with thestudents. On the other hand, a decrease in the frequency of use of irony and maintenance ofdiscipline was observed.

The data obtained in our studies suggest that the Creativity Training Program makes a contributionto the promotion of conditions more appropriate for nurturing students' creative abilities in theclassroom. It is necessary that more training like this be offered to teachers, in order to make themaware of the need to develop children's creative thinking in various fields, to expand their owncreative thinking abilities, and to contribute to the preparation of students to cope creatively withthe problems and challenges they will face in the future.

REFERENCES

Alencar, E.M.L.S. (1986). Psicologia da criatividade. Porto Alegre: Mèdicas.Alencar, E.M.L.S. (1987). Design and evaluation of a creativity training program for elementary-school teachers. Paper presented at the 7th World Conference on Gifted and Talented Children,

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Salt Lake City, USA, August 1987.

Alencar, E.M.L.S., Araújo, M.L.M., Fleith, D.S., & Rodrigues, M.A.M. (1989). Efeitos de urnprograma de treinamento de criatividade nas habilidades de pensamento criativo do professor eem seu comportamento em sala de (Technical report). Brasilia, D.F.: Conselho Nacional deDesenvolvimento Cientìfico e Tecnològico.

Alencar, E.M.L.S., & Fleith, D.S. (1987). Avaliacao de um programa de treinamento decriatividade para professors. Forum Educacional, 11, 51-69.

Alencar, E.M.L.S., Fleith, D.S., & Rodrigues, M.A.M. (1989). Avaliacao a mèdio prazo de umprograma de um programe de treinamento de criatividade para professores do ensino de 1 grau.Paper presented at the XXII Interamerican Conference of Psychology, Buenos, Aires, Argentina,June 1989.

Alencar, E.M.L.S., Fleith, D.S., Shimabukuro, L., & Nobre, M.A. (1987). Efeitos de um programade treinamento de criatividade para professores do ensino de 1 grau nas habilidades de pensamentocriativo do aluno. Interamerican Journal of Psychology, 21, 56-71.

Guilford, J.P. (1950). Creativity. American Psychologist, 9, 444-454.

May, R. (1975). The courage to create. New York: W.W. Norton.

Parnes, S.J. (Ed.) (1960). Second compendium of research on creative imagination. Buffalo, NewYork: Creative Education Foundation.

Rogers, C.R. (1959). Toward a theory of creativity. In: H.H. Anderson (Ed.), Creativity and itscultivation. New York: Harper.

Torrance, E.P. (1983). Creativity in the classroom. Washington, D.C.: National Education Associa-tion.

Treffinger, D.J. (1979). Fostering independence and creativity. Journal for the Education of theGifted, 3,215-224.

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