Supporting Students' Creative Potential in the 21st Century Classroom: Teacher Perspectives of Practice

Abstract

This study examines the role of creativity in K-12 public school classrooms with a focus on how to best support students’ creative potential, implement creativity in the classroom, and provide teacher development in this area. The current literature demonstrates the challenge of implementing 21st century skills such as creativity due to the increased national focus on standardization and achievement in K-12 public school classrooms. These barriers are addressed in the study through exemplary teacher perspectives of practice. The study is unique in its attempt to bring creativity into everyday instruction for all students as a 21st century skill that is needed in our post-information society. The study contributes to a philosophical revision of earlier attitudes in creativity research that focus on creativity as a non-essential aspect of classroom learning reserved for students in specialized programs or schools. The study examines how exemplary classroom teachers integrate creativity into curriculum and instruction focusing both on content area and interdisciplinary instruction. The role professional development plays in teachers’ understandings, perspectives, and beliefs regarding the value of creativity demonstrates how training influences teachers’ abilities to support students’ creative potential. The conceptual lens of this study is based on the democratization of cultivating creativity in the classroom for greater educational opportunities and access for all regardless of achievement or talent. The emphasis is on supporting the creative process in an effort to better prepare students for our rapidly changing world which demands greater creativity. The research study includes a qualitative design using triangulation methodology with data including semi-structured teacher interviews, written reflections, and an existing rating scale which measures teachers’ ability to foster classroom creativity. Grounded theory methodology is applied with a constructivist focus to code, analyze, and synthesize the data, yielding a model for classroom creativity. The model provides an outline of the four main themes and their respective relationships, three of which are steps on a continuum to implementation. The fourth theme consists of the challenges that counteract the steps to implementation. The goal of future research will be to address gaps that are focused on teacher development, 21st century learning, and insights regarding best practices in implementation and integration. This research study contributes new thinking that will add to as well as diversify the current literature on classroom creativity and demonstrate that creativity has an essential place in K-12 public schools. Keywords: creativity, creative potential, creative thinking, creative process, curriculum, instruction, implementation, integration, professional development, learning environment