The Creative Student in the Eyes of a Teacher: A Cross-Cultural Study

Publication date: Available online 10 February 2020Source: Thinking Skills and CreativityAuthor(s): Maciej Karwowski, Jacek Gralewski, Timothy Patston, David H. Cropley, James C. KaufmanAbstractHow teachers perceive creative students, and what are the commonalities and specificities of such perception among teachers from different countries? To explore this question, we asked teachers from Australia, Italy, Poland, and the United Kingdom (total N = 933) to answer a set of items describing different traits of their students. Network and factor analyses revealed that teachers’ perception of creative students synthesized into three broad groups: (1) Cognitive traits typically associated with creativity; (2) Nonconformist and impulsive behaviors; and (3) Adaptiveness. While the first two factors were found to be largely equivalent across countries, perceiving creative students in terms of adaptive behaviors varied significantly between countries. Cognitive characteristics were the most dominant in creative students’ perception, followed by Adaptiveness and Nonconformism. Findings are discussed in light of potential opportunities and limitations to support creativity in school settings.
Source: Thinking Skills and Creativity - Category: Science Source Type: research