What Teachers See as Creative Incidents in Elementary Science Lessons

Authors: Lynn D. Newton^a; Douglas P. Newton^a

Abstract Teachers are often urged to nurture creativity but their conceptions of creativity in specific school subjects may have limitations which weaken their attempts to do so. Primary school teachers in England were asked to rate lesson activities according to the opportunity they offered children for creative thought in science. The teachers could, overall, distinguish between creative and reproductive activities but, as predicted, there was evidence of narrow conceptions of school science creativity, biased towards fact finding, practical activity, and technological design. Some teachers saw creativity in essentially reproductive activities and in what simply stimulated interest and on-task talk. Some implications and recommendations for teacher training and professional development are discussed.

Keywords: Conceptions; Creativity; Elementary school; Pre-service; Primary school; Science education; Teacher beliefs; Teacher development

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