Abstract
<p class="Default">The purpose of this study was to investigate secondary school biology teachers’ perceptions of scientific creativity. Cross-sectional survey research design was employed. The population of the study comprised all biology teachers in public secondary schools in Kericho and Kajiado counties in Kenya. A sample of 205 biology teachers’ was selected from a population of 347 using proportionate random sampling technique. A Biology teachers’ questionnaire was used to collect data. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The findings show that a high percentage of the biology teachers have correct perceptions of general creativity but only a small percentage have the correct perceptions of scientific creativity. The findings have also yielded valuable information that informs curriculum developers, teacher trainers and policy makers that the majority of teachers have inadequate perceptions of scientific creativity and this may influence their classroom practices. It is recommended that science teacher education programmes emphasize scientific creativity in their methodology courses to empower teachers to provide learning opportunities that would enhance learners’ creativity in science lessons. Curriculum developers also need to prepare curriculum materials that include more classroom activities that enhance scientific creativity. <strong></strong></p><p class="Default"><em><br /></em></p>
Highlights
1.1 Introduce the ProblemScience education aims at producing a scientific community that is beneficial to society
The results indicate that 8.3% of biology teachers think of creativity as coming up with new product while 5.4% think of creativity as coming up with a new process of doing things
The results indicate that 11.7% of teachers think of creativity as application using acquired knowledge to solve a problem while, 7.3% of biology teachers view creativity as recognition of relationships
Summary
Science education aims at producing a scientific community that is beneficial to society. It aims at promoting scientific ideas and practices (UNESCO, 1986). The production of a scientific community contributes to the social economic development of a country (Yoong, 1986). Science education aims at preparing learners to study science and technology in higher education, preparing them to become future scientists (Mc Gregor & Bazo, 2001). According to Bybee, Powell and Trowbridge (2008), the ability to use the method of scientific inquiry is a goal of science education. Scientific inquiry is a method that is recommended in the instruction of science in order to inculcate scientific creativity (Longo, 2010)
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