Teachers' Biases Toward Creative Children

Abstract

Teachers' attitudes toward creative children were investigated by having them respond to 4 profiles of fictitious students: a high-creative boy, a high-creative girl, a low-creative boy, and a low-creative girl. Based on these profiles, 144 teachers and 133 college undergraduates predicted how likely each child was to engage in creative and disruptive classroom behaviors. Results showed that teachers were significantly more likely than college undergraduates to rate creative children as more disruptive than average children. Significant results also indicated a tendency for teachers as well as college students to rate low-creative girls as more creative than low-creative boys. This suggests that teachers perceive and identify creativity differently in boys and girls.