Teachers’ Implicit Beliefs about Learners' Creativity

Abstract

This study aimed to identify teachers' implicit beliefs about the creativity of learners in primary, middle, and secondary schools and explore the differences in implicit beliefs according to the teacher's gender, specialization, training, and experience. The study participant’s comprised 200 male and female teachers from primary, middle and secondary schools in the State of Kuwait during the 2018-2019 academic year. The study tools consisted of the Electronic Measure of the Teachers' Implicit Beliefs of Creativity. The results showed that developmental beliefs were the most prevailing beliefs among the teachers, followed by the environmental beliefs; and, finally beliefs about personality traits. Also, the study found no statistical differences in the implicit beliefs of creativity attributed to the gender or specialization of the teacher. Furthermore, implicit beliefs about creativity attributed to training favor those who received training on creativity and differences attributed to years of experience, in favor of teachers with more experience (10-15 years). Moreover, the results showed differences in implicit beliefs of creativity that can be attributed to the educational stage in favor of the secondary school. The study presented a set of recommendations for training teachers about creativity and how to deal with creative students.