How Pre-service Teachers Notions and Use of Creativity in the Classroom were Impacted during Student Teaching

Abstract

Pre-service teachers entering the field of education are excited about the idea of touching children’s lives in positive ways, helping their students learn and incorporating their love of teaching and being creative.  That excitement can easily be drowned out as they enter their student teaching experiences and discover a world of education that is very structured, standards focused, and rigid.  This study looks at how a group of 13 pre-service teachers defined creativity, tried to use it in their student teaching placements, and reflected upon the challenges of being creative and how they were planning to use creativity in the future.  Implications for this study include a call for more creativity training in the field of education and encouragement for using creativity as an important pedagogical tool. The topic of how we are using creativity in classrooms is significant because several practitioners enter the field hoping to capitalize on their creativity and if they are not able to use it in classrooms, then they are more likely to leave the field (Berry, Byrd, Wieder 2013). The topic of creativity in classroom spaces is also significant because it speaks to a skill we are either offering students to engage with or neglecting to put into the structured curriculum.  Without giving our students a chance to be creative, what are we giving them a chance to be?

DOI: 10.7176/JEP/14-22-05

Publication date:August 31^st 2023