Chapter 8: Creativity and Teacher-Student Interactions

Educators, researchers, and theorists are currently focusing on human creativity. Recent research on creativity examines the teachers’ influence on their classroom children’s creativity. For example, Joussemet and Koestner (1999) examine the effect of expected rewards on children’s creativity. According to Guilford (1959):

Some researchers believe that teachers can facilitate the children’s creative development when they:

• understand the nature of creativity as a discrete process that is adaptable to learning;

• implement innovative educational reform and practices;

• adapt their instructional behaviors and learning environments to effectively foster creativity; and

• develop and assess creative curriculum methods and programs (Esquivel, 1995).

The role of the teacher in creative teaching may be subsumed under the broad category of “teacher effectiveness” research, which documents the impact that teachers have on the students’ learning.