Preschool teacher’s beliefs about creativity and children creativeness

Year 2022, Volume: 10 Issue: 1, 37 - 46, 30.03.2022

Tina štemberger Sonja čotar Konrad

https://doi.org/10.17478/jegys.1053261

Cited By: 3

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine what beliefs preschool teachers hold about creativity in general and about children’s creativeness. A total of 366 preschool teachers and preschool teaching assistants participated in the survey, by completing a questionnaire designed for the purposes of this study in Slovenia. The results show that participants predominantly believe that creativity is innate, that it is a characteristic of all people, and it can be developed, in some specific areas, such as the arts. Participants also believe that all children are creative, but not at the same level and not in all areas. They agree that children need motivation to express and develop their creativity, which indicates an awareness of the importance of encouraging creativity. An analysis of the different views on creativity among teachers and teaching assistants shows differences in perception of children’s creativeness It follows that the longer training of preschool teachers can provide not only more knowledge and a sense of competence in working with children, but also the possibility of an over-structured, curriculum-constrained and pre-determined framework of seeing the child. This is why the results of the survey - an insight into the perspectives of preschool teachers and preschool teaching assistants - represent an important contribution in the area of developing the creativity of preschool children. The survey results reflect on how to guide the work of preschool teachers in the direction of developing and supporting the creativity of preschool children, pointing to the fact that (i) preschool teachers must be trained how to identify, foster and facilitate children’s creativity and (ii) they should acquire these competences during initial teacher training programmes and nurture them through continuous professional development programmes.

Keywords

Creativity, children’s creativeness, preschool teachers, Beliefs of creativity, Preschoolers children’s creativeness

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