[[alternative]]Current Status and Effectiveness of Creativity Teaching

[[abstract]]Current Status and Effectiveness of Creativity Teaching In Elementary Gifted Classes Shiou-Mei Chan ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was threefold: (1) to investigate current status of creativity teaching in Taiwan elementary gifted classes; (2) to investigate the cognitive and affective creativity performance of gifted students from those gifted classes; (3) to explore the relationships between the status of creativity teaching and gifted students’ creativity performance. The Inventory of Creativity Teaching was administered to 18 teachers of elementary gifted classes; while other four instruments, including Verbal Test of Creative Thinking, Test of Problem-Solving, Chinese Form of Williams Test of Creativity, and Scale of Self-Actualization for Adolescents, were administered to 212 grade 6 gifted students from those classes. The major findings of this study were as the following: I. The current status of creativity teaching in Taiwan elementary gifted classes: (1) The majority of the gifted class teachers had possessed proper basic concepts about creativity teaching, but still not enough in advanced knowledge and instructional skills. (2) The main difficulty of implementing creativity teaching came from environmental obstacles; (3) Teachers majored in special education showed better knowledge base of creativity teaching than those with other majors. (4) Gifted resource rooms showed higher level of teachers’ knowledge base of creativity teaching, teachers’ creative personality traits, curriculum and instructional practice of creativity teaching, and instructional situation fostering creative thinking than self-contained classes. II. The performance of gifted students: Students from gifted classes showed higher level of creative thinking ability, problem-solving ability and creative characteristics than that of those from regular classes. III. The relationships between the status of creativity teaching and gifted students’ creativity performance: (1) There was no significant difference between gifted classes with teachers scoring higher on knowledge base and those scoring lower on students ’ creativity performance. (2) Gifted class students with teachers scoring higher in personality traits demonstrated higher level of creative thinking ability than those with teachers scoring lower in personality traits; (3) There was no significant difference between different gifted classes with different practices of creative teaching on students’ creativity performance. (4) Students from gifted classes with higher level of school and social environmental conditions fostering creative thinking showed better creative thinking ability and problem-solving ability than those from lower level of school and social environmental conditions; there was no significant difference between different gifted classes with different instructional situation on students’ creativity performance. (5) There was no significant difference between gifted classes with special education major teachers and those with other majors on students’ creativity performance. (6) Students from self-contained gifted classes showed higher level of creative thinking ability and self-actualization than those from resource rooms. (7) In conclusion, although environmental conditions and teachers’ professional background are both crucial factors on gifted students’ creativity performance, the former seems to be more important than the latter; the self-contained grouping practice seems to be more beneficial to gifted students’ creativity development than the resource room program. Based on the above research findings, some suggestions for gifted education and future studies are made.