Chemistry teachers’ views of creativity

Themes that emerged through analysis of teachers’ responses are: (1) Nature of creativity, (2) Characteristics of creative people, (3) Characteristics of creative product, (4) Factors effecting creativity, (5) Explicit theories about creativity. Because of the emerging themes, the findings will be investigated under five dimensions as chemistry teachers’ ideas about; the nature of creativity, characteristics of creative people, characteristics of creative product, factors effecting creativity and explicit theories about creativity.

1. Findings about chemistry teachers’ ideas about the nature of creativity

Teacher responses regarding nature of creativity were coded and according to these codes, it can be said that the teachers saw creativity as novel ideas and problem solving. These codes are shown on Table 2. In their responses, some of the teachers expressed creativity is domain general while some of them said people can only be creative in special domains.

Table 2. Teacher views about nature of creativity

Nature of Creativity	Frequency
Novel ideas	3
Problem solving	4
Creativity Domains Domain Specific Creativity General Creativity	6 7

The following comments illustrate teachers’ views:

Teacher A: It is generating new ideas. It could be in any domain.

Teacher J: Offering excellent solutions about the subject that cause the problem with an undiscovered way. The domains that people can be creative are out of routine. They enable creating metaphors for new situation and tasks.

Teacher K: Developing new knowledge and making discoveries by using one’s systematic knowledge accumulation… People can develop different innovations and inventions in any domain. But physics and chemistry are among the most appropriate domains for creativity.

2. Chemistry teachers views about the characteristics of creative persons

Teachers were asked whether they have had a creative student; if they had, they were asked to define the characteristics of these students. In another question they were asked to talk about a famous person who they identified as creative and this person’s characteristics that make them creative. The data gathered from these two questions composed teachers’ views about the characteristics of a creative person. Findings are shown on Table 3.

Table 3. Teacher views of creative people’s characteristics

Characteristics of Creative People	Frequency
Intelligent	3
Curious	1
Motivated	2
Productive	5
Explorer	4
Percipient	1
Successful	5
Knowledgeable	5
Has wide interests	4
Ambitious	1
Fast thinker	1
Mindful	5
Independent	2
Respectful	1
Engaged in science lessons	3
Socially responsible	1
Examiner	4
İnsightful	3
İdealist	2
Rule-breaker	4
Gifted	1
Objective	1
Talented	5
Original	11
Emotional	1

As seen from Table 3, teachers mentioned many characteristics of creative people. They used adjectives such as ‘engaged in science lessons’, ‘rule-breaker’ and ‘respectful’ for defining creative people. Teachers also linked intelligence and being gifted with creativity. Statements from two teachers are as following:

Teacher I: Yes I have had a creative student. He was independent, successful, respectful and self-confident.

Teacher M: Yes I have a creative student. She likes science lessons, is ambitious. She sees everything before anyone, and is objective-driven.

Teachers were asked for a famous person’s name who they think is creative and why they find this person creative. Examples from teacher comments are given in Table 4.

Table 4. Creative persons according to chemistry teacher

Person	Teacher comments	Frequency
Einstein	‘Einstein made difference with what he has done.	5
Michael Faraday	‘Faraday thought about situations no else thought before. He is a person that looked in an original way’	1
Aristotle	‘Aristotle can be a good example. In an eternal sea of his inner world, his ability to propose logical explanations can prove his creativity.	1
Niels Bohr	‘Niels Bohr proved his creativity with his studies about atoms.’	1
Fatih Sultan Mehmet	Fatih Sultan Mehmet is creative because he made his dreams become true.	1
Vladimir Putin	‘Russian president Putin. He looks like an authoritative politician but he can play piano, he can scuba-dive. I think he is a different person. He is a man of parts. But he’s politician identity obscures his other qualities.	1
A Turkish talk show host	‘He has some work that has never been done before. We can see his intelligence in his work.	1
A Turkish religious leader	‘He sends teachers (thousands of them) to teach Turkish all over the world (with a little price) so Turkish language can be globally free.	1
Other scientists	I think there are a lot of scientists that I don’t remember their names. Especially the ones working on global changes.	1

As seen from Table 4, some chemistry teachers (n=9) gave examples from scientists while other chemistry teachers gave examples from historical persons, politicians, TV hosts and religious leaders.

3. Chemistry teachers views about the characteristics of creative product

Chemistry teachers were asked to list qualities that they think creative products have. Codes and their frequency are shown on Table 5.

Table 5. Chemistry teachers’ views about the characteristics of creative products

Codes	Frequency
Practical	1
Functional	8
Ergonomic	1
Open to interpretation	2
Complete	2
Detailed	1
Original	6

As seen from Table 5, teacher views regarding creative products were coded as ‘original’, ‘ergonomic’, ‘open to interpretation’, ‘complete’, ‘practical’ ‘detailed’ and ‘ functional’ and these codes were gathered under ‘characteristics of creative product’ theme. The most mentioned code was ‘functional’. Teacher views about characteristics of creative product are as following:

Teacher A: Must be original, solve a problem, and be understandable and practical.

Teacher C: Must be the best since ever produced. Must be ergonomic and useful and complete so you cannot say ‘it would be better if this is different’

Teacher G: Everyone could interpret differently and maybe it can have functions more than one.

4. Chemistry teachers views about the factors effecting creativity

Factors effecting creativity which were gathered from chemistry teachers’ responses are shown on Table 6.

Table 6. Chemistry teacher views about factors effecting creativity

Factors effecting creativity	Frequency
†Age	2
†Gender	10
†Family upbringing style	6
†Social environment	1
†Cultural barriers
Non supportive for every domain	2
Cultural degeneration	2
Non democratic family structure	1
Over protective parents	1
†Education
Positive factors
Reinforcement	1
Education in science and art domains	1
Teaching methods and techniques
Project-based	2
Contest	1
Experiment	2
Observation	3
Debate	2
Trial-error learning	1
Hands-on training	2
Drama	1
Brainstorming	1
Socratic method(question-answer)	1
Teacher qualities
Motivation	1
Technological literacy	1
Domain knowledge	2
Openness to innovation	2
Learning environment
Laboratory	3
Technological equipment	3
Special schools for creative students	1
Democratic classroom environment	5
Supportive school management	5
Negative factors
Inequality of opportunity	1
Test anxiety	2
University entry exam	5
Intensive curriculum	8
Insufficient application area	1
Weekly lesson hour	6
Teacher centered instruction	1
Overcrowded classroom	2

Teachers mentioned gender, age, social environment, family upbringing style, education and cultural barriers in their answers. Teachers also referred to positive and negative factors. Perceived positive factors are as listed; learning environment, teacher qualities, education in science and art domains, reinforcement and teaching methods and techniques.

Teachers mentioned that the creative children should be awarded in schools. A teacher stated ‘School laboratories are not equipped much. There should be another teacher in charge with us in laboratories. They could orientate students and award students who have done something creative. 2 hours a week is not enough for this.’ Some teachers also stated that education in science and art domains could foster creativity.

They pointed out those teacher qualities which can help nurturing creativity as motivation, domain knowledge, technological literacy and openness to innovations. Teachers also gave examples of methods and techniques that can be used to develop children’s creativity. These examples can be seen on Table 6.

Some teachers in this study mentioned that Turkish culture doesn’t support creativity enough. These ideas were coded under cultural barriers. Views from three teachers are as follows:

Teacher D: Personal and special education lacks in our country. Additionally older individuals have a voice in family and younger are being protected by not giving them any responsibility.

Teacher F: There’s no democracy culture neither in family nor in society. So there’s no environment available for creativity in our educational institutions and in social life.

Teacher J: It can be said that our culture supports creativity in socio cultural domains (literature, art etc.). But it is hard to think that our cultural structure is adequate especially in science.

Gender is a factor that is affecting creativity according to some chemistry teachers. The following two teacher comments illustrate this view:

Teacher E: There’s a difference between males and females when it comes to creativity. Girls have strong verbal intelligence while boys have numerical intelligence. Girls just work hard that’s why boys are more creative I think.

Teacher H: I don’t’ think there is a difference. Both genders could be creative when needed. Females could be creative through their attitudes and abilities. For example they can prepare a meal or create a pattern in embroidery. Oppositely males can work on cars or other machines working with motors.

About negative factors they associated with education, chemistry teachers mentioned weekly chemistry lesson hour, intensive curriculum, overcrowded classroom, inequality of opportunity, insufficient application areas, text anxiety and teacher centered instruction. Selected teacher statements are as following:

Teacher A: Curriculums are very intensive. Application areas and time is insufficient for chemistry education.

Teacher F: … First of all curriculum must not be this intense. I don’t think there’s much to do for creativity if the college entry exams continue to use multiple choice questions. There are too many concepts and too many educational attainments. Children spend most of their times trying to learn and use those concepts. But they also need some time to imagine.

Teacher K: There aren’t any opportunities for creativity development because it’s too hard for us to motivate students to be creative. There aren’t sufficient psychological and environmental conditions for project development in every school.

5. Chemistry teachers preferred explicit creativity theories

In this study chemistry teachers were given 12 statements related with explicit theories of creativity and they were expected to choose 3 of them which fit their view most. Frequencies of teachers’ responses about explicit creativity theories frequencies are given on Table 7.

Table 7. Teachers preferred explicit creativity theories

Creativity Theories	Frequency
Developmental-Humanist	7
Psychoanalytical	1
Behaviorist	3
Economic	3
Evolutionary	1
Problem Solving and Expertise Based	5
Problem Finding	3
Typological	9
Stage and Componential Processes	1
Psychometric	0
Systematic	1
Cognitive	5

Teachers’ choices of creativity theories showed that they held similar views supporting typological and developmental-humanist theories. Psychometric view was not supported by any of teachers which indicate that teachers in our sample don’t consider creativity as a measurable construct.