Enhancing Creativity of Elementary Science Teachers

Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 2, Issue 2, Article 4 (Dec., 2001)
Vivian Mo Yin CHENG
Enhancing Creativity of Elementary Science Teachers - a preliminary study

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Results
During the lessons, nearly all teachers participated enthusiastically in the activities. In every cohort, new ideas were collected in various activities. For example, after repeating four times, more than 20 useful experiments were developed with the three sheets in Activity 3, and more than 10 useful designs were created to demonstrate heat expansion. In the last self-reflection activity, most teachers could identify the strategies they had used before, with reference to SCAMPER. And they were aware that the request for multiple answers in most activities had stimulated their divergent thinking. When asked why so many everyday items could be used to do a lot of science experiments, they used to say something like "science is everywhere" and "science is around us". Some teachers showed a deeper understanding by making these kinds of elaboration--- "everyday object is either transparent, or opaque, or partially so, therefore, nearly everything can be used to do light experiment", or "all materials are either conductors, or insulators, or partially so, therefore, they can be used to do electricity experiments".
In the questionnaire, nearly all participants responded that the lessons were very interesting, enlightening and innovative. On the whole, the program had successfully increased their interest and confidence in science investigation and in conducting experiments in primary classrooms. Some common feedbacks are--- "These lessons are very practical and useful to my teaching", "In the past, I cannot imagine that science experiments can be so simple and interesting", "I have never thought that everyday materials can be so useful", "Before, I do not know that there are so many possible designs for one experiment", "I would try to think more when I teach science topics". Obviously, some participants were successful in breaking their perceptual and cognitive sets. Meanwhile, some participants had significant changes in their conceptions of science and science teaching.
However, some of them gave the feedback that it was still difficult for them to develop novel ideas. They used to say something like "Even if I see it (the everyday item), I do not know how to relate it with science", "The problem is we do not have the scientific knowledge, and we do not know what it is, as you do". Moreover, many teachers commented that there was insufficient time, and they hoped that the conductor could explain more thoroughly the scientific phenomena behind each hands-on-activity (though this is only a module on teaching method). In their assignments, most of them had presented something different from the textbooks. However, only a few of them really presented original ideas. Most of them modified the activities they found in library books, and tried to make it more interesting to children or more suitable for school teaching.