Preservice Teachers and Creativity: Beliefs, Experiences, and Intentions for Future Practice

Despite the mainstream agreement that creativity is essential for twenty-first century success, preservice teachers receive mixed messages about the role of creativity in teaching and learning throughout their own education and in teacher training. While previous studies have examined preservice teachers' views on creativity across various contexts, further examination into the ways in which preestablished beliefs and experiences may impact their intentions to incorporate creativity into their future teaching is needed. Employing a practitioner research design, this qualitative study explored the beliefs and experiences that have shaped preservice teachers' intentions to incorporate creativity into their future teaching of secondary students. Data was collected from thirteen prospective secondary teachers in the forms of participant-created documents and class observations. Findings showed a generally positive perception of creativity for increasing student engagement and motivation and indicated a need for preservice teachers to have a broad conceptualization of creativity beyond the traditional fine arts. Participants demonstrated their ability to critique traditional instructional practices but lacked a concrete understanding of how to teach for creativity. Implications highlight the importance of teacher educators serving as a model for creative pedagogy and supporting preservice teachers in developing a complex understanding of the creative affordances of the discipline they will be teaching.