Effect of creativity training on teaching for creativity for nursing faculty in Taiwan: A quasi-experimental study

BACKGROUND: Creativity and innovation are considered important core competencies in Taiwan for nursing students. Teachers play a critical role in the development of student creativity. Although studies have investigated creativity training, there is no consensus on how best to evaluate the effectiveness of the training. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate whether a teaching for creativity module (TCM) can enhance teaching behaviors and self-efficacy of teaching creativity for capstone course nursing faculty. The TCM intervention was taught in two stages by experts in diverse areas of industrial design. A 2-day teaching creativity workshop was followed by reinforcement of creativity skills in the classroom with nursing and design faculties teaching side-by-side for 6 h of the 18-week capstone course. DESIGN: This quasi-experimental study employed a pretest-posttest design to compare an intervention and control group. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: Capstone course nursing faculties were recruited from five science and technology universities in Taiwan. RESULTS: Forty-two capstone faculty members participated; 21 completed the TCM intervention and 21 were in the control group. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) demonstrated the TCM intervention group had significantly better post-test mean scores for creative teaching behaviors and self-efficacy of teaching creativity than the control group. Our findings suggest participation in a creativity workshop and reinforcement of teaching skills with classroom interdisciplinary teacher training can augment teaching for creativity of nursing faculty. CONCLUSION: The findings of this study indicate that an intervention program in creativity can increase teaching behaviors as well as perceptions of self-efficacy regarding teaching for creativity, which could foster student creativity. These findings have important implications for educational settings, as they suggest that the workshop and reinforcement of learning with hands-on guidance in creativity with interdisciplinary teaching should be integrated into the curriculum, which could facilitate student creativity by increasing teaching behaviors and improving self-confidence regarding teaching creativity.