The effects of a meta-creative processes intervention on teachers’ creative thinking

Abstract

Fostgering creative thinking is one of the core purposes of 21st-century education. Although teachers play a crucial role in developing students’ creativity, few studies focused on intervention programs for fostering teachers’ creativity, and in particular on those programs that are based on metacognition and meta-creativity embedded within creativity-in action that covers teachers’ personal and professional behaviors. The present study examined the effects of creativity, metacognition and meta-creative (CMM) intervention on teachers’ creative thinking and their implementation of meta-creative processes. Participants were 115 teachers’ from nine elementary schools; among them 58 teachers were exposed to CMM intervention, and the other 57 teachers served as a control group. At the beginning of the study and at its end, all participants administered the Unusual-Uses tasks and a self-report questionnaire that assessed participants’ implementation of meta-creative processes. Results indicated that CMM teachers scored significantly higher on fluency and originality than teachers in the control group, but no-significant differences were found on flexibility. Furthermore, teachers in the CMM group implemented meta-creative processes to a larger extent than teachers in the control group. The study’s theoretical and practical implications are discussed.