Attitudes of American Teachers Preparing to Become Administrators toward Teaching Creative Strategies

Abstract

This article presents findings of a study to determine attitudes of American teachers enrolled in graduate human relations and supervision and teacher evaluation courses taken as part of a program preparing them to become school administrators. They were given instruction on the New Bloom's Taxonomy and asked to consider the Bill of Rights for the Planet as a possible catalyst for the teaching of creativity; they were then asked to provide their reactions to these guiding research questions: 1. To what extent are currently mandated or suggested curriculums allowing the teaching of creativity in their respective grade levels or subjects? and 2. How would they assist teachers under their supervision, once becoming administrators, to structure local curriculums and lessons to include the teaching of creative solutions to issues? Sub-research questions included: 1. How would you define creativity in teaching? 2. What do you consider to be barriers to creativity? and 3. As a future school administrator, what do you anticipate you will do to enhance creativity in your building? Based on their responses to the previous mentioned prompts, it was concluded that teachers are not using creativity to a high level in their currently mandated or suggested curriculums. There was strong indication that these future administrators felt that it was part of their responsibility to make sure their teachers used creativity in the classroom. To have creativity there needs to be a foundation to build upon and the willingness of teachers to accept more than one answer for a problem.