Essential, Unexceptional and Universal: Teacher Implicit Beliefs of Creativity
Abstract Guided by four key elements of creativity theory (the 4 Ps), framed in an educational context (Results, Investigation, Students and Environment), this study examines implicit beliefs in a large sample of teachers across a range of discipline areas. The study finds that teacher implicit beliefs of creativity reflect a more differentiated and operationalized framework of five factors. Furthermore, these implicit beliefs are not indicative of a narrow, arts-biased understanding of creativity. Notwithstanding these results, the study also found differences among teachers by gender, discipline, level (elementary versus secondary), and even by the teachers’ assessment of their own creativity. The implications of these results for teacher training and development are discussed.
Since Professor Bloom suggested a number of policy implications grow ing out of his research, the editors asked a city school superintendent to react to the preceding article. Mr. Pierce asserts that the findings on human characteristics are not surprising and that most practitioners already knew what the research revealed. Nevertheless the findings are welcomed, for they provide scientific underpinnings for administrative decisions. We suspect that there is a precision in Mr. Bloom's findings not heretofor available to school administrators. Mr. Pierce is Super intendent of Schools in Cincinnati.