Sources of professional knowledge and their impact on teacher beliefs, behaviors, and development of student creativity in art

Creativity is a necessary skill to be successful in the 21st century. Many education policymakers around the world include creativity and creative thinking among their learning goals for P-12 students; however, defining, developing, and assessing this multidimensional construct has been challenging. Because art is often conflated with creativity, it is expected that art teachers, more so than teachers of other subjects, would have some knowledge of creativity and how to develop it in students. This study used a mixed methods approach to explore P-12 art teachers’ creativity training, examining the relationship between their sources of professional knowledge, their beliefs about creativity, and their creativity fostering behaviors. The study subjects were a convenience sample of art teachers, recruited from an online forum of a national art education association and representing a wide geographic range in the United States. A total of 43 participants completed an online survey that included measures of their beliefs about teaching for creativity (BATCS), their creativity fostering teacher behaviors (CFTIndex), and their support for creativity in a learning environment (SCALE tool). Three survey participants also participated in follow-up Zoom interviews. Data were analyzed using both descriptive statistical analysis and structural and thematic analysis to determine if there was a relationship between the sources of participants’ training to develop creativity and their creativity-related beliefs and behaviors. Findings showed that the sources of professional knowledge of creativity stemmed primarily from self-directed learning and that undergraduate education was not frequently cited as an important source of learning to develop student creativity. In addition, training to develop one’s personal creativity was positively related to the creativity-fostering beliefs of Desirability and Creative Self-Efficacy and the behaviors of Integration and Learner Engagement. Having professional art-related experiences were also found to be beneficial to helping students cope with frustration. It was also found that teachers with more than 16 years of experience were more likely to have developed both their own and student creativity. This study sheds light on the sources of art teachers’ training to develop student creativity and provides valuable insights into how these sources influence teacher beliefs and behaviors in the classroom. These findings have important implications for art teacher education and licensing practices, which can inform future research and policy decisions.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ed.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Educ Policy, Orgzn & Leadrshp

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2023

Author dc:creator

• Kalvaitis Colombo, Julia

Contributors dc:contributor

• Kalantzis, Mary
• Cope, William
• Hale, Jon
• Montebello, Matthew

• Creativity
• Art Teachers
• Professional Training
• Sources
• Beliefs
• Behaviors
• Self-efficacy
• Creative Self-efficacy

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2023 Julia Kalvaitis Colombo

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/120392

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F120392