A Need Analysis on Development of Creative Thinking Skills: A Phenomenological Study (original) (raw)
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Creativity in the EFL Classroom: Exploring Teachers' Knowledge and Perceptions
As a response to the new requirements and needs of this fast-changing information era, higher education systems all over the world are focusing on developing learners' higher mental competences including creative thinking. The current study aims at exploring teachers' knowledge about the general concepts of creative thinking and its related skills. Moreover, the study attempts to investigate teachers' perceptions about creativity and its incorporation in the English foreign language (EFL) Classroom. To examine these issues, a questionnaire was administered to twenty-seven EFL teachers from the English department of Badji Mokhtar university, Algeria. The Findings reveal that although teachers hold positive perceptions about promoting creative thinking in the EFL classroom, they generally consider creativity as a quite confusing concept and have uncertain knowledge about its characteristics.
Developing Creative Thinking Skills in EFL Classes in Morocco
International Journal of Language and Literary Studies
The present paper reports on an evaluation study investigating the extent to which Moroccan EFL high school classrooms encourage the development of creative thinking skills. Our objectives were: to explore the extent to which educational policy documents, namely the National Charter for Education and Training (1999), the White Paper (2002) and the Guidelines for teaching English (2007) promote the development of creative thinking; to find out whether Ticket to English 2 textbook has the potential to support students to think creatively; to investigate teachers’ perceptions and attitudes towards developing creative thinking and to discover insights into the nature of classroom environment with regard to the development of the skill. The study used a mixed methods design which involves a mixture of qualitative and quantitative approaches. The purpose behind this choice is to investigate the match between the aims and objectives outlined in educational policy documents and their implem...
Teaching Practices of EFL Teachers and the Enhancement of Creative Thinking Skills among Learners
International Journal of Asian Education, 2021
Development of students' creativity has been a prerequisite for the survival in this fast-changing technological age. Enhancement of learners' higher-order thinking skills should be the main concern of education systems around the world. Therefore, the present study aims to survey EFL teachers' knowledge about creative thinking, the activities they practice to enhance creative thinking skills. It also aims to understand EFL teachers' perceptions about the importance of creative thinking activities in promoting EFL learners' creativity. Moreover, it aims to check if there are significant differences between participants' perceptions due to teaching experience and stage. A total of 56 teachers took part in the present study through responding to a questionnaire developed to achieve the aims. Results revealed EFL teachers' lack of knowledge of creative thinking skills. Nevertheless, they showed that they "Often" practice creative thinking activitie...
Developing Creative Thinking Skills in EFL Classes in Morocco 2022
Developing Creative Thinking Skills in EFL Classes in Morocco, 2022
The present paper reports on an evaluation study investigating the extent to which Moroccan EFL high school classrooms encourage the development of creative thinking skills. Our objectives were: to explore the extent to which educational policy documents, namely the National Charter for Education and Training (1999), the White Paper (2002) and the Guidelines for teaching English (2007) promote the development of creative thinking; to find out whether Ticket to English 2 textbook has the potential to support students to think creatively; to investigate teachers’ perceptions and attitudes towards developing creative thinking and to discover insights into the nature of classroom environment with regard to the development of the skill. The study used a mixed methods design which involves a mixture of qualitative and quantitative approaches. The purpose behind this choice is to investigate the match between the aims and objectives outlined in educational policy documents and their implementation through the textbook and teaching practices. The study employed five research instruments namely documents analysis, textbook evaluation, questionnaires, classroom observation, and a semi-structured interview. The results revealed that the importance of creative thinking has been emphasized in policy documents, yet the textbook and teaching practices focus on lower-order thinking skills, such as remembering and understanding. The study concludes with practical recommendations for policy makers, textbook designers, teachers, and teacher development programs.
Creativity is creating clear and singular visions for the future in the mind of people. These visions act as incentive in order for the people to enhance their thinking process and hence stimulate their creativity. Good teachers can encourage their students' creativity. Among recent works on creativity and creative thinking, one profound study is the influential book, The Research for Satori and Creativity written by E. Paul Torrence. This research is underpinned mostly by this book. This study explores the extent to which whether different EFL classrooms at Kashan university are creative or not. Five teachers were selected randomly. An observational checklist was used based on intrinsic attitudes of E. Paul Torrence he had gathered in his book after twenty years of study on creativity. Two observers were selected beforehand. Each class was observed twice by each of these observers. Two observers were selected to increase the research credibility. We have adopted Cronbach's alpha consistency analysis to verify whether or not the observation checklist possesses good reliability. The data from two raters gathered to be analyzed. The results of two raters were correlated. This checklist was implemented as a yardstick to see the level of creativity in each class. In the result we can see that rigid approaches which stifled creativity in EFL classrooms were easily spotted. Then in conclusion as a result of these findings, we offered some recommendations to the teachers of each class in order to enhance creativity.
EFL Teachers’ Awareness and Opinions on the 21st Century's Creativity and Innovation skill
Academic Journal of Nawroz University
Creativity and innovation skill is considered one of the important skills of the 21st-century education, in general, and in language education, in particular. This paper aims at investigating the awareness and opinions of English as Foreign Language (EFL) teachers’ on the importance and use of creativity and innovation skill as one of the 21st-century foreign language education skills in EFL classes at the department of English, College of Basic Education, Salahaddin University. A questionnaire consisting of two parts has been used in order to achieve the aims of the study. The first part of the questionnaire, which includes five items, addresses the teachers’ awareness, while the other part, which is composed of three items, is related to the teachers’ opinions. Twenty EFL teachers, (10) males and (10) females, who are specialized in applied linguistics and general linguistics participated in the study. The study has found out that the teachers’ understudy are aware of the use an...
Is it Possible to Enhance the Creative Thinking Skills of EFL Learners through Training?
Advances in Language and Literary Studies, 2018
In the light of continuous change of global perspectives, current educational contexts have been evolving to cover the necessary 21 st century skills that the individuals must acquire. Two of the 4Cs (creativity, critical thinking, collaboration and communication) of the 21 st century educational trends; creativity and creative thinking are the key characteristics of the learners. Considering as one of the requirements of the global communication, knowing and learning a foreign language should keep up with the current improvements in the field of education. Language learners should think critically and creatively in order to communicate with people to enhance the global collaboration. The purpose of this study is to enhance students' creative thinking skills through appropriate training and to understand the effectiveness of the stimuli type-visual or audio. A pre-experimental research design was chosen for the implementation of the training program. Two different groups-visual and audio-were given either visual or audio stimuli at the beginning of creative thinking tasks. 12 participants were chosen via convenience sampling for each group and the ages of the learners are between 12-13. The training continued for 6 weeks and the participants took 3 hours of training were week. Each training session covered creative thinking tasks which were adapted or designed for the development of creative thinking skills-fluency, flexibility, originality and elaboration. A task-based pretest was implemented before the treatment and the students' creative thinking skills were measured through figural, written and oral tests and the post-test was implemented to check the effectiveness of the training program. The results were scored by two different raters and the scores were analyzed through SPSS program. The results indicate that the creative thinking capacity of both groups has improved however the visual group students have higher creative thinking after the completion of the training program. This study suggests that although regarded as a higher level of reasoning, creative thinking can be enhanced to some extent among the secondary school learners of English and it should be a part of EFL curriculum as an essential learning skill.
Thinking outside the box: Turkish EFL teachers' perceptions of creativity
Thinking Skills and Creativity, 2020
Creativity is one of the essential 21st-century skills that need to be developed in students because we are living in an age that is ever-changing and unpredictable. Students should be encouraged to think outside the box not only through subjects like art, music, science, literature, etc. but also in educational settings like English as a foreign language (EFL) classes. Teachers certainly have the most significant role in fostering students' creative thinking abilities by implementing creative teaching in their lessons. Thus, the aim of the study is to explore the perceptions of Turkish EFL teachers about creativity and their creative teaching practices. It was designed as a qualitative research; interviews were held to probe in-depth into their perceptions on creativity. In line with the aim of the study, the research questions were determined as follows: 1) What does creativity mean to Turkish EFL teachers? 2) What kind of creative teaching activities do Turkish EFL teachers utilize in their class-rooms? 3) What are the factors affecting creative teaching and learning? As the instrument, an interview form was prepared to collect data by reviewing relevant literature and consulting the specialists' views. The researchers conducted interviews with fifteen secondary school EFL teachers, chosen randomly. They participated in research from different schools voluntarily. The participants were selected regarding their schools' socioeconomic position , their experience, gender and age to prove a general perspective of creativity. The data obtained from the interviews were analyzed through qualitative content analysis. The findings have revealed that the majority of the teachers are not aware of the central philosophy of creativity, and they do not apply a creative approach in their teaching. However, it is indicated that they use several activities in their classrooms like brainstorming, games, snap-words, and storytelling to encourage creativity. It is emphasized that there are factors constraining creativity and their creative teaching practices such as content-heavy curriculum, exam-oriented education, students, limited course duration and technology. On the other hand, there are factors facilitating creativity, like teacher motivation, technology and students. It is worth noting that 'technology' and 'students' were addressed both as facilitating and constraining factors. This study explored the perceptions of Turkish EFL teachers about creativity and their creative teaching practices. It is hoped to contribute to the field with valuable results.
The need to engage students’ creative thinking in language learning classes
TESOL and Technology Studies
There is a growing body of literature that emphasizes the significance of creative thinking in the globalized and interconnected world of 21st century. Developing the ability to think creatively helps enrich our lives, achieve success and have a prosperous society. Therefore, the development of the skill should be a fundamental part of education throughout all levels and across all subjects. Language education is no exception. Language learning classes that encourage creative thinking help learners develop not only intellectually but also emotionally and socially. The main purpose of this paper is to present the implications of engaging students’ creative thinking in language learning classes with reference to English language. We discuss a new perspective about the process of language learning and focus on how engaging students’ creative thinking can make learning other languages meaningful, enriching and engaging.