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The purpose of the present study was to uncover kindergarten teachers’ beliefs about creative pedagogy, their perceived implementation of creative pedagogy in teaching practices, and factors contributing to differences between teachers’ beliefs and practice in China. A questionnaire was used to collect data from 698 in-service kindergarten teachers in Shanghai, China. Results showed that teachers overall held positive attitudes towards the importance of four dimensions of creative pedagogy (namely possibility thinking, interpersonal exchange, self-initiated pursuit and teacher-oriented pursuit). Teachers also reported favorably about all these four dimensions in their practice. However, there is divergence between teachers’ beliefs and their reported practice. Teachers had neutral beliefs about teacher-oriented pursuit but implemented this more in their reported practice. They had strong beliefs about possibility thinking, interpersonal exchange and self-initiated pursuit but they focused less on these aspects in teaching. Teachers themselves, family, and teaching materials and environment may be the key contributing factors to the divergence of beliefs and practice. These findings have implications for kindergarten teacher professional development programs and the implementation of creativity reform in China.

Educating students who have higher order thinking skills and making sure they develop conceptual understanding of the various concepts learnt in school makes it imperative for educators, to help students develop creative learning strategies. It is for this reason, among others, that the concept of creative learning has been identified as the way to mould the 21st-century learner, and compelling evidence can be adduced from the Finnish and Singaporean models of creative learning environment. Apart from these models from these two countries, extant literature has proved that children can live more independently when they are allowed to use their creative abilities and when this is enhanced in the school setting. We, in this light, gleaned and reviewed relevant literature pertaining to fostering creative learning and its concomitant challenges. In the end, we positioned Lin’s creative pedagogy as a framework that is instrumental in fostering creative learning in Ghanaian classrooms and that in spite of the challenges that may arise from implementing this framework, there are inherent strategies that are helpful in making learners creative.

This study investigated the impact of creativity pedagogy on learning performance, creativity, and learning motivation in the English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom. With a quasi-experimental approach to assessing treatment effects in the nonequivalent control group design, three instruments of the measure were administered to a sample of 256 elementary school students: 119 and 137 students in the experimental and control groups, respectively. The instruments were an English receptive vocabulary test, the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking, and an English learning motivation questionnaire. The experimental group received an 8-week intervention with regular EFL curriculum-infused activities for creativity. The control group was taught a regular EFL curriculum. The results of one-way analysis of covariance indicated that creativity technique pedagogy significantly improved learners’ English learning performance, creativity, and learning motivation. Implications for educators and directions for future research were discussed.

This paper examines the effects of creative drama on student teachers’ creative pedagogy and identity construction. 15 student teachers were observed teaching prior to and following an intensive 30-h creative drama workshop which was designed based on Heathcote’s (1984) understanding of drama in education in order to cultivate creative pedagogy and ‘character’ building. The student teachers’ performance was video recorded to be evaluated by three raters using an observation scheme. In addition to the observations, participant-driven data were collected through reflective diaries and focus group interviews. The results showed improvement in pedagogical skills as well as increased awareness in shaping personal and professional identities. Because of their involvement in numerous drama activities, the participants particularly improved their creativity, spontaneous decision-making, and their use of body language. As a result, we proposed the Funnel Model for teacher education programs and discussed a teaching as a performing art approach with a teacher as a drama leader role.

This study proposes a triangular model of creative pedagogy involving three interconnected elements – creative teaching, teaching for creativity, and creative learning. The rationale for this framework was to associate varied yet related insights into fostering creativity and stimulating additional discussion regarding pedagogical strategies for nurturing creativity in the context of educational reform in Asian societies. A teaching project based on this model was designed and conducted in local primary schools in Taiwan, one of the Confucianism societies. As the practice and values behind creative pedagogy can contradict the discourse of local context, this study explored questions of how desirable creativity is, how creative pedagogy should be applied, and how the experience of adopting creative pedagogy is perceived. A descriptive case study approach was employed to explore the research questions. Data were collected from the three perspectives of the participants by pupils’ response sheets and diaries, interviews with pupils and local teachers as observers, and the teacher–researcher's reflective journals. The findings showed that there are discrepancies between the pupils and their classroom teachers’ views. The majority of the pupils showed their love to the playful learning, whereas the teachers hesitated to welcome the practice. The practitioner–researcher, however, described the initiative as dialogue-triggering, a tug-of-war, and a gap-bridging process. The meaning of resistance and the emergent hybrid practice formed in the third space are discussed in this paper, and insights are offered regarding fostering creativity and adopting creative pedagogy in a similar context.

The aim of the study was to examine how drama fosters children's everyday creativity, its relationship with creative pedagogy, and what teachers can provide for children's development in creativity in an Asian context. A series of drama lessons were designed and taught to two six-grade (11–12 years old) classes by involving pedagogical strategies that foster qualities of possibility thinking. The pupils’ accounts concerning the drama lessons and the pedagogy used in drama were collected through diaries, response sheets, and group interviews. The findings show that the pupils considered drama useful in developing certain creative abilities and qualities, such as imagination, independent thinking, and risk-taking. The pupils indicated the strategies used in drama which made the development possible, including task-oriented, collaborative learning, and the teacher's guidance and ethos. The pupils also identified five features regarding creative teaching in drama, namely playfulness, innovation, flexibility, space, and in-depth learning. Although most of the pupils conveyed their enjoyment of the lessons, many of them found the way of learning through drama difficult, and commented that the strategies used and the ethos behind drama may result in the teacher losing authority, which they depend on to a large extent. Based on these findings, the possible tensions of fostering possibility thinking is discussed, and implications are proposed for Taiwanese as well as other Asian teachers for promoting creativity through creative pedagogy.