Exploring student teachers' beliefs about 'c' creativity

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the beliefs about 'c' creativity with particular reference to the basic skills (reading, writing and numeracy) held by third and fourth year student teachers reading for a degree in primary education at the University of Malta. The study is based on the following research question: 'what are the beliefs of third and fourth year student teachers about small 'c' creativity?' In this study, a questionnaire which was designed to survey the student teachers' beliefs about the basic skills (reading, writing and numeracy) and creativity was administered to 146 student teachers. Quantitative techniques were applied to analyse how the beliefs about the teaching of numeracy and literacy and the beliefs for 'c' creativity vary. Responses for the qualitative part of the questionnaire were tabulated. The results indicated that student teachers believe and give importance to creativity in education; they know what creativity is and its importance for life. Furthermore, results also indicate that some of the student teachers do not distinguish between 'c' creativity and 'C' creativity. Approaches to teaching literacy and numeracy together with the beliefs about the quality of teaching of these two subjects also indicate that the beliefs about literacy, numeracy and 'c' creativity in education correlate well.