Tan, Ai-Girl

There are many methods that psychologists can use to investigate a construct. Asking people (either experts or laypersons) what they think about a construct, or finding the relation of a construct to other constructs are two of the many methods. Some recent research has given attention to the former approach, i.e. by discovering lay or people’s conceptions of a phenomenon. These conceptions are also known as lay theories, subjective theories, everyday theories, and naive theories. They provide additional explanations to present scientific findings and can help understand phenomena within socio-cultural settings. In this paper, lay conceptions of creativity across cultures (e.g., German, Japanese, Malaysians and Singaporean) are presented. It is believed that every individual can be creative and every society has the potential to nurture creative potentials of individuals. There are various types of creativity and different degree of creativeness within a domain. By observing lay conceptions’ of creativity, researchers and educators may propose suitable intervention programs that can help nurture creativity.

Following its aspiration to develop an excellent educational system, creativity appears gradually as a component of education in Singapore. In June 1997 the "Thinking Schools" concept was announced outlining teacher roles in fostering creative thinking. This paper investigated student teachers' perceptions of teacher roles in enhancing students' creativity in the classrooms. 140 student teachers participated in a paper-and-pencil survey rating teacher characteristics that were important for fostering creativity of primary school students and secondary school students on a 9-Likert scale. The student teachers perceived that primary school teachers who can help foster students' creativity are those who possess basic pedagogical skills, creative disposition, interpersonal disposition and classroom management skills. They regarded that secondary school teachers who can help foster students' creativity are those who possess creative disposition and skills, as well as know-how for fostering thinking skills, social skills and pedagogical skills. The student teachers' different perceptions of teacher roles in fostering creativity of primary and secondary school students were discussed.

In an interview setting, 144 participants who completed two blocks of teaching practice (five and eight weeks) were invited to share their teaching experiences with respect to cultivating creativity. Specifically, they were requested to rate some adjectives (e.g., caring, creative) or short phrases (e.g., has interest in many areas) that described them, and their perception of teacher behaviors important for fostering creativity. The factor and cluster analyses showed that the majority of the student teachers wished to be seen as caring and/or assertive teachers. Significant results were found with regard to teachers’ behaviors in stimulating thinking, asking questions, and facilitating evaluation. The majority of the student teachers (80% and above) associated high achievers with teacher competence in, and dispositions for fostering creativity. Implications of the findings of the study were elicited for fostering teachers' behaviors toward enhancing creativity within Singapore's teacher educational context.

This chapter presents our views on creativity in teaching music in the early childhood classroom for good life. In conceptualizing convergent creativity in music education in the preschool classroom setting, we posed a question of inquiry: What factors affect music teaching in a preschool classroom?

An instrument was developed mainly from responses of primary school pupils (8-12 years old) to an open-ended question. It aimed at finding out types of activities that primary school pupils wish to have in English lessons. Two hundred and ten primary four and five pupils ( 10-12 years old) of three schools in Singapore rated the activities individually according to their preference. There were three interpretative factor structures. The first factor ( F 1) comprised items related to the conventional classroom activities (e.g., doing worksheet, spelling words). The second factor (F2) consisted of items related to unconventional/earning activities in and outside classrooms (e.g., games, computer learning, outdoor activities). The third factor (F3) comprised items related to activities that demand expressive and linguistic competence (e.g., showing and telling, role play). Using cluster analysis, the pupils were re-grouped according to these factors. Within a class there were pupils who demonstrated a high desirability for all activities. There were also pupils who showed less desirability for all activities. Implications of the findings for teachers were elicited.

A total of 416 high school students rated their perceptions of creativity self-efficacy, emotions and achievement goal orientation. Three subscales of creativity self-efficacy were developed - abilities to generate novel ideas, tolerate uncertainty and focus. Affect was assessed using three scales: the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, The Satisfaction with Life Scale and the Subjective Happiness Scale. An achievement goal-orientation scale was used to assess four possible achievement goal-orientations. Acceptable Cronbach's Alphas demonstrated the reliability of the scales and hence the appropriateness of using them with the international students. Creativity self-efficacy was positively correlated with positive affect and a mastery-approach orientation that was consistent with current theory and research findings. The relationships between the other three achievement goal-orientations (performance-approach, performance-avoidance, and mastery-avoidance) and creative self-efficacy were less clearly established. Each goal-orientation was positively correlated with some, but not all, aspects of creativity efficacy. The performance approach orientation was negatively correlated with the uncertainty subscale of creativity self-efficacy.