Tan, Ai-Girl

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.

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.

A study was conducted to investigate the relation between positive affect, feeling, task interest and performance. The participants of the study were 109 post secondary students from the business school in Singapore. The age range was between 17 and 20 years old (M = 18.13, SO= .70). The students of the study solved two problems, the Tower of Hanoi task (paper and pen format, well-defined task) and nine dot problem (insight task). Before problem solving, the participants rated their mood using the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS, Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988) and pleasantness rating of unfamiliar words (lsen, Daubman, & Nowicki, 1987). After the tasks, they rated the PANAS and task interest. The findings supported the hypotheses that there is a positive relation between positive affect and successful task completion (Fredrickson, 1998), between task interest and successful performance (Amabile, 1983 ). The findings suggest a change in negative affect (lower than the initial state) as an indicator of the presence of successful performance, particularly in solving a well-defined task (Schwarz, 1990). The study expands the paradigm of inclusion of emotions in regulating performance, including positive and negative affect, task interest and general feeling.

Our study examined the relationship of creativity self-efficacy and emotions of high school students (n = 279) in Singapore before and after they attended a three to five-day international service learning program. Participants completed a creativity self efficacy scale, the Positive Affect and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS), Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS) and Subjective Happiness Scale (SHS). We found a positive, significant correlation between creativity efficacy and positive affect, life satisfaction and subjective happiness but negative correlation with negative mood affect. In addition, students whose creativity efficacy was moderately high were found to have reported higher ratings of life satisfaction after having participated in service learning. Our findings provide initial evidence suggesting that service learning with positive intervention is positively related to creativity self-efficacy and happiness of youth.