Creativity: What does it mean to teachers? : A cross-cultural comparison

Abstract

East-West cultural difference in the concept of creativity has in recent years become a concern of creativity researchers. Two groups of teachers with different cultural backgrounds were compared on their beliefs of the meanings of creativity. From their responses to a list of descriptors, six interpretable factors were obtained: Aesthetics, Divergence, Product, Association, Inventiveness, and Imagination. Differences were found for Divergence, Association, and Inventiveness, where the English teachers have higher means. Implications for the development of creativity, teacher-student relation, and classroom discipline are discussed.