Art Teachers’ Beliefs about Creativity

Art teachers hold beliefs about creativity, including the process, ways to enhance it, and what personality traits are typically associated with it. These notions influence daily decision making, shape instruction, and affect student mentoring. Even seemingly simple decisions, such as selecting student products for display on a bulletin board, to more significant deliberations about juried art competitions are affected by creativity beliefs. The present study investigates art teachers’ implicit theories about the topic, that is, how they define it, support it in the classroom, and view creative traits of their students. A questionnaire consisting of 14 items was sent to 319, K–12 art specialists teaching in urban, suburban, and rural districts in a midwestern state. The survey was electronically administered to a sample of 319 teachers; a total of 93 replied, yielding a response rate of 32%.

The results suggest that teachers’ beliefs aligned with the perspectives of both idealistic and action theorists of the field of psychology. Their ideas were somewhat contradictory and unproductive, in light of the needs of contemporary art education. It is suggested that educators in the study did not receive pre-service training that included general information and procedural knowledge for promoting creativity in the art room.