Polite Girls and Creative Boys? Students' Gender Moderates Accuracy of Teachers' Ratings of Creativity

The aim of this study was to examine whether, and to what extent, teachers are able to recognize the creativity of their students. The study measured the creative abilities, creative attitude, creative activity, as well as intrinsic motivation, intelligence, and school functioning of 589 Polish high school students, while their teachers (N = 178) rated students' creativity. The structural equation model (SEM) demonstrated that the accuracy of teachers' ratings of students' creativity is generally low—the latent factor of students' creativity reliably, however weakly, predicted teachers' ratings. The accuracy of teachers' ratings was moderated by gender: Only in the case of male students did the latent creativity factor reliably predict teachers' ratings. Students' school functioning emerged as a key factor positively associated with the perception of students as creative.     

How Much Does Creative Teaching Enhance Elementary School Students' Achievement?

This study examined the relationship between creative teaching and elementary students' achievement gains. Forty‐eight upper elementary school teachers' classroom instruction was observed and evaluated over the course of 8 different lessons throughout the year. For each teacher, during each lesson, both a creative teaching frequency score and a quality score were derived. These scores were then used as predictor variables in a structural equation model to determine the magnitude of the relationship between creative teaching and classroom achievement gains in reading, language, and mathematics. Our results demonstrated that (a) the majority of teachers do not implement any teaching strategies that foster student creativity; (b) teachers who elicit student creativity turn out students that make substantial achievement gains; and (c) classrooms with high proportions of minority and low‐performing students receive significantly less creative teaching.     

Creativity of university students: What is the impact of field and year of study?

There is a long‐lasting dispute about development of students' creativity in the course of their university education. Both the duration and major field of study may represent the educational effects. To address the issue, the present study collected data (N = 859) from a series of surveys of students in Hong Kong to clarify educational effects by controlling a number of background characteristics and prior scores on creativity. Apart from measuring self‐reported creative traits and creative products, it measured divergent thinking with five tasks to elicit students' creative ideas, which led to scores of fluency, flexibility, novelty, innovativeness, and originality. Results indicate the trend of monotonic decline in creativity with years of study at university and the general superiority of verbal creativity among students of humanities and social sciences, whereas business students had the highest scores on self‐assessed creative traits and products.     

Investigating the relationship between variations in students' perceptions of their academic environment and variations in study behaviour in distance education

Background. Recent research on student learning in higher education has identified clear associations between variations in students' perceptions of their academic environment and variations in their study behaviour. Aims. This research investigated a general theoretical model linking students' demographic characteristics, perceptions and study behaviour with measures of outcome and in particular compared four accounts of the casual relationship between perceptions and study behaviour. Samples. Study 1 employed data from 1,123 students taking six courses by distance learning; Study 2 employed data from 2,049 students taking seven courses by distance learning. Methods. Path analysis was used to assess the causal relationships among the students' age, gender and prior qualifications, their scores on the Course Experience Questionnaire, their scores on a short version of the Approaches to Studying Inventory or the Revised Approaches to Studying Inventory, their overall marks and their ratings of general satisfaction. Results. Both studies yielded evidence for the causal efficacy of all the paths identified in the general theoretical model. Conclusions. There exists a bi‐directional causal relationship between variations in students' perceptions of their academic environment and variations in their study behaviour.     

Similarities and dissimilarities between teachers' and students' relationship views in upper elementary school: The role of personal teacher and student attributes

The present study aimed to advance insight into similarities and dissimilarities between teachers' and students' views of closeness and conflict in their dyadic relationship, and personal teacher and student attributes that contribute to these views. In total, 464 students (50.2% girls) and 62 teachers (67.5% females) from grades 4 to 6 participated in this study. Teachers filled out questionnaires about their background characteristics, self-efficacy (TSES), and student–teacher relationship perceptions (STRS) and students answered questions about their demographics and the student–teacher relationship quality (SPARTS). Peer-nominations were used to measure students' internalizing and externalizing behavior. Tests for measurement invariance suggested that the conflict and closeness constructs both approximated similarity across students and teachers. Multilevel structural equation models furthermore indicated that students' relationship perceptions, and conflict in particular, were predicted by their own gender, socioeconomic status, and internalizing and externalizing behavior. Additionally, teaching experience negatively predicted students' perceived conflicts. Teachers' relationship perceptions were both predicted by their own characteristics (teaching experience) and student features (gender, socioeconomic status, and externalizing behavior). These predictors explained between 39% and 61% of the variance in student- and teacher-perceived closeness and conflict. Last, teachers' general self-efficacy was positively associated with mean levels of closeness, and negatively associated with mean levels of conflict across student–teacher dyads.     

Creative Self-Efficacy: Correlates in Middle and Secondary Students

ABSTRACT: This study examined correlates of creative self-efficacy (i.e., self-judgments of creative ability) in middle and secondary students (N = 1,322). Results indicate that students' mastery- and performance-approach beliefs and teacher feedback on creative ability were positively related to students' creative self-efficacy. Creative self-efficacy was also linked to student reports of their teachers not listening to them and sometimes feeling that their teachers had given up on them. Students with higher levels of creative self-efficacy were significantly more likely to hold more positive beliefs about their academic abilities in all subject areas and were significantly more likely to indicate that they planned to attend college than students with lower levels of creative self-efficacy. Finally, students with higher levels of creative self-efficacy were significantly more likely to report higher levels of participation in after-school academics and after- school group activities. Implications for creativity research and practice are discussed.     

Between-teacher variance of students' teacher-rated risk for emotional,behavioral, and adaptive functioning

As schools increasingly adopt universal social, emotional, and behavioral screening, more research is needed to examine the effects of between-teacher differences due to error and bias on students' teacher-rated screening scores. The current study examined predictors of between-teacher differences in students' teacher-rated risk across one global and three narrow domains of behavioral functioning. Participants included 2450 students (52.1% male, 54.2% White) and 160 teachers (92.1% female, 80.3% White) from four elementary schools in one Southeastern U.S. school district. Teachers rated student behavior on the Behavior Assessment System for Children (Third Edition) Behavioral and Emotional Screening System (BESS)-Teacher Form and completed a survey about their training and perspectives of common behavior problems. Results of multilevel linear regression found between-teacher effects to be greater for internalizing risk scores (intraclass correlation = 0.23) than for externalizing risk scores (intraclass correlation = 0.12) or adaptive behavior scores (intraclass correlation = 0.14). Statistically significant student predictors in most models included student grade, gender, race and/or ethnicity, office discipline referrals, and course grades. We also detected effects of several teacher-level variables in one or more of the models, including teacher gender, teacher ratings of problem severity and concern for hypothetical children displaying behavior problems, and the covariance of random teacher intercept and teacher random slopes for students' office discipline referrals. Although these factors explained some teacher-level variance in students' risk scores, a notable amount of variance between teachers remains unexplained. Future research is needed to fully understand, reduce, and account for differences between teacher ratings due to error and bias.     

Using Daily Creativity Planning to Promote Creative Behavior

Research has demonstrated that on the path from a creative idea to a creative outcome, high creativity motivation and self-efficacy do not necessarily lead to creative behavior. The present study proposed and examined the notion that daily creativity planning could promote creative behavior and contribute to the cultivation of creativity. A total of 77 middle school students (39 students in the experimental group and 38 in the control group) participated in this study, for which a quasi-experimental design was administered. The experimental group conducted a two-week daily planning for creative activities, while the control group did not conduct any intervention. The results showed that students' creativity motivation and creative self-efficacy were at relatively high levels overall and were positively and moderately correlated with creative behavior. Daily planning could effectively facilitate students' creative behavior. These findings point to a promising and simple creativity enhancement strategy for cultivating students to develop the habit of making creative plans in their daily lives.     

CPQ validity: The relationship between Children's Personality Questionnaire scores and teacher ratings

Scores on the Children's Personality Questionnaire (CPQ) were correlated with scores from rating scale items selected by a panel of raters measuring the same behavior as a CPQ scale. Data were obtained on a normal sample of school children in grades three to six and on two referred groups, underachievers and chilren with behavior or social problems. The teachers of the children were asked to complete two rating scales on each child. Correlations between rating scale scores and CPQ scores suggest that, in general, the CPQ does not measure the traits it purports to measure.     

Cognitive Abilities and Creative Behaviors: CAB-5 and Consequences

The validity of six indices of divergent production is examined with reference to creative output in eight content domains: visual arts, music, literature, theater, science and engineering, business ventures, apparel design, and video and photographic work. Undergraduates (n = 144) completed Consequences, four scales from the Comprehensive Ability Battery, and a specially developed self-report inventory that produced eight creative content scores and a total score. Correlational analysis determined that Semantic Fluency, Ideational Fluency, Originality and Remote Consequences were substantially correlated with most creative behaviors and were uncorrelated with grade point average. A factor analysis of criteria revealed two underlying patterns of creativity, suggesting that proficiency in one creative domain is predictive of proficiency in several others. The study of creativity has traditionally been propelled by aesthetic, scientific, and economic concerns. While revolutionary breakthroughs in science, technology, and design often command our attention and respect, it is the small, evolutionary innovations that typically have the greatest immediate economic impact (Haustein, 1981). From any vantage point there has always been an interest in the prediction and measurement of creative behavior and aptitude. The available measurement approaches for creativity include cognitive abilities, personality traits, self-reports of creative behavior and peer and teacher ratings of creative works (Hocevar, 1981). The purpose of this study is to assess the validity of an underresearched set of cognitive measures: four subtests of the Comprehensive Ability Battery (CAB-5; Hakstian & Cattell, 1976) and the Consequences test (Christensen, Merrifield, & Guilford, 1958). Our validity strategy was correlational; criteria were eight self-report indices of creative endeavor. The following paragraphs elaborate the underlying theory from which these measures originated and some unresolved issues. Perhaps the largest single breakthrough in the cognitive approach to understanding creativity came from Guilford's (1967) 120-factor structure of intellect model. While commonly used intelligence tests measure convergent forms of thinking, creativity involves divergent thought processes which, according to Guilford, account for 30 of the 120 factors of intelligence. Working through a factor analytic paradigm, Guilford was able to identify over 100 out of 120 factors. Guilford's structure of intellect may be criticized for having fractured intellectual functioning into too narrowly defined units relative to what human faculties are actually engaged in ordinary intellectual endeavors. Nonetheless, the theory did provide a provocative explanation for the nature of creative thought and some interesting measurements of same. Measurements of creative thought (divergent production) involve word fluency, category formation and reformation, ideational fluency original uses for common objects (opposite of functional fixedness). One test, Consequences (Christensen et al., 1958), is of particular concern to this research project and involves a certain amount of social awareness on the part of the examinee in conjunction with divergent production. In a typical test item, examinees are presented with a hypothetical situation, “What would be the consequences if people no longer needed to sleep?” along with a few common responses. Examinees are then given five minutes to write as many consequences of the hypothetical situation as they can think of. Responses are scored by, first, eliminating responses that are redundant with the samples or other responses or that are completely irrelevant Remaining responses are then categorized as obvious and remote. The numbers of obvious and remote responses are counted to produce two scores. Consequences continues to be listed as a research instrument by its publisher. Norms in the manual (Guilford & Guilford, 1980) are only available for 331 engineers who took two forms of the test, 665 ninth-graders, 80 twelfth graders, and a college sample of 87 cases. According to Guilford & Guilford, the consequences scores are closely related to other divergent production measures, remote more so than obvious. The CAB-5 developed by Hakstian & Cattell (1976, 1978) who also worked in the factor analytic mode, consists of 20 subscales that appear to capture the essentials of convergent and divergent thinking in a timed battery of manageable size. The four divergent thinking scales — semantic fluency, ideational fluency, word fluency, and originality — are of particular interest to this project While the usual types of validity and norm-building research have been done with the convergent scales (Hakstian & Cattell, 1976; Hakstian & Woolsey, 1985) little external validation work is available for the divergent scales. Hakstian & Woolsey (1985) found that semantic fluency and ideational fluency were significantly correlated with grades in an introductory psychology course (r = .33 and .30 respectively). The rationale for why divergent production would be related to grades in that course was vague. Norms for the divergent scales are currently available for 216 college and 1098 high school students. While the validation question is framed around a limited set of scales in this research project, it does represent an issue of more general concern. According to Storfer (1990), several researchers have questioned whether measures of divergent production have any external validity with actual creative works. He cited a study where teachers' ratings of their students' creativity were based on logical or convergent measures but had no relationship to divergent measures. In his review of creativity measures, Hocevar (1978) noted a generally low level of interrelationship among personality, cognitive, self-report, and rating measures of creativity; from this trend he opined that self-report measures of creative behavior were perhaps the most defensible indices of creativity. On the other hand, a study of approximately 500 college students showed that those that had won science prizes, or who published or exhibited their work scored higher than others on ideational fluency (Wallach & Wing, 1969). While the latter finding is reassuring, we are not convinced that prizes, publication, or exhibition represent the full range of creative behavior to be found at the college level. Prizes require a propensity to compete among the participants, and a proclivity toward subjectivity, among the judges. As academic researcher know, earth-shattering ideas are not quickly snapped up by scientific journals, and much of what is published is indicative of the evolutionary progress mentioned at the outset of this article. There is reason to assume that there is much valuable creative effort taking place that does not reach wide audiences or that is otherwise shoved into drawers. From a statistical point of view, it is preferable to conduct a criterion related validity study that encompasses a wide (if not complete) range of criterion values and to avoid an extreme groups methodology, such as a comparison of prizewinners and others. The latter has the impact of exaggerating the predictor-criterion effect size. Altogether, Hocevar (1981) identified 15 studies showing a positive relationship between divergent production and other measures of creativity, and 15 other studies that showed no such relationship. With the foregoing theoretical and methological points in mind, the following hypotheses were examined: 1. Consequences and CAB-5 divergent scale scores would be significantly related to several types of creative behavior. 2. Consequences and CAB-5 divergent scale scores would be significantly related to each other. 3. There would be a substantial interrelationship among the various types of creative behavior. Significant findings would dispel the notion among critics of divergent thinking theory (cf. Stolper, 1990) that the prediction of creativity is situationally specific. 4. Divergent measures and indices of creative behavior would not be related to college students' grade point average (GPA). While we recognize that no point is proven by failing to reject the null hypothesis, a null relationship with GPA is expected from the general theory, on the basis of findings concerning teachers' rates cited in Stolper (1990) and our own assumptions that much creative work goes unnoticed in favor of traditional academic demand. An expected null relationship thus adds an element of convergent-discriminant validity analysis to the research plan.     

Students' Self-Concept and Academic Achievement in Zimbabwe: A Preliminary Study

Students' personal beliefs about their capabilities to learn influence their motivation and learning. This study determined the relationship between self-concept and academic achievement of Zimbabwean primary school students. A qualitative approach was used to collect data from 75 pupils (36 girls, 39 boys: age range 9–12 years). Data were also collected from five of the students' teachers. Pupils' perceptions of comments or feedback from classmates and teachers comprised the self-concept measures. Academic achievement was measured using teachers' ratings of pupils' academic performance. Pupils who reported receiving positive comments from classmates and teachers were more likely to be rated by their teachers as having higher academic achievement compared to those who perceived themselves to be less favourably regarded by teachers.     

Creative Personality and Anticreative Environment for High School Dropouts

The study examined the possible roles that creativity plays in students dropping out of high school. It used data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS: 88), the Educational Longitudinal Study (ELS: 2002), and 87 high school students from a low income area in southeastern Michigan. NELS and ELS questions related to creative personality and anticreative school environment were selected and asked of students. The students’ responses were compared to their scores on measures of creativity (Runco Ideational Behavior Scale, Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking, & Scales for Rating the Behavioral Characteristics of Superior Students). The NELS respondents who showed creative personality were identified and examined whether their creativity related to dropping out. The results of logistic regression analyses indicated that the questions selected from NELS and ELS that showed anticreative school environment have a negative correlation with the scores on the creativity measures, which affect students’ dropping out. An understanding of these students and their behavior will help promote creative students’ academic and lifelong success through appropriate classroom restructuring.     

Impacting teachers' and students' spiritual well‐being

Spiritual well‐being (SWB) is reflected in the quality of relationships that people have with themselves, others, environment and/or God. This paper ties together several studies of SWB among teachers and students in primary and secondary, state, Catholic, other Christian, and independent schools in Victoria, Australia. Teachers' lived experiences have greatest impact on their perceptions of help provided by schools for students' SWB. Factors other than teachers contribute most to students' SWB. As well as presenting an overview of key supports for students' SWB this paper reports ways in which spiritual dissonance can be identified. These findings could be used to lay a foundation for further support in nurturing the total well‐being of staff and students in schools.     

Conceptions of learning,approaches to studying and personal development in UK higher education

Background Students in higher education are known to vary in their conceptions of learning, their approaches to studying, and the personal development and personal change that result. Aims This study aimed to explore the relationships among these four aspects of students' experience; to examine whether there were variations across academic subjects and across departments in each subject; and to explore whether there were changes from first year to after graduation. Sample Students in the first year and the final year of the undergraduate programmes at 15 departments, five offering each of three subjects: bioscience, business studies, and sociology. Method Participants completed a questionnaire containing four instruments and were given a similar questionnaire roughly two years later (when the entering students were in their third year, and when the exiting students were in their second year after graduation). Results The students' conceptions of learning showed a clear relationship with their approaches to studying, but the relationships with their personal development and personal change were much weaker. The students' scores were significantly related to age and gender and showed some significant differences across academic subjects and departments. However, there was little change in their scores over time. Conclusion Students' approaches to studying are influenced by their conceptions of learning and are relatively consistent across different contexts. In contrast, their reports of personal change and development seem to be determined by their implicit theories on entering higher education.     

Creativity and Cooperation in the Elementary Music Classroom*

The author examines attitudes towards, and the effects of focus on, creativity and cooperation in the elementary music classroom. First, elementary music teachers were interviewed regarding their values towards creativity and cooperation. Then, a curriculum was field tested that utilized cooperative learning and emphasized activities designed to encourage creative thinking and problem solving. A pretreatment-posttreatment study, with experimental and control group, was conducted to measure actual changes in student levels of creativity and attitudes towards cooperation. A follow-up of creativity measures was conducted four years later. Results indicate that elementary music teachers can adapt cooperative learning models to their teaching and can, short-term, influence students' levels of creativity and attitudes towards cooperation. Implications and opportunities for social-psychological creativity research and classroom educators are discussed. In 1983, Goodlad observed that, in general, there was a “gap between the rhetoric of individual flexibility, originality, and creativity … and the cultivation of these [things] in our schools” (p. 241) and that schools provided students with little opportunity to develop “satisfying relations with others based on respect, trust, cooperation, and caring” (p. 240). Goodlad encouraged teachers in the arts to provide opportunities for creative problem solving and to “boldly demonstrate the potentiality for doing through the arts what cannot be done readily through the other fields” (p. 238). His appeal to arts teachers is reminiscent of Maslow (1968):     

Does Analogical Reasoning With Visual Clues Affect Novice and Experienced Design Students' Creativity?

Design students' creative thinking abilities should be enhanced. Yet the educational tools that will lead to this goal are not entirely clear. Thus, this study aimed to investigate whether analogical reasoning with visual clues could help to achieve this goal. The Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT)–Figural form was given 103 undergraduate students in a design-based program. Novice and experienced design students' creative-thinking skills were tested under 3 conditions: with (a) no visual clues, (b) few visual clues, or (c) many visual clues. The results showed that (a) the presence of visual clues enhanced some aspects of creativity (fluency and flexibility); (b) compared to experienced design students, novice design students showed better performance on some aspects of creative potential (elaboration); and (c) the number of visual clues influenced novice and experienced students differently. Whether the results will apply to different subject groups and methodological situations remains to be seen. Still, findings of this study have practical implications for design education. To enhance creative thinking skills, instructors may encourage design students' use of visual clues.     

Parental relationships and coping with life stress

Abstract

The primary goal of this investigation was to explore how the quality of parent-student relationships relates to coping style by examining multiple aspects of this relationship–including support and conflict–and by examining the contribution that both parents' and students' perceptions of their relationship make to students' coping reports. We found that perceptions of conflict and depth in the parent-child relationship were each associated with different styles of coping. Moreover, parents' and students' perceptions each accounted for unique variance in students' coping reports. Greater perceived depth (both parent and student reports) predicted higher problem-focused scores, while students' perceptions of conflict predicted higher emotion-focused coping scores. Specific support provisions reported by students and parents also related differentially to the specific coping styles. Finally, the extent to which parents and students reported coping in a similar fashion was predicted by the quality of their relationship.     

Teacher-student relationships and mental health help seeking behaviors among elementary and secondary students in Ontario Canada

This study examined associations between teacher-student relationship quality at school and teachers' responsiveness to students' emotional concerns in a classroom and (a) students' intention to seek help at school for mental health concerns and (b) mental health-related service use. Data for analyses came from the School Mental Health Survey, a cross-sectional survey of 31,120 grade 6–12 students, in 1968 classrooms, attending 248 schools in Ontario, Canada. Three-level (student, classroom, school) binary logistic regression was used to address the study objectives. Student ratings of the quality of teacher-student relationships and teachers' responsiveness were included as predictors, both at the individual student level and aggregated to represent a contextual level characteristic at the school and classroom level, respectively. At the student level, both teacher-student relationship quality and teacher responsiveness were positively associated with intentions to seek help at school among both elementary and secondary students (ORs ranged from 1.14–1.19 for relationships and 1.06–1.08 for responsiveness). Aggregated to the school level, teacher-student relationship quality was positively associated with mental health service use for secondary students (OR = 1.36, 95% CI [1.10, 1.69]). Positive and responsive teacher-student relationships were associated with help-seeking behaviors among students. Longitudinal studies are warranted to disentangle the temporality of these associations.     

The Development and Validation of a Model Explaining Sexual Behavior Among College Students Implications for AIDS Communication Campaigns

College students' risky sexual behavior places them at relatively higher than average risk for HIV infection. This study examines various explanations for college students' risky behavior, and proposes and tests a model of factors influencing college students' sexual behavior. A LISREL estimation of the model shows that the model fits the data. The results also show that (1) sensation-seeking predispositions and the sexual motive for a pleasurable relationship are indirectly or directly related to all measures of sexual behavior (i.e., number of partners, incidence of unprotected sex, and percentage of condom use); (2) sexual motives driven by concern for health have only an indirect effect on percentage of condom use; and (3) optimistic bias, personal relevance, perceptions about partners, and images of condoms are related to sensation seeking, sexual motives, and sexual behavior. In addition, interpersonal influence from sexual partners appears to both facilitate and inhibit safer sexual behavior. Suggestions are provided regarding campaigns designed for AIDS prevention among college students.     

PROCEDURES TO INCREASE SOME ASPECTS OF CREATIVITY

Instructions, reinforcement (team points), and practice were applied to four behaviorally defined creative behaviors of eight fourth- and fifth-grade students. All four aspects (number of different responses, fluency; number of verb forms, flexibility; number of words per response, elaboration; and statistical infrequency of response forms, originality) were demonstrated to be under experimental control. The procedures also raised students' scores on Torrance's tests of creativity. Application of the experimental procedures may well be practical for classroom teachers.