Considering the Long-Term Transformative Impact of Creativity Training on the Work and Lives of Teachers

The purpose of this study is to examine teacher perceptions of the long-term transformative impact of Piirto’s Creativity Model and personal creativity exploration on teachers. Creativity training has been part of Ashland University’s Talent Development program for over 20 years using Piirto’s creativity model. The course encompasses multiple models of creativity, including the Torrance Incubation Model and Creative Problem Solving; however, significant time focuses on teachers’ own creativity through activities such as thoughtlogs, a Meditation Day field trip, and a personal creativity project. This study examines alumni perceptions of personal creativity exploration on their teaching lives. Data were collected through surveys and interviews. Questions include course memories, perception of the course’s impact on teaching and personal transformation. Results show that the course models community and group trust, and teachers increased understanding and valuing of their own creativity and that of students.

Creative Thinking Techniques

This chapter suggests how to facilitate group learning by creative thinking techniques in PBL. Techniques of brainstorming, checklist, and mind mapping are usually used among students in daily group experience. Using techniques can be reflected by the knowledge conversation model introduced in Chapter 5. Then a case will be discussed on a 5-day creativity training program carried out in Medialogy education at Aalborg University in Denmark. The case brings implications for Chinese universities: ‘fun' as a key to creativity training, mediation between individual and collective work, increasing creativity as an identity, and inquires of a long-term effort.

Methods for developing the creative potential of future teacher-linguists in their studies

The paper reveals the need to solve the problem of improving the quality of training of a future teacher at a university in the context of state requirements for the modernization of national education. The object of consideration in the paper is the quality of preparation of a future teacher of a foreign language at a university, the subject is the development of the creative potential of the teacher’s personality through the use of active methods, among which creativity training is of primary importance. The content of the paper is based on the analysis and generalization of scientific publications that reveal the issues of the quality of education, requirements for the professional personality and activities of the teacher, characterizing active teaching methods in teacher training. To diagnose the creative potential of students willing to become teachers of a foreign language, the study used the test developed by H. Sievert. At the formative stage, the students of the experimental group, in addition to traditional training, participated in creativity training. The paper presents the results of diagnostics of indicators of the creative potential of future foreign language teachers as a result of the use of creativity training. The participants in the experimental training had an understanding of their capabilities, the development of the skills and abilities necessary for introducing creative activity in the future profession, the adaptation of new knowledge, skills, and abilities to their psychological characteristics (interiorization). The practical significance of the study lies in the introduction of creativity training into the system of training a future foreign language teacher at a university to improve the quality of the curriculum by influencing the psychological mechanisms of the professional and personal development of students.

The Impact of Administrative Empowerment on the Employees' Creativity: A Case Study of Kamaran Factory in Hodeidah City

The study aimed to identify the impact level of administrative empowerment on employees' creativity at Kamaran Factory. The analytical descriptive method was used and the study population consisted of all the employees (400) who work in the factory. 133 employees were selected for the study using the random stratified method. The questionnaire was used to collect data from the study sample and the SPSS V20 package was used for the statistical analysis. Major study findings revealed that there were varying degrees of the level of practicing administrative empowerment and the employees' creativity in favor of the dependent variable (employees' creativity). There was also a statistically direct effect of the independent variable (administrative empowerment) on the employees' creativity at Kamaran factory. Further, (44%) of the variables that occur in the employees' creativity were attributed to the variables which occur in the administrative empowerment, and the remaining (56%) were attributed to other factors which are beyond the scope of this study. Keywords: administrative creativity, training, entrusting of powers, administrative empowerment.

Fostering University Students’ Idea Generation and Idea Evaluation Skills With a Cognitive-Based Creativity Training

This paper examines the effectiveness of a 10-hour cognitive-based creativity training on idea generation and idea evaluation among 51 undergraduate students (mean age 22) from a large university in the Netherlands. A pre-post-test within-subject design was conducted. All 51 students received the training as part of their bachelor program, and were assigned to receive the training in the first or second semester. As such, students participated in both experimental conditions (control and intervention), albeit at different times (within-subject design). The Alternative Uses Task (AUT) and specially designed idea evaluation tasks were used before and after the training. In the idea evaluation task, students were asked to evaluate ideas on their originality and feasibility. Their ratings were compared with content experts’ ratings. General Linear Models (GLM) for repeated measures were conducted to determine whether any change in idea generation and idea evaluation is the result of the interaction between type of treatment (i.e. intervention or control group) and time (pre- and post-test). The results indicated that students did not generate significantly more (i.e. fluency) and different kind of ideas (i.e. flexibility) after training. Most importantly, in line with recent research, the results suggested that training does not impact idea evaluation skills among students. This suggests that idea evaluation might be a more complex process to enhance than idea generation. The implications of these results for educational practice and future research are discussed.