A phenomenographic approach to understanding some Taiwanese music teachers’ experiences of creativity in the classroom

Abstract

The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. AbstractThis study examines what creativity means to a group of Taiwanese music teachers, and how it relates to their classroom experiences and teaching practices. The research followed a qualitative, interpretative approach. Interviews were used to gather data and were analysed according to phenomenographic principles. Analysis of the interviews indicated that two main approaches were taken by teachers regarding their experiences of creativity: a product-focused, and a process-focused approach. In the product-focused approach, creativity was defined from the outside according to externally imposed factors, frames of reference, and motivating forces. In the process-focused approach, creativity was defined from the inside, from the point of view of the individual involved, and in which personal agency, inclusion, and collaboration were valued.The approach taken by teachers towards creativity also showed a relationship to how music education was perceived. Teachers who had a product-focused approach to creativity saw music education in terms of content, while those who were process-focused had a meaningoriented view of music education that valued the experience of students over the content that was taught. Similarly, a correspondence was found between how creativity was perceived and the nature of classroom interactions that varied between teacher-centred and learner-centred.

Primary school teachers’ conceptions of creativity in teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) in China

“…In the literature, different terms have been used to describe the way teachers think about creativity, and conceptions is one of them. Other attempts include terms such as views, perspectives, conceptualizations, perceptions and beliefs among others (see Wiles, 2017). In the field of teacher cognition, in particular, concepts such as belief and knowledge are closely related and hard to disentangle (Borg, 2003).…”