The impact of schooling on students’ creativity

Abstract

This study aimed to explore how the Maltese senior secondary school years can enhance or inhibit students’ creative potential. This investigation was conducted by exploring the perceptions teachers hold about creativity, their classroom practices and external factors such as the environment and educational policies which have a bearing on their endeavours to foster students’ creative potential. For the purpose of this study, Rhodes’ (1961) Four Ps of creativity is applied as a broad theoretical framework while integrating other theories which suggest that creativity is a phenomenon which is fostered and developed through a multifactorial process and is realised in the convergence of these factors. Using a sequential mixed-methods approach, 41 teachers working in a State Senior Secondary school completed an online questionnaire. Following the questionnaire, 12 teachers and members of the senior management staff were interviewed. Analysis of data revealed that pressures to prepare students for exams is a major concern for teachers teaching the senior secondary schools years. As a consequence, any attempts by teachers at fostering creativity in the classroom are marginalised when faced with prescribed curricula and time constraints which in turn are major barriers. The findings of this study add supporting evidence that changes in policies are unlikely to bring about desired outcomes unless fixed assumptions as to the purposes of schooling are redefined.