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Sodobna pedagogika/Journal of Contemporary Educational Studies


Anna Kožuh

Let./Vol. 69 (135)
Št./No. 3/2018
Str./pp. 156–169
ISSN 0038 0474

Creativity: Didactic Challenge of
a Modern Teacher
Abstract: The aim of this article is to discuss creativity against the backdrop of teachers’ didactic
competency. It highlights the areas of mutual connections and dependencies. The text is an analysis
designed to thoroughly discuss the essence of a creative attitude and to explore creativity as an essential
element of effective teaching strategies. The discussed creativity in the teachers’ attitude is described
primarily as an incessant search for better didactic solutions, facilitating the discovery of new learning
opportunities and challenging the hitherto accepted assumptions of engaging with students. Thus, a
leading trait of teachers’ creativity seems to be the ability to look for different ways of solving the same
problem. When considering creativity among the didactic competencies of a teacher, a special attention
needs to be paid to Renzulli’s evolving model of functioning of abilities, according to which abilities
develop through the interaction of the following three factors: giftedness, motivation and creative
thinking. These elements constitute the basis of teachers’ didactic activities. The model is approached
through the lens of the Polish theoretical considerations respecting teachers’ creativity and its relations
to other didactic competencies.
Key words: didactic competency, teaching strategy, creativity and creative attitude, giftedness, creative
didactic initiatives, Poland
UDC: 37.091.33
Scientific article

Anna Kožuh, PhD., associate professor, A.F.M Krakow University, Faculty of Psychology and Humanities,
ul. G. Herlinga-Grudzińskiego 1, 30-705 Kraków, Poland; e-mail: ania@kozuh.net



Kožuh    157

Introduction
The system of education in European countries has undergone numerous
transformations in recent years. This wave of changes has been, inter alia, due
to the adoption of the common directives for the ‘Old Continent’ concerning the
modification of education at all levels. Many of the directives demanded that the
educational syllabuses be reconstructed or modernised. These changes also affected
the reorganisation and improvement of the syllabuses and the training of the teaching
staff. Among the postulated competencies, teaching skills, particularly competency
in recognising the surrounding reality, and planning and designing activities for the
students are strongly emphasised (Klus-Stańska 2010). The skills mentioned above
fit the definition of creativity, as an element of the teachers’ didactic workshop.
The teaching and education literature over the past few decades has consistently addressed the problem of creativity in didactic initiatives, leading to the
introduction of different concepts, definitions and perspectives such as lessons
of creative thinking, didactics of creativity, education with imagination, school of
creativity, education for creativity, future oriented education, upbringing, education
for freedom, and education for and through art. Some of the authors who addressed
this issue include Dobrołowicz (1995), Giza (2006), Limont (2005), Łuba (2015),
Moroz (1996), Nęcka (2001), Renzulli (1977), Smak (1997), Szmidt (2016), and
Żechowska (1996). A more thorough analysis is needed (see below) to explore the
theories of creativity in education and their significance for teachers’ competencies.
The position of creativity among teachers’ didactic competencies
The problem of the place of creativity among teachers’ didactic competencies
has acquired new significance. Teachers’ creative attitudes have become an essential
element of the educational initiatives. This is largely because cultural and social
transformations demand a more innovative teaching process and a faster, more
complete development of teachers’ and students’ creative abilities. This expectation poses new challenges to schools and teachers. Enabling teachers to initiate

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creative actions in education and expecting creative attitudes from students stem
from the conviction that learning to be creative cannot be accomplished other than
by participating in creative activities. The theory and knowledge of the principles
of creativity are not enough to enable students to solve problems creatively, and
requires considering the necessity of modifying the concepts of teacher training
and continuing professional development programmes.
Teachers’ creative attitudes are particularly characterised by the ability to
compare issues that are different from one another, the aptitude to perceive what
is imperceptible to others, and to approach a problem from different angles. It is
includes the ability to seek alternative ways to solve the same problem. Hence,
creativity depends on challenging the assumptions, discovering new opportunities,
and searching for better solutions (Łukasik 2014). Creative teachers frequently
use their imagination and are future oriented; compared to their less creative colleagues, they are more willing to take risks and are able to adapt to changes taking
place in their environment. Creative teachers also quickly perceive relationships
among seemingly unrelated elements. Creative teachers’ attitudes also encompass
important emotional components such as empathy, interpersonal communication,
active listening skills, openness to the unknown, courage in taking decisions, and
a sense of humour (Adamska Staroń, Piasecka and Łukasik 2007; Giza 2006).
A creative teacher draws on her/his ingenuity, imagination, ability, and courage to
go beyond the accepted schemes to disprove and break the stereotypes of thinking.
A teacher’s educational creativity also includes non-stereotypical actions and follows a route that has not been discovered earlier. It is the teacher and the types of
class activities proposed by her/him that steer the students’ holistic development
and allow them to fully accomplish the objectives of modern education. Education,
as an initiative-rich field, has the potential to provide students with a successful
life and a sense of accomplishment.
Discussions on creativity, including creative teacher education and support
for talented students, require considering Renzulli’s three-ring conception of
giftedness (Renzulli 1977). According to this concept, three factors cause the development of human abilities, and these include (a) the general abilities, such as
intellectual, artistic, psycho-motor and social; (b) motivation, or task commitment;
and (c) creativity, such as imagination, the ability of divergent thinking, originality,
ingenuity and fantasy. The model is not confined to giftedness, but also extends to
the teachers’ foundation of didactic activities offered to the students of all abilities
and not only the gifted.
Renzulli’s research focused mainly on the identification and development
of creativity in educational activities and on teaching strategies, linked to school
improvement. His main argument involves the application of the gifted students’
education to improve the process of skills acquisition. Renzulli’s conception has
been repeatedly alluded to and continues to be modified in the Polish education
literature, which mainly concerns the position of creativity from the perspective of
didactic competency of the contemporary teacher. This is particularly important due
to the emphasis that modern educational process lays on the frequent use of didactic
methods and the implementation of heuristic strategies. Renzulli’s conceptions are


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very popular in didactics; they initiate students’ divergent thinking and enable them
to discern, solve and analyse problems from different angles. Teachers’ creative
attitudes are indispensable to proper planning and implementation of classes based
on these methods. In the didactic space, teachers play the metaphorical role of a
‘locomotive’ of pedagogical progress, without which setting off railway carriages
on the long, independent journey to the unknown stations is impossible. Teachers
are undoubtedly the drivers of students’ creative work and their guides to effective, creative problem-solving strategies. Constant reflection on one’s own actions,
evaluation of students’ performance, and the ability to predict the consequences
of certain behaviours are important skills that foster the development of teachers’
creativity. Similar exemplifications of creativity relating to the attitude of teachers
in education prompted an analytical discourse on Renzulli’s model. Deliberations
were conducted on the timelessness of the model, the possibilities of its refinement,
and their implementation in modern didactic settings.
Renzulli’s model of ability and its Polish variants
Renzulli’s theoretical concept has been developed by a number of Polish
authors. Popek (2002), for example, emphasises the complex structures of ability
and creative attitude. He presents creative attitude as an interactive system consisting of two spheres: cognitive and characterological. The cognitive sphere includes
heuristic behaviour, i.e. the teaching methods known to education since the time
of Socrates (4th century BC), when the heuristic method of teaching—also known
as the searching method—involved guiding students towards problem-solving. The
method, from the time of the Sophists—the travelling Greek teachers (5th and 6th
centuries BC)—was used by Socrates during his intellectual dialogues with passers-by.
Nowadays, the heuristic method can be seen education in different forms. Regardless of whether it is ‘thought shower’, or a map of thoughts, a debate, a decision
tree, or the method of unfinished sentences or unfinished stories, teachers’ and
students’ activities are always based on creative thinking and creative solution of
problems. That is why the value of the heuristic methods of teaching is perceived
superior to that of the expository methods—reading comprehension, lectures, or
storytelling (Okoń 2003). Nonetheless, the importance of the expository methods
in modern didactics should be recognised, mainly because of the shortcomings of
the exploratory approaches; students need some fundamental knowledge before
they can engage with the enquiry-based methods. However, there are concerns
that expository methods may turn out to be too complicated or insufficient for
students. For example, students may find that the learning contents are difficult
to understand or memorise, affecting problem-solving. Popek (2002), who developed Renzulli’s model in Poland, associates the creative attitude with traits such
as independent observation, creative imagination, divergent thinking, intellectual
flexibility, cognitive activity, high intellectual efficiency, and construction skills.
From the perspective of characterological sphere, however, he identifies creative
attitude as nonconformism, defined as independence, activeness, expression, toler-

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ance, and high self-esteem. According to Popek, a true creator appreciates her/his
own ideas as well as those of others. He adds that a creative person’s desirable skill
inspire others to generate creative, original ideas and solutions. Popek’s ideas can
comfortably be extended to creative teachers.
Renzulli’s conception of giftedness (Renzulli 1977; 1998) set the scene for a
different theoretical approach in Poland towards creativity, known as the ‘Ligęza
and Piotrowski model’ (Ligęza and Piotrowski 2001). Unlike Renzulli’s model,
whose outcome is talent and special abilities, Ligęza and Piotrowski’s model end
result is the development of creative competency. The principal tenet of the model
concerns the interaction of factors that affect pupils from three to twelve years of
age. After more than six years of teaching children, Ligęza and Piotrowski introduce
the benefits of creative competency, most notably the way of training teachers for
creative education. Creative competency involves the ability to engage in creative
activities in different situations. Components of creative activities include the ability
to see and solve age-specific problems, the skill in using mental operations, and the
ability to draw on the positive emotions and deal with the negative ones. Ligęza
and Piotrowski also discuss the development of the capacity for expression and
spontaneity in creative actions alongside teamwork and self-presentation skills. In
their model, Ligęza and Piotrowski give prominence to the environmental impact,
such as integrating teaching and educational activities, forming school-parents
partnerships, and training teachers in the psychology and pedagogy of creativity.
A sense of freedom, diligence, tasks and issues are among the key factors that
mediate the creative process and the formation of the students’ creative personality.
This list was introduced by Dobrołowicz to which he adds the elements of cooperation and mutual understanding of intentions. The author writes that ‘the times of
individual explorers and inventors are over … success is the result of cooperation,
which can also be triggered by the so called synergetic effect’ (Dobrołowicz 1995,
p. 155).
The theories of teacher creativity stress the importance of continually improving the professional level of creative performance. They also emphasise that
not everything in this respect is teachers’ responsibility, and that no one should be
blamed for their work style. Echoing similar concerns, Żechowska (1996) comments
that ‘the teacher’s creativity originates not only from the “internal” conditions (of
the teacher’s personality), but also from “external” conditions, i.e. from “external”
situational pressures which are generated in the course of implementation of new
and more complicated tasks set before the teacher’ (p. 59). Żechowska says that
two variants of ability play a significant part in the development of teachers’ creativity. The first variant is the interpretative competency, and involves articulating
one’s ability to see the world and perceive other people and themselves in endless
transformations. It is also the awareness of the dynamics of the world, which provokes asking questions and looking for new non-schematic and creative answers.
The other variant of creative ability, crucial to teachers’ didactic work, consist of
self-creation competencies, which enable teachers to seek in themselves the need
for self-development, compatible with their values system. These competencies can
stimulate innovative activities, as manifestations of teachers’ creative attitudes


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(Żechowska, 1996). This concept resembles Kwaśnica’s (2007) model, which presents
teacher creativity development in several phases. Kwaśnica particularly emphasises
the creative transgression phase of the professional role, which is manifested in
the teachers’ critical attitudes to the professional conventions and in their quest
for liberation from these conventions. This process is closely connected with the
teachers’ awareness about their professional commitment to students and themselves, being indicative of their maturation in the context of their own professional
autonomy. Teachers who commit themselves to continual professional development
will eventually reach a critical stage where they can understand themselves and
devise methods of didactic problem-solving.
Among creativity theories in Poland, Nęcka’s (2001) concept of the creative
process is noteworthy. Nęcka perceives the creative process as an interaction between
the target and the test structures. He conceptualises the target as something that
an individual desires in order to achieve something new and valuable; he defines
the test structures as something of transitory nature that an individual creates
in response to requirements of the target. Nęcka considers the creative process
as a phenomenon subject to the principle of self-organisation at the levels of strategic control selection, stage control, and performance. This distinction serves
to ‘isolate the essential heuristic strategies involved in the creative process and
intellectual operations that execute commands coming from a higher level of selforganisation’ (ibid.). Among the heuristic strategies, serving as decision-making
and control functions in the creative process, Nęcka distinguishes the strategy
of vigilance, i.e. sensitisation to the reception of only certain classes of stimuli.
Similarly, intellectual operations, which directly affect the creative interaction, are
key elements of Nęcka’s model. In regard to the creative cognitive operations, the
author includes deductive reasoning, inductive reasoning, metaphorical thinking,
making associations, abstracting, and transforming. These operations also occur in
other forms of cognitive activity; however, in creativity we have to deal with their
special course so that the end result exhibits unusual and unparalleled properties.
These operations are typical lesson strategies, regardless of whether the seeking
or expository methods become dominant. Leaving aside the choice of the basic didactic methods, deductive reasoning, inductive reasoning, metaphorical thinking,
and making associations are each teacher’s leading components of the educational
workshop. Another important element of Nęcka’s model is the supply of creative
processes—the inflow of information and power supply, i.e. the appropriate motivation (Nęcka, Orzechowski, Słabosz and Szymura 2005). Another equally important
element is critical thinking, which allows making decisions and seeking answers
to the questions of whether a given idea meets the requirements of the objective,
or whether it is advisable to continue the interaction and refrain from breaking
off the creative process.
Moroz (1996) has also discussed creativity in education. Analysing the adaptive
situation of a young teacher, Moroz believes that each new lesson, every new topic
and objective of a lesson compels the teacher to modify her or his behaviours and
to change the previously chosen lines of action. According to Moroz, in this way the
teacher becomes the subject of the didactic process. In the author’s opinion, when

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teachers are functioning at the creative level, they cannot be expected to conduct
their lessons according to the pattern that they have learnt. Moroz believes that
this stage applies to the teachers with pedagogical experience and effective creative
work in the form of numerous modifications of educational procedures.
Teśluk (1999) has also written about the problem of teaching activities, aimed
at developing students’ creative attitudes. She remarks that: Opinions on the role
of the teacher have changed considerably throughout history. Teachers’ tasks were
differently viewed by the Herbartians than the advocates of the new mainstream
education. Despite such rich experience from the past, contemporary school is still
going through a crisis (ibid., p. 43).
Such a vision is opposed by the new trends that strive to build a ‘different
school’—open to the surrounding world, creative and progressive, stimulating
students to independent initiative, accustoms students to self-education, shapes
their interests. The proposal to create such a school sets a completely new role for
the teacher. Currently, ‘teachers do not fulfil their social role, but rather they are
actively involved in co-creating it’ (ibid., p. 96). Teśluk also attempted to draw a
synthetic image of a creative teacher by describing her or his significant competencies, skills and predispositions: A creative teacher is an ingenious teacher, open to
other people’s ideas, constantly increasing his or her substantive knowledge and
upgrading his or her qualifications. They are constantly faced by new didactic
and educational situations. Their activities cannot be schematic, formalized, but
it also requires constant searching, verification and elaboration of new solutions.
A creative teacher fully embraces himself or herself as a person. He accepts himself and recognizes himself in the categories of change and constant movement.
A creative teacher ceaselessly searches, studies, experiments and tests different
methods of solving problems. He is a person dedicated to what he or she does, responsible, original, persistent in pursuing his or her objectives, characterised by
flexible thinking (ibid., p. 97). Teśluk’s concept succinctly explains the problem of
the place of creativity among teachers’ didactic competencies. She aptly points out
the fundamental didactic offered to teachers who are open to other people’s ideas,
constantly seek, study, experiment and test different ways of solving problems.
These creative skills are the starting point for the effective teaching initiatives.
Difficulties in the creative didactic process
Impediments pose important problems for discussions on creativity. Among the
barriers to the development of creativity, Nęcka (2001) mentions processes that he
thinks may inhibit creativity. He mentions, for example, mechanisms that prevent
the initiation of the creative process, such as anti-creative beliefs or competition
of motives. Further hindrances include the mechanisms that cause the premature
termination of interactions, e.g. impatience for results. Nęcka also speaks about
mechanisms that disrupt the free course of the creative interaction, such as competition, pressure and conformism. To these can be added mechanisms that hinder,
such as excessive knowledge and mental inertia. To counteract the effects of the


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above-mentioned impediments, Nęcka (ibid.) and others (e.g. Klus-Stańska 2010;
Kožuh 2017; Tokarz 2005; Urbańska 2014) suggest that teachers dispense with
competition and rivalry and replace them with cooperation and interaction with
students during their lessons. The key element governing teachers’ meetings with
students should be the strategy of creative education, based on creativity training
sessions and the application of different activating methods (Nęcka 2001; Śliwerski
2007; Szmidt 2016).
Literature reveals that the working environment sometimes proves to be a
barrier to teachers’ and students’ development of creativity. There are situations in
which a creative teacher or student may not always be well-liked and appreciated
by others (Kožuh 2016). Another impediment to the development and support of
students is a lack of preparation of teachers at universities.
The teachers’ inability to reflect on their own work is sometimes identified
as one of the barriers restricting the creative teaching process. Teachers should
spare no efforts to create opportunities in the classroom to transmit thorough
knowledge to their students and enable them to understand and implement the
acquired knowledge in practice; they should also try to inspire their students with
independent and creative reflections. Students need teachers who will provoke them
to think creatively and to search for themselves. Modern schools need teachers who
not only transmit knowledge, but let their students experience it, as well. The desirable teachers are those that can be students’ guides in studying, discovering and
analysing the reality. Every day, teachers should allow their students ‘to see what
human nature is hiding, what is its spiritual wealth, the potential which makes man
an individual consciously realizing themselves’ (Śliwerski 2007, p. 24). To realise
this, teachers should acknowledge the need for creativity in their teaching strategies, not least because patterns of behaviour or learned methods of reacting have
become ineffective in addressing modern educational challenges. Teachers wanting
to perform their functions conscientiously are obliged to constantly seek new ways
of conduct and modifying their behaviours. Each new lesson and topic discussed
with their pupils and students of any age should be able to compel them to change
the previously assumed lines of acting. Creativity thus becomes a constant element
of didactic work of any teacher because the unknown and risks are ceaselessly connected with the educational reality in which it operates. For modern teachers, this
implies a change in their role. Nowadays, the popularity of all-knowing teachers has
diminished; however, there is a great demand for teachers who facilitate learning
and help in constructing knowledge. This gives rise to the need for creators of
safe scientific environments to promote students’ creative activity. Efforts are
being made in education ‘in which there is a place for both freedom and certain
discipline, which invariably accompanies every human action’ (Pachociński 1998,
p. 44). Placing students in a situation of creation may be an event changing their
previous beliefs, attitudes and values. A task formulated in this way necessitates
accompanying the students in their development during each lesson.

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Creative teaching initiatives undertaken in various cycles of student
development
Discussions on teachers’ creative initiatives in education strongly stress the
necessity of knowledge of the levels of creativity. This knowledge allows better
identification and understanding of teachers’ and students’ creative activities.
Among the concepts concerning this area, Nęcka’s (2001) reflections on creativity
from the perspective of life stages deserve attention. The author suggests distinguishing four levels of creativity: liquid, crystallised, mature, and outstanding.
For the author, the liquid creativity is the potential and essential precondition for
generating other types of creativity. Thus, the cognitive components of the liquid
creativity encompass the creative functioning of the cognitive processes and, among
them, mainly cognitive curiosity and the need for something new. So even this level
opens up great opportunities for teachers because a well-organised didactic process
contains abundant initiatives, which students should find interesting, surprising
and motivating for research. Crystallised creativity involves capitalizing on teachers’
potential ability in the pursuit of a selected creative objective, e.g. creative solution
of a problem. The cognitive elements at this level of creativity mainly include the
ability to see the problems and think critically. A variety of didactic situations provide students the opportunity for the development of this level of creativity, which
involves the necessity to solve the problems by seeking creative solutions hitherto
unknown. Teachers are offered these opportunities by the seeking methods and
the strategies of creative resolution. At this level, making use of such methods as
“thought shower”, Buzan’s (2014) mind map, or the ‘six thinking hats’ method
(Bono 2010) may prove very helpful in teachers’ didactic workshops. The third level
of creativity identified by Nęcka (2001) is the mature creativity; this level consists
of identifying important objectives or problems that are socially considered creative
and innovative. Working with students through this lens may require selecting
complex individual or group projects. It should be emphasised that a project as a
didactic method is a difficult and demanding initiative. A project is not only a longterm method of longitudinal training, but an activity which demands that students
engage in a very independent design and evaluation of their own work (Kožuh
2017). The final level, the outstanding creativity, should be understood as a mature
creativity, leading to the creation of works and inventions, which fundamentally
change the domains of knowledge. Didactically speaking, this level is a teacher’s
chance to work primarily with particularly gifted students. This also means the
sustained vertical and horizontal expansion of students’ knowledge and assigning
her or him tasks that require operating skills of the highest creative potential. Such
an approach to seeking creative solutions is a very important recommendation for
every teacher.
The presented typology—liquid, crystallised, mature, and outstanding—implies that each level of creativity has its time and place in the process of acquiring
skills and knowledge. Therefore, the knowledge of this concept is essential for every
teacher planning creative didactic activities. With this knowledge, a teacher has
a chance to better understand and diagnose her or his students and accordingly


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organise the didactic process more effectively. The fundamental principle of this
strategy and its major objective is to stimulate students’ creative thinking.
Conclusion
Profound analysis of the issue of creativity, as one of the most important
didactic challenges for a modern teacher, has become a necessity. According to
Melosik and Szkudlarek (1998, p. 55), we live in a ‘permanent future shock’. Keeping
pace with the speed and understanding the changes taking place in the world are
by no means easy for adults, let alone for primary or high school students. This
may account for why students often feel lost during lessons and helpless in the
face of everyday problems. This uncertainty and confusion sometimes trigger off
emotions, verging on aggression. Such a situation becomes extremely difficult for
the teachers because their work, creativity and innovation are often seen as a way
out and a step in the right direction. The presented didactic portrait of a creative
teacher bears testimony to the extremely high demands facing those who would like
to fulfil the desired style of work with students. So the question arises as who may
be able to satisfy such great expectations. Should we subscribe to the belief that
the teaching profession can only be performed by people with a so-called ‘vocation’
for it? Or perhaps there is a chance to develop and enhance competencies in the
process of training students and skills of the teaching profession, which would allow
teachers to pursue their profession in a creative way! Creative attitudes among
students usually develop due to a positive self-image and didactic environment.
New, creative ideas arise when students seek the necessity for constant change.
This is possible only when such activities are fully supported by creative teachers
and actively sought by curious and intrinsically motivation students.
Modern schools continue to attach considerable importance to learning
ready-made substantive content at the expense of learning creative thinking and
reaching new knowledge independently. Even though such potential is certainly
implicit in them, not all schools provide their students with an opportunity to
develop creativity. To tap the students’ creativity, a creative teacher is necessary
not only to develop their potential and expand their opportunities, but also help
the students appreciate these competencies. Such educational activities are well
grounded in didactic events, cooperation between a teacher and a student, and their
mutual stimulation. These elements can turn schools into a place that allow them
to experience the magic of discovering knowledge and honing their skills. From
this perspective, schools will also allow the teachers and the students to develop
their individual abilities and to make full use of their potential. Engagement in the
field of creativity calls for commitment and perseverance, especially for a creative
teacher. One reason behind the demanding nature of creativity is the fact that
these competencies go beyond the knowledge and skills normally acquired during
a teacher’s formal education. Teachers’ creativity engagements are expected to be
grounded on well-established foundations, acquired through pedagogical studies,
and constantly supported by continuous improvement and search for diversity in

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planned and implemented educational activities. A creative teacher is also encouraged to continuously evaluate the effects of her or his own work and reflect on the
didactic steps that she or he has taken. This is why planning effective didactic activities becomes so important in training teachers in creative thinking. Introduction
of classes that offer teaching creativity to future teachers is an extremely valuable
initiative, which has been successfully implemented in Poland by some universities
preparing future teachers. Examples of creativity training and implementation of
creative problem-solving methods conducted for future educators and psychologists
are published in a growing number of sources (e.g. Giza 2006; Łukasik 2014; Kabat
2013; Modrzejewska-Świgulska 2016). The present author believes that working
methods, based on creative problem-solving, should be recognised as a canon in
the education of future teachers in Poland and elsewhere. The experiences gained
during lessons in creativity allow for a wider perspective of pedagogical reality. They
also develop attitudes that foster creative research work, including resistance to
stress, dealing with criticism and ridicule, independence, openness to novelties, and
the ability to discern problems and formulate questions. The creative attitude also
prepares teachers to accept ambiguity, question obvious theses, and admit her or his
own ignorance, which is very important in the didactic process (Adamowicz 2009).
Creative teachers are normally in an ideal position to discover creativity in their
students. They can evaluate their students’ work and identify behaviours that imply
creativity. Teachers who demonstrate creative attitudes also need to be competent
in evaluation and offer constructive feedback to their students, coupled with incentives for creative effort. Stimulating and developing creativity of teachers indirectly
affects the creativity of students. Therefore, creative teachers’ didactic processes
will offer students the chance to develop their enthusiasm, independence, initiative, perception skills, critical thinking, self-discovery, and debate skills. Creativity
training has other benefits, too. Teachers, for example, can better stimulate the
creative dispositions of their students, and when working on themselves, they can
develop an attitude of openness to newness and diversity of the world, strengthen
and shape the imagination, and break down barriers that prevent the successful
recognition of themselves and their students.
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Anna KOŽUH (Univerza Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski Krakov, Poljska)
USTVARJALNOST: DIDAKTIČNI IZZIV SODOBNEGA UČITELJA
Povzetek: Namen prispevka je obravnavati ustvarjalnost v luči didaktičnih kompetenc učitelja, s
čimer želimo osvetliti zlasti področja, kjer se oboje povezuje in se kaže njuna medsebojna odvisnost. V
besedilu analiziramo bistvene prvine ustvarjalnosti in le-to pojmujemo kot nepogrešljiv del učinkovitih
didaktičnih strategij. Ustvarjalnost, kot se kaže v odnosu učitelja do poučevanja, razumemo zlasti kot
nenehno iskanje vse boljših didaktičnih rešitev, odkrivanje novih priložnosti za učenje ter s tem povezano
preizpraševanje lastnih ustaljenih predpostavk o delu z učenci. Ena od ključnih značilnosti učiteljeve
ustvarjalnosti je tako tudi njegova zmožnost poiskati različne načine reševanja istega problema. Razmislek
o ustvarjalnosti kot sestavini učiteljeve didaktične kompetentnosti med drugim tudi terja, da posebno
pozornost namenimo Renzullijevemu trikrožnemu modelu ustvarjalnosti, po katerem se sposobnosti
razvijajo skozi interakcijo treh dejavnikov: nadarjenosti, motivacije in zmožnosti za ustvarjalno razmišljanje. Vse omenjene sestavine modela vzpostavljajo temelj za didaktično delovanje vsakega učitelja.
Omenjeni model predstavljamo skozi teoretične razmisleke poljskih avtorjev o ustvarjalnosti učitelja
ter z vidika razmerja do drugih učiteljevih didaktičnih kompetenc.
Ključne besede: didaktične kompetence, učne strategije, ustvarjalnost, odnos do ustvarjalnosti, nadarjenost, ustvarjalne didaktične pobude
Elektronski naslov: ania@kozuh.net