Chemistry teachers' views of creativity

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine chemistry teachers' views of creativity. In this study, phenomenology method, one of the qualitative research patterns, was used. The participants of this study were 13 chemistry teachers working in Amasya. A semi-structured interview form was used for data collection. By using NVivo 9 qualitative analysis software, data were coded and themes were created. Findings indicated that the chemistry teachers associated creativity with intelligence and view creativity as an essential factor for problem solving skills and creating novel ideas. Chemistry teachers thought that there were cultural barriers for creativity. It was identified that teachers did not have enough knowledge about teaching techniques that were effective in developing creative ability of students and believed that the allowed weekly lesson hour and chemistry curriculum wasn't efficient for developing creativity in students. © 2015 HKIEd APFSLT.