How Do EFL Teachers in Turkey Perceive Creativity?

Abstract

As one of the 21st-century skills, creativity should become one of the primary focuses of education. This is because developing students’ creativity in all educational contexts certainly makes significant contributions to their lives both for now and for the future. Creative thinking should be stimulated diligently within the field of English as a foreign language (EFL). As the biggest and most crucial role belongs definitely to the teachers, who are expected to encourage and nurture creativity in their students through creative teaching, EFL teachers also should be well aware of their leading role for creativity in their classes. From this standpoint, understanding EFL teachers’ perceptions of creativity is significant. Thus, the purpose of this study is to investigate Turkish EFL teachers’ perceptions of creativity and to determine whether gender, age, teaching experience and undergraduate area of study influence their perceptions. This study was designed as a quantitative descriptive method research and was conducted with 200 EFL teachers working currently at the secondary schools in Elazığ. The data analysis was performed using SPSS 21. The results revealed that Turkish EFL teachers’ perceptions of creativity are high in general. Yet, it was found that the majority of EFL teachers do not always provide novel and efficient opportunities for the development of creative thinking. It was also determined that EFL teachers’ gender, age, teaching experience and undergraduate area of study do not influence their perceptions on creativity.