Views of German chemistry teachers on creativity in chemistry classes and in general

Abstract

Creativity has become an increasingly important competence in today's rapidly changing times, because economics and industries depend on innovation. Creativity is therefore a requirement for school graduates, especially for the ones who strive to pursue a technical or scientific career. But creativity has not been integrated into the curricula of STEM subjects in many European countries like Germany. To successfully integrate it in the classroom, it is important to investigate teachers' views and conceptions on creativity, because they have an influence on teaching and lesson planning. This is the purpose of this study. To investigate the views and conceptions, a research instrument especially designed for this study is used. It includes the creation of two concept maps and filling out a questionnaire. The study was carried out using fifteen German chemistry teachers. The evaluation of the data was made qualitatively as well as quantitatively. It has revealed that almost all of the teachers in this study had a positive attitude towards creativity and had experiences referring to integrating creativity into their own chemistry lessons. But not all of these experiences are good ones and there were some aspects with regard to creativity in general, where uncertainties could be identified.