Creativity as a Predictor of Teachers' Effectiveness

Abstract

Two predictors of effective teaching, creative activity and creative thinking, were investigated in elementary school teachers ( N = 27). Instruments were two self-report measures of participation in a wide variety of hobbies, interests, and activities in personal life and in the classroom situation; the Wallach and Kogan Creativity Battery and the Tel-Aviv Educational Incidents Test, which measured ideational fluency in general and in classroom situations, respectively. The criterion of teachers' effectiveness was degree of job satisfaction. Classroom and nonclassroom creative activity were highly correlated and were both predictors of teacher effectiveness. The corresponding scales of creative thinking were also highly correlated but neither predicted teachers' effectiveness. Findings were interpreted as supporting the use of questionnaires on personal creative activity in screening and selection batteries of candidates for teachers' training programs.