Changes in Korean Science Teachers' Perceptions of Creativity and Science Teaching After Participating in an Overseas Professional Development Program

Journal of Science Teacher Education, Jun 2006

This study investigated changes in Korean science teachers' perceptions of creativity and science teaching after participating in an overseas professional development program. Participants were 35 secondary science teachers. Data were collected from open-ended questionnaires and interviews. Results indicated that participants showed a growing awareness that creativity can be expressed by every student; creativity can be enhanced; science has a much wider range of activities that foster creativity; and creativity-centered science teaching can be implemented in Korea. The major elements of the professional program that promoted these perceptual changes included hands-on creativity activities, observation of creativity-centered classrooms, and discussion with other teachers. Follow-up study revealed that their perceptual changes have been reflected in their teaching practices.

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Changes in Korean Science Teachers' Perceptions of Creativity and Science Teaching After Participating in an Overseas Professional Development Program

Soo-Young Lee TERC 0 1 Cambridge 0 1 MA 0 1 U.S.A. 0 1 0 J. Steve Oliver, & Bonnie Cramond College of Education, The University of Georgia , Athens, GA 30602 U.S.A 1 Soonhye Park College of Education, The University of Toledo , Toledo, OH 43606 U.S.A This study investigated changes in Korean science teachers' perceptions of creativity and science teaching after participating in an overseas professional development program. Participants were 35 secondary science teachers. Data were collected from open-ended questionnaires and interviews. Results indicated that participants showed a growing awareness that creativity can be expressed by every student; creativity can be enhanced; science has a much wider range of activities that foster creativity; and creativity-centered science teaching can be implemented in Korea. The major elements of the professional program that promoted these perceptual changes included hands-on creativity activities, observation of creativitycentered classrooms, and discussion with other teachers. Follow-up study revealed that their perceptual changes have been reflected in their teaching practices. - Recent educational reforms in Korea aim to rear creative human beings who are well prepared for the Information Age of the 21st Century (Ministry of Education, 2000), where productivity is measured by innovation and problem-solving skills instead of by merchandise produced (Toffler, 1984). Under the assumption that scientific advancement is essential to the nations economic competitiveness, a recent national curriculum revision in science education addressed the importance of fostering students creativity, and creativity-centered science teaching has become a catchphrase among science educators in Korea. In general, creativity-centered science teaching is an instructional approach that places the focus of science instruction on the development of students creativity, as well as their conceptual understanding of science. The research, however, indicated that Korean science teachers exhibit uneasiness about the educational reform, struggling with how to teach science to improve students creativity (Yoo & Sohn, 2001). This appeared to mainly result from the fact that teachers themselves have never been taught creativity-centered instruction as learners (Yoo & Sohn, 2001). Rare, indeed, is the teacher who can inspire students to do what he or she has never actually experienced. Since a teacher is the main mediator between any curriculum reform and classroom practice, to enhance students creativity through science education, science teachers need to develop the competency necessary to implement the creativitycentered teaching approach. Accordingly, the Torrance Center for Creativity and Talent Development at the University of Georgia (UGA) was asked to design a professional development program (hereafter called the UGA program) to help Korean science teachers develop strategies to foster students creativity in science. This invitation followed from UGAs long tradition of development and research in the fields of both creativity and science education. This research study evolved from the belief that initiatives to reform our schools will undoubtedly flounder if we ignore the centrality of teachers perceptions, beliefs, and practices. Educational change must always be mediated through the minds and motives of teachers. In this vein, this study sought to identify changes in the UGA program participating teachers perceptions of the nature of creativity and science teaching and to identify specific elements of the program that seemed to promote the perceptual changes. Research questions of this study were as follows: 1. What changes in Korean science teachers perceptions of creativity and science teaching can be identified after they participated in the program? 2. What specific elements of the program (e.g., lectures, school visits and classroom observations, workshops, discussions) seemed to contribute to these changes? The purpose of this study was twofold. The present study sought to identify the nature of teachers perceptual changes after participating in a specific professional development program. This understanding was to enable us to evaluate the effectiveness of the program in terms of its goals. The other purpose was to gain a better understanding of the elements of the professional development program that promote the desired teachers perceptual changes. Once identified, these elements can serve as crucial components of future professional development programs for creativity-centered science teaching. Accordingly, this research study contributes to the research-based design of professional development programs for science teachers in Korea. The theoretical framework of this study is based on a review of the literature in three areas: science education, teacher education, and educational psychology. A comprehensive review of the relevant literature revealed that three lines of s (...truncated)


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Soonhye Park, Soo-Young Lee, J. Steve Oliver, Bonnie Cramond. Changes in Korean Science Teachers' Perceptions of Creativity and Science Teaching After Participating in an Overseas Professional Development Program, Journal of Science Teacher Education, 2006, pp. 37-64, Volume 17, Issue 1, DOI: 10.1007/s10972-006-9009-4