Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
TESOL in the 21st Century: Challenges and Opportunities, Zübeyde Sinem Genç / Is¸ıl Günseli Kaçar, Editör, Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., Berlin, ss.487-512, 2020
Creativity has been highlighted as a fundamental skill for the 21st century. The
widespread recognition of teachers’ pivotal role in fostering learners’ creative potential
resulted in the exploration of how teachers promote creativity in the classroom. Following
the theoretical framework of creative pedagogy, the present case study aimed to explore
Turkish EFL teachers’ perceptions and practices of creative teaching, teaching for creativity and creative learning in young learner classes. Data came from a focus-group
interview conducted with five teachers. In teachers’ view, creative teaching was a novel
teaching practice, captured students’ interest by a variety of tasks, materials and strategies,
and responded to students’ individual learning needs and preferences. Teachers were
aware of the interplay between creative teaching and teaching for creativity. Although
teachers valued teaching for creativity, they found it impractical to implement in young
learner classes due to some reasons such as the overloaded curriculum, classroom management issues and students’ poor performance in creative behaviour. As for creative
learning, teachers associated it with student autonomy. Finally, teachers’ comments and
illustrative examples revealed that their adoption of creative pedagogy depended on
some facilitating factors such as teacher flexibility, students’ willingness to learn and
peer collaboration among teachers, and hindering factors including classroom dynamics,
pressure to cover course content, the physical classroom setting and attitudes of parents.