Implicit individualism in teachers’ theories of creativity: through the “four p’s” looking glass

Abstract

This paper reports the results of research into teachers’ implicit theories ofcreativity. The implicit theories of creativity held by teachers may influence theireducational practice and attitude toward students’ creativity and its development.The participants were 144 primary school teachers from Serbia. The teachers wereadministered a questionnaire that included an open ended question asking them todefine creativity. The teachers’ responses were then qualitatively analyzed in linewith the Four P’s model of creativity. The most frequent responses belonged to thecategory of the creative person, followed by those responses that pointed to thecreative process. The creative person was described in terms of personality, ability,motivation, talent and giftedness, as well as knowledge. The creative process includedcognitive, expressive, practical and imaginative aspects. The implicit individualismin teachers’ theories of creativity is discussed in the light of nurturing studentcreativity at school.