The research results
The primary objective of this research was to
explore the notion of creativity in public schools of Tbilisi, Georgia. As it is
more or less new in the field of Education in Georgian context, especially in
public schools, the research aimed to increase the awareness among ELT teachers
on the effectiveness of creativity in English as a Foreign Language (EFL)
teaching in Georgian Public Schools. Comparing to private schools, teachers
engage their students in creative activities and the students are more often
encouraged to be creative, as the private schools provide more opportunities
and better environment to bring creativity into reality. Georgian public
schools lack creativity in EFL teaching and this quantitative study reveals the
current situation in Georgian public schools in terms of creativity.
How
do you perceive creativity in English as a Foreign Language Teaching? (you can
tick more than one) Creativity in English as a Foreign Language Teaching is:
Figure 1.
Perception of creativity in EFL teaching
More than half of
the respondents,54.17%,perceived creativity in EFL teaching as designing
teaching methodology by teachers themselves, adapting the course book materials
in order to present it in a new way and preparing students as a whole person
for outside the classroom. On the other hand, 50% believed that creativity means
being engaged in mental processes to produce creative methods of teaching. For
41.67% responders, it is associatedwith implementing some activities which
promote creativity and an imaginative activity to produce outcomes that are
both original and valuable.37.50% of them thought that this is a skill which can
be learnt.Only 33.33% of the responders perceived creativity as teaching beyond
the curriculum and 20.83% believed that
being involved in the change of current curriculum is creativity, which could
mean that only minority of the teachers value making some necessary changes in
the curriculum by themselves. For 12.50%
it is a rare talent.According to
this result, it could be concluded that the teachers in Georgian public schools
are aware of the notion of creativity and the perception of it differs from
teachers to teachers.
Which factors suppress/discourage
the English language teachers' creativity in your context? (You can tick more
than one applicable choice):
Figure 2.Teachers’
opinions about EFL teacher suppressing/discouraging factors
There are a number of factors which
suppress/discourage creativity in EFL teachers in Georgian public schools.
These factors are analyzed based on the collected data. According to 75% of the
research participants, negative relationship with learners restrains their
creativity. Another suppressing factor for 62.50% of the respondents is the
students’ negative feedback to teacher’s methods. In the third place according
to 41.67% of the teachers, the suppressing factors are lack of the appreciation
by the head teacher or the principal and lack of teaching aids as well. 33.33%
of the respondents consider the teacher’s fear of mistakes in the language use
and in the teaching methods used as one of the discouraging factors to their
creativity. Only 29.17% think that setting some limitations to teachers in
terms of implementing something new, self-motivation and curriculum limitations
are factors which suppress their creativity in their context. 20.83% of the teachers
responded that extra tasks outside the classroom restrain their creativity.
Supportive learning environment is considered to be one of the suppressing
factors by 16.67%. Other factors such as challenging working environment,
cooperative relationship with other teachers and students’ academic achievement
in English language learning are chosen as the discouraging factors by
8.33%.Only minority, 4.17% of the respondents, consider the teachers’
confidence in the language teaching method he/she is using, the teachers’
self-development purposes, the suitable curriculum and availability of teaching
aids as the factors which discourages them to be creative.
How often do you engage your students in the
creative activities in English Language Classroom?
Figure 3. The
frequency of students’ engagement in the creative activities
Teachers were asked about the frequency of creative
activities they implemented in their classrooms and consequently engaged the
learners. This chart shows the lack of practical application of creativity in
their teaching by EFL teachers in Georgian public schools. Only 41.67% of the respondents
sometimes engaged their students in the creative activities in English Language
classroom that leads learners to be less engaged in creative activities. On the
other hand, 33.33% of them often involve learners in the creative activities.
The number of teachers who regularly engage their students in such activities
are really low, as merely 16.67% of the participants attempt to be creative in
their everyday classroom practice in order to involve students in the creative
activities. 8.33% of the teachers responded that they engaged their learners in
the creative activities once a month. Less engagement in the creative
activities could be caused by those suppressing factors which teachers named
above. The result shows that awareness among ELT teachers on the effectiveness
of implementing creativity in EFL teaching should be increased in order to make
them apply the creative activities more often in their teaching practice.
Conclusion
The paper
discussed how creativity facilitates the young learners to master the target
language. There were discussions about the young learners learning preferences
in the language acquisition process, as they favor the physical activities and
natural learning environment. Furthermore, the paper outlined those key factors
which promote creativity in EFL classroom. They were presented and discussed
with their importance. Teaching materials as one of the promoting factors
should be viewed as the product that can be modified in accordance with the
learners’ needs and interests. Besides, it presented other necessary factors
promoting creativity; these were the focus on learners, personal traits,
environment, freedom and clarity. As stated in the paper, if we want to develop
a good learning environment in the classroom, we need to establish an
appropriate relationship with our students, as creating a positive rapport is a
good foundation for both teachers’ and students’ creativity. The paper also
suggested several essential personal traits of a creative ELT professional.
Being spontaneous, self-confident, determined and having the sense of belonging
are the characteristics of the creative individual. The absence of those
personal traits discourages creativity. One of the promoting factors to
creativity in EFL classroom, discussed in this paper was environment. There
were discussions concerning the types of environment, the physical and the
relational. Both were considered as the important elements in supporting the
teachers’ and the learners’ creativity. Moreover, giving a freedom or autonomy
and making clear to ELT teachers what is required from them to do were pointed
out to have the impact on the teachers’ creativity. As discussed in the paper,
some restrictions create a barrier to the teachers’ creativity that is why the
teachers input in designing the plans and curriculum were considered as
necessary elements. To sum up, the primary goal of this paper was to raise
awareness in ELT teachers concerning the importance of creativity in EFL
classroom and to provide some promoting factors as well as practical ideas how
this could be achieved, in order to facilitate ELT teachers to establish EFL
classroom environment in which creativity flourishes.
Recommendations
Based on the research result, it is
recommended for English language teachers in Georgian public schools to apply
more creative activities in their teaching in order to assist their students to
master the language in more interesting and engaging way. It is also advisable
for the head teachers or the principals to encourage their English language
teachers to be creative through providing them with all necessary teaching
aids/materials. Since creativity has become a significant not only in art or
music but also in educational domain, much focus should be given by the
Ministry of Education of Georgia if both teachers and students are encouraged
to be creative in public schools. The training for ELT teachers in public
schools would be helpful in order to gain knowledge about various new
approaches and methods of teaching as well as to practice the implementation of
teaching materials in a new way. The training could be held even by private
school teachers, which will help public school teachers to raise their
awareness on the effectiveness of creativity in teaching through sharing their
experiences and creative ideas.
Full paper can be found on amazon & morebooks.de
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