Creative thinking in drawing production: the impact of visual arts training on creativity of preschool teachers in Hong Kong

Abstract

In the years of curriculum reform in Hong Kong, educators aim to nurture creative children. Indeed, creative children have to be nurtured by creative teachers. The creativity of the teacher's own self is a critical key, facilitating children's ability to think and act creatively. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of visual arts training and its impact on the creativity of preschool teachers in Hong Kong. Through this study, the value of designing a visual arts teacher training programme was examined with respect to enhancing preschool teachers' creativity. To assess the creativity of preschool teachers, the Test for Creative Thinking - Drawing Production (TCT-DP) was adopted to compare the creativity of two groups of preschool teachers using their drawings as examples of their creativity. One group of preschool teachers (N= 23) had visual arts training while the other group (N= 24) did not. The results showed that the group of preschool teachers who had visual arts training (mean= 40.26; SD= 11.57) performed better on the creativity assessment tool than the group of preschool teachers who had no visual arts training (mean=36.33; SD = 13.13). The findings of this study suggest that visual arts training should be highly recommended in the preschool teacher training programmes for enhancing teachers' creativity and as an important component of their professional development.