Definitional, Dispositional, and Design Understandings: English Teaching Competencies That Mobilize Creative Experience

• In Event: 46.086 - Roundtable Session 16
  In Roundtable Session: 46.086-19 - Dewey, the Creative Mind, and Neuroscience

Abstract

Studies of American teachers reveal annual attrition rose by 41% from 1987 to 2008 ( Ingersoll & Merrill, 2012 ). Though many variables inform high attrition rates, this research study addressed three: The lack of teacher education program support post-graduation, the need for counter-cultural professional development models (ie. research circles) in response to workplace dissatisfaction, and the call for education fostering “innovation” without providing space for understanding and valuing creativity.

Through Csikszentmihalyi’s (1996) creative process, investigators experienced embodied understanding of creativity’s multifaceted properties. Dewey’s (1934) peculiar intensities were observed as integrally connected to creative process and curricular design. Space to examine praxis, experience continuity within the university’s teacher education program, and stimulate resiliency provided “educative mentoring.” (Feiman-Nemser 2009)

Authors

• Sarah L. Thomas, University of Nebraska - Lincoln

• Jillian Harpster, Lincoln Public Schools