Teaching creatively and teaching for creativity – theory, teachers’ attitudes, and creativity-based practices

Numerous studies highlight the benefits of incorporating creativityin teaching, but practical experience shows that putting thesetheories and policies into practice often lacks the necessaryresources. The current study focuses on three aspects of creativityin teaching: (a) Theoretical – how do policy documents and educa-tional researchers refer to creativity in teaching and what are theirrecommendations regarding its implementation in the educationsystem? (b) Attitudes – what do teachers know and what are theirpositions regarding the integration of creativity in teaching? (c)Practical – whether and how teachers use creativity-based practicesin their teaching. We conducted a descriptive analysis of 36 tea-chers’ lesson plan performances and 11 interviews to answer theresearch questions. Findings revealed a gap between theory andpractice: despite the teachers’ positive attitudes about integratingcreativity in teaching, many of them did not apply these contents.Ways to minimize this gap between theory and practice arediscussed.