Abstract:
Creativity and learning strategies are considered as an important part of the learning process by several researchers (Hartley, 2006; Torrance, 2003; Simpson, 2004) Tellez (2003) states that teachers' pedagogical understandings of these concepts are critically relevant to children's school achievement. In Estonian National Curriculum (2003) teachers are responsible for assessing creativity and learning strategies, along with other items, in the study process. In order to know are teachers assessing right thing or not a study of teachers' own understandings of these concepts of creativity and strategies for learning was conducted. The data were gathered by questionnaire. Participants were 78 Estonian comprehensive school teachers (teaching grades 1 - 12). Teachers were asked to explain creativity and learning strategies without any limits in expressions. Their explanations of both concepts were separated into phrases and divided among seven categories according to previous studies (Torrance, 1967; Weinstein & Mayer, 1986).
It was found that Estonian teachers' understandings of "creativity" were closer to the definition than understandings about "learning strategies". When describing learning strategies, more general expressions were used.
It was found that Estonian teachers' understandings of "creativity" were closer to the definition than understandings about "learning strategies". When describing learning strategies, more general expressions were used.