SUPPORTING CREATIVE COGNITIVE SPACES: THE IMPORTANCE OF CREATIVITY PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE SECONDARY ELA CLASSROOM

Abstract

While teachers and districts clamored to discern how to combat pandemic learning losses through a focus on teaching standards and skills, few considered the role that creativity played in supporting cognitive and personal growth. Creativity fosters a plethora of skills and gives individual students the space and opportunity to explore their own interests and follow their own paths, or, as Nel Noddings would argue, to give each individual the tools necessary to live a fulfilling and satisfying life. With pressures on secondary ELA teachers to focus on standards, skills, and test scores, this study sought to explore how professional development can provide secondary ELA teachers with the pedagogical practices necessary to support students in creative thinking processes in the ELA classroom. Using post-intervention surveys and a post-intervention interview of secondary ELA teacher participants who attended a creativity workshop, this study aimed to better understand how creativity professional development impacted teachers’ perceptions and practices regarding implementing creative activities within their classrooms in order to foster cognitive growth, individual satisfaction, and student engagement. Keywords: Secondary ELA teachers, creativity, critical thinking, professional development, student engagement, individualized learning.