10th Annual Partnership Conference for Educational Renewal

Creativity has been identified as a world-class skill South Carolina graduates should develop before graduation, with little systematic attention on the preparedness of current practitioners to implement such expectations. This qualitative case study investigated what knowledge and skills teachers perceived to be necessary to implement practices that foster and develop student creativity with a strong sense of self-efficacy. A purposeful sample from four Arkansas A+ (ARA+) network schools shared their perceptions of how creativity-fostering professional development (PD) influenced their sense of self-efficacy to foster creativity and answer the research questions. Findings were driven by analysis of open-ended responses collected in questionnaires, individual interviews, and focus groups. Conclusions developed from teachers' experiences and proposed recommendations at all systematic levels to promote efficacious beliefs towards creativity integration will be shared.