Research On University Teachers' And Students' Perceptions Of Creativity In EFL Classroom

Today's high risks and ruthless competition found among every field witness a future full of uncertainty,complexity and high-speed change.Each industry is facing intense domestic and global challenge in such a highly uncertain environment.With the advent of the era of knowledge-based economy,innovation and creation have become the key for countries to enhance their competitiveness and rank among the world powers.At present,China is faced with the supply-side structural reform,replacing old growth drivers with new ones and the optimization and upgrading of industrial structure,which all require the support of a large number of creative talents.Higher education is an essential part of China's education system and shoulders the historical mission of cultivating such talents.Language education has not been immune from this “epidemic of creativity”.In the College English Curriculum Requirements issued by Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China in2017,it has been pointed out that colleges and universities should encourage college English teachers to reform teaching methods of talent training and classroom teaching modes so as to establish college English teaching theories and methods with Chinese characteristics.Therefore,research on how to cultivate students' creativity in college EFL classes has drawn wide attention.Although numerous studies have carried out on creativity measurement and assessment,influencing factors of students' creativity and the suggestions for teachers about how to cultivate students' creativity,research on how students perceive their teachers' teaching practices for creativity is still scant,especially in the college EFL classroom.Therefore,this thesis aims to explore and compare both teachers' and students' perceptions of creativity in their EFL classroom.The research questions are as follows:(1)What is the general tendency of teachers' and students' perceptions of creativity in their college EFL classroom?(2)Is there any difference between teachers' and students' perceptions of EFL teaching practices for creativity? If there is,what is it?(3)What are the effects of college English teachers' and students' backgroundvariables on their perceptions of creativity in their EFL classroom?In order to answer the research questions,both quantitative and qualitative approaches were employed.Thirty-six college English teachers and their 2217 college students from two provincial universities participated in the questionnaire survey.In addition,four teachers and thirteen students were selected for interviews.The major findings of the study are as follows:(1)Both teachers and students perceive their college EFL classroom as highly creative.To be more specific,the score of Incentive to New Ideas is the highest,followed by the score of Interest for Students' Learning and the score of Evaluation and Teaching Methodology is the lowest.(2)Although there is no overall significant difference between teachers' and students' perceptions of EFL teaching practices for creativity,there are significant differences between their perceptions in five items.The differences can be summarized in two aspects.First,teachers evaluate their teaching practices more positively in encouraging students' initiative,stimulating students' new ideas and paying attention to students' interest and learning than students.Second,students rate their teachers' teaching practices more positively in the aspect of “having a sense of humor in class” than teachers.(3)There is no significant influence of teachers' seniority,professional title and education background on their perceptions of creativity in their EFL classroom.On the contrary,students' gender,grade and major all have significant effects on their perceptions of creativity.To be specific,male students are more inclined to believe that their teachers are interested in their learning than females.Freshmen evaluate their college EFL classroom more creative than sophomores according to every aspect of their teachers' teaching practices.Besides,arts students rate their teachers' teaching practices in relation to creativity more positively comparing to science students in the overall perceptions of creativity and in the dimensions of Incentive to New Ideas and Interest for Students' Learning.And engineering students' evaluation of their teacher' teaching practices is much more positive than science students in the dimension of Interest for Students' Learning.With regard to the above findings,this study believes that college English teachers should have a clearer understanding of their own creativity in teachingpractices and purposefully adjust their teaching practices through students' perceptions and feedback,so as to provide more creative classroom for students and achieve the purpose of cultivating students' creativity.In addition,universities should provide quality physical environment and policy support for teachers to implement creative teaching practices.