Basic Competence Test

328 Pages·2011·4.16 MB·English

A Global Epidemic of Creative Education!
Shaping and Implementing Creative Education in
Primary Education in Taiwan

Shu-Yi Chiu

Goldsmiths, University of London

PhD Thesis

December 2010
Declaration of authorship
I confirm that this thesis is the result of my own investigations. All other sources
are acknowledged giving explicit references and a full bibliography is appended.

Signature:...............................................................

Date:.......................................................................

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Abstract
This thesis identifies and analyses the limitations and effects of the
implementation of creative education in primary schools within the Taiwanese
context. It explores how the new government formulated and delivered the policy,
and how the teachers put creative education into classroom practice. The analysis
presented here consists of a critical analysis of the creative education policy
agenda, a survey of how three types of respondents (teachers, students, and
parents) perceive creativity, and an investigation of the dilemmas faced by
teachers and students in developing creativity in the classroom.
A number of arguments are presented. Firstly, this thesis highlights that
creativity has been redefined as a crucial element for education reform in
response to the rise of the knowledge economy in Taiwan. I suggest that this
economic-led discourse and the short sighted plan have led to misunderstandings
of what creativity means. Regarding strategies for policy delivery, I suggest that
the role given to policy-makers and their limited experience in developing proper
methods has led to more confusion for the teachers. I also suggest that the
development of a more liberal and creative education environment has been
constrained by entrenched institutional and socio-cultural limitations. I then
indicate how these limitations and school cultures have influenced the
respondents‟ perceptions of creativity and of teaching and learning in the
classroom. Finally, I suggest that creativity in the classroom involves multiple
ways of interaction between all participants.
This research makes three contributions. Conceptually, I combine various
psychological, educational, and sociological approaches to discussions of
creativity. Methodologically, I develop multilayered methods and visual analytical
frameworks for researching creative education. Empirically, I provide dynamic
stories about the practice of creativity in the classroom within the Taiwanese
context. This thesis provides a political and socio-cultural angle from which see
the limitations on developing creative education in Taiwan.

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Contents
Declaration of authorship ii
Abstract iii
List of abbreviations ix
List of figures and tables x
Acknowledgements xii
INTRODUCTION xiii

Chapter 1: Mapping the Creativity Phenomenon 1
1.1 Introduction 1
1.2 A global phenomenon: the “creativity movement” 2
1.3 New value of creativity 6
1.3.1 The Creative Industries 6
1.3.2 Creative Education 9
1.4 The Creative Education Agenda in Taiwan 11
1.4.1 The new rhetoric of educational reform 13
1.4.2 The Creative Education White Paper 17
1.5 Focus of the research 22
1.5.1 Context of the study 22
1.5.2 Research questions 24
1.6 Conclusion 25

Chapter 2: Theories of Creativity 27
2.1 Introduction 27
2.2 Understanding Creativity 28
2.2.1 What is creativity? 28
2.2.2 Where is creativity? 36
2.2.3 Why is creativity important? 40
2.3 Creativity research 42
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2.3.1 Mystical approaches 42
2.3.2 Pragmatic approaches 44
2.3.3 Psychometric approaches 47
2.3.4 The confluence approaches 48
2.4 Four waves of research into creativity in education 50
2.4.1 Genius and giftedness: creativity in the1950s 51
2.4.2 Shift to children: from the 1960s to the 1970s 51
2.4.3 Social psychology research: the 1980s to 1990s 52
2.4.4 Political and economic pragmatism: 2000 onwards 53
2.5 Creativity in Education 54
2.5.1 Creative teaching 54
2.5.2 Teaching for creativity 57
2.5.3 Creative learning 58
2.5.4 Interactive and iterative process of developing creativity 60
2.6 Conclusion 63

Chapter 3: Research Design and Methods 65
3.1 Introduction 65
3.2 Clarifying the research aims through a pilot study 65
3.2.1 An overview of the pilot study 66
3.2.2 The rationale of the research aims 69
3.3 Research framework 73
3.3.1 Ethical issues and gaining access 73
3.3.2 Case study as a research strategy 77
3.3.3 Sampling strategy 79
3.4 Selection of data collection methods and instruments 83
3.4.1 Semi-structured interview 83
3.4.2 Participant observation 87
3.4.3 Three respondents‟ attitudes to the creativity questionnaire 93
3.4.4 The students‟ Creativity Diary 102
3.5 Data analysis framework 109
3.5.1 Qualitative data 109
3.5.2 Quantitative data 116
3.6 Conclusion 117
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Chapter 4: The Institutional and Socio-cultural Limits to 119
Creative Education and the Dilemmas for the Actors
4.1 Introduction 119
4.2 Conceptual framework of this chapter 120
4.3 The three crucial mechanisms 122
4.3.1 The National Curricular Standards and textbooks 124
4.3.2 Teacher training 125
4.3.3 The National Unified Entrance Exams 127
4.3.4 The Education Reform Act 1998 129
4.4 Institutional limitations in creative education 130
4.4.1 The Grade 1-9 Curriculum and texbooks 130
4.4.2 The new Teacher Education Law 137
4.4.3 The Multiple Entrance Programme 141
4.5 Socio-cultural limits on developing creative education 144
4.5.1 Parental beliefs about education 144
4.5.2 Cultural influences on examinations and keeping progress 146
4.5.3 Utilitarian attitudes to student learning 148
4.6 The dilemmas for actors in the implementation process 151
4.6.1 Dilemmas for the Taipei City Government and educators 152
4.6.2 Criticisms of the Pilot Plan of Developing Creative Education 155
4.7 Conclusion 157

Chapter 5: Mapping Teachers’, Students’ and Parents’ 159
Perceptions of Creativity
5.1 Introduction 159
5.2 An overview of the three schools 160
5.2.1 The schools 160
5.2.2 The school catchment characteristics 162
5.2.3 School cultures 169
5.2.4 Discussion 178
5.3 Respondents’ perceptions of creativity 179
5.3.1 The three best descriptions of creativity 180
5.3.2 The creative subjects versus the less creative subjects 182
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5.3.3 Seven dwarfs: what are creative people good at? 186
5.3.4 Student attitudes towards problem solving 188
5.4 How do teachers, students and parents value creativity? 192
5.4.1 Common values of creativity 192
5.4.2 Distinctive values of creativity 197
5.4.3 The relations between school cultures and the three 201
respondents‟ perceptions of creativity
5.5 Conclusion 203

Chapter 6: Creativity in Practices 206
6.1 Introduction 206
6.2 Conceptual framework of this chapter 207
6.3 School E: Science subject 213
6.3.1 Characteristics of the Science teacher, Mr Lin 214
6.3.2 Outline of classroom interaction 215
Section 1-4: Having ideas 216
Section 5-7: Growing ideas 223
Section 8-9: Proving ideas 230
6.3.3 Discussion 233
6.4 School D: ICT subject 235
6.4.1 Characteristics of the ICT teacher, Mr Lee 235
6.4.2 Outline of classroom interaction 236
Section 1-2: Having ideas 237
Section 3-6: Growing ideas 242
Section 7: Proving ideas 245
6.4.3 Discussion 247
6.5 School A2: Art subject 249
6.5.1 Characteristics of the Art teacher, Mrs Wu 249
6.5.2 Outline of classroom interaction 250
Section 1: Having ideas 251
Section 2: Growing ideas 256
Section 3: Proving ideas 258
6.5.3 Discussion 259
6.6 Conclusion 261
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Chapter 7:Conclusions and Reflections 264
7.1 Introduction 264
7.2 The Creative Education White Paper’s limitations and effects 266
7.2.1 The limitations of policy-making and policy delivery 266
7.2.2 The social, cultural, and institutional limitations 269
7.2.3 The limitations of the three respondents‟ perceptions of 271
creativity
7.2.4 The dilemmas for teachers and students to develop creativity in 274
the classroom
7.3 Creativity: how do we pursue it in Taiwan? 277
7.4 Key contributions and possible limitations of this study 279
7.5 Future research 283

Bibliography 287
Appendices 301
Appendix 1: Teacher semi-structured interview questionnaire 301
Appendix 2: Head-teacher semi-structured interview questionnaire 304
Appendix 3: Officials and scholars semi-structured interview 306
questionnaire
Appendix 4: Observation template 308
Appendix 5: Parents‟ attitudes to creativity questionnaire 309
Appendix 6: Teachers‟ attitudes to creativity questionnaire 311
Appendix 7: Students‟ attitudes to creativity questionnaire 313
Appendix 8: Data List 315
Appendix 9: School E observation chronology CD
Appendix 10: School D observation chronology CD
Appendix 11: School A2 observation chronology CD

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Lists of Abbreviations
ACER Advisory Committee on Education Reform
APU Assessment of Performance Unit (Britain)
BCT Basic Competence Test for Junior High School Students
CP Creative Partnerships (England)
CPD Continuing Professional Development
DCMS Department for Culture Media and Sport (Britain)
DPP Democratic Progressive Party
ERAC Education Reform Action Group
KMT Chinese Nationalist Party, Kuomintang Party
MOE Ministry of Education
NESTA National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts
(Britain)
NICT National Institute for Compilation and Translation
NUEE National Unified Entrance Exams
PPDCE Pilot Plan of Developing Creative Education
SCT Subject Competence Test

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Lists of Figures and Tables
Figure 2-1: Craft‟s Creativity Cycle 33
Figure 2-2: The APU model of interaction between mind and hand 61
Figure 3-1: The outline of the research methods and instruments 83
Figure 3-2: Tree nodes for interviewee transcriptions 110
Figure 3-3: Pollard‟s social constructivist model 111
Figure 3-4: An example of mapping and coding of teaching and learning 114
Figure 3-5: Observation chronology 116
Figure 4-1: Annual educational budget for a child 133
Figure 4-2: The proportion of students attending cram school 134
Figure 4-3: The five most popular cram school subjects 134
Figure 5-1: Age status of teachers 162
Figure 5-2: Educational status of teachers 162
Figure 5-3: Age of parents 166
Figure 5-4: Educational status of parents 166
Figure 5-5: Occupational status of parents 167
Figure 6-1: The interpretive model 233
Figure 6-2: The didactic model 247
Figure 6-3: The exploratory model 260

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