Effect of creativity training on teaching for creativity for nursing faculty in Taiwan: A quasi-experimental study.

BACKGROUND

Creativity and innovation are considered important core competencies in Taiwan for nursing students. Teachers play a critical role in the development of student creativity. Although studies have investigated creativity training, there is no consensus on how best to evaluate the effectiveness of the training.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate whether a teaching for creativity module (TCM) can enhance teaching behaviors and self-efficacy of teaching creativity for capstone course nursing faculty. The TCM intervention was taught in two stages by experts in diverse areas of industrial design. A 2-day teaching creativity workshop was followed by reinforcement of creativity skills in the classroom with nursing and design faculties teaching side-by-side for 6 h of the 18-week capstone course.

DESIGN

This quasi-experimental study employed a pretest-posttest design to compare an intervention and control group.

PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING

Capstone course nursing faculties were recruited from five science and technology universities in Taiwan.

RESULTS

Forty-two capstone faculty members participated; 21 completed the TCM intervention and 21 were in the control group. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) demonstrated the TCM intervention group had significantly better post-test mean scores for creative teaching behaviors and self-efficacy of teaching creativity than the control group. Our findings suggest participation in a creativity workshop and reinforcement of teaching skills with classroom interdisciplinary teacher training can augment teaching for creativity of nursing faculty.

CONCLUSION

The findings of this study indicate that an intervention program in creativity can increase teaching behaviors as well as perceptions of self-efficacy regarding teaching for creativity, which could foster student creativity. These findings have important implications for educational settings, as they suggest that the workshop and reinforcement of learning with hands-on guidance in creativity with interdisciplinary teaching should be integrated into the curriculum, which could facilitate student creativity by increasing teaching behaviors and improving self-confidence regarding teaching creativity.