Research on the development of students’ creativity in Lithuanian (native) language lessons, 2011–2012
The research was conducted by Rūta Girdzijauskienė, Daiva Penkauskienė, Laima Vincė Sruoginis, Janina Bukantienė, Lina Grinytė, Asta Matonytė, and Raimonda Jarienė.
The 2011–2013 Structural Funds project “Developing Creativity: Research and Methodology” is linked to the development of opportunities for fostering creativity and creative thinking in the teaching of the native language in Lithuanian general education schools. When developing the methodology for fostering creativity and creative thinking in native language lessons, a comprehensive study of the situation was conducted, which helped to highlight the shortcomings in creativity education and identify opportunities for improvement. Six studies were conducted in the five schools participating in the project:
1. Study of an environment conducive to creative thinking (written survey – 101 respondents).
2. Analysis of native language education programs and teaching aids (Analysis of the main sets of teaching aids – textbooks, teacher’s books, exercise books – used in all schools participating in the project when teaching the native language in grades 4, 8, and 11. The latest editions of teaching aids were evaluated. A total of 40 items were analyzed).
3. Study of creativity and creative thinking education in native language lessons (67 lessons in 34 classes were observed).
4. Study of teachers’ attitudes towards the development of creativity in native language lessons (written survey – 30 respondents).
5. Study of students’ attitudes towards the development of creativity in native language lessons (questionnaire – 385 respondents).
6. Analysis of students’ creative tasks (513 creative tasks completed by students from schools participating in the project were analyzed).
These studies highlighted problems related to creativity education in schools: teachers’ competence in developing students’ creativity is most often acquired in a non-systematic, random manner, through personal initiatives or work experience, lessons lack exploration and interpretation activities, language teaching (especially grammar) is rarely linked to creativity, and as students get older, the frequency of using creativity-building methods decreases, etc. Based on the conclusions of the above-mentioned studies and theoretical insights, a competent project research team (Janina Bukantienė, Rūta Girdzijauskienė, Raimonda Jarienė, Daiva Penkauskienė, Laima Vincė Sruoginis) prepared the publications “Methodology for Fostering Student Creativity in Lithuanian (Native) Language Lessons” and “Teaching Materials for Fostering Student Creativity in Native Language Lessons.”