Teaching Practices of EFL Teachers and the Enhancement of Creative Thinking Skills among Learners

Article Information ABSTRACT Received: March 11, 2021 Accepted: March 29, 2021 Online: May 12, 2021 The development of students' creativity has been a prerequisite for survival in this fast-changing technological age. Therefore, enhancing learners' higher-order thinking skills should be the primary concern of education systems worldwide. The present study aims to survey EFL teachers' knowledge about creative thinking and their activities to enhance creative thinking skills. It also aims to understand EFL teachers' perceptions about the importance of creative thinking activities in promoting EFL learners' creativity. Moreover, it aims to check if there are significant differences between participants' perceptions due to teaching experience and stage. Fifty-six teachers took part in the present study by responding to a questionnaire developed to achieve the aims. Results revealed EFL teachers' lack of knowledge of creative thinking skills. Nevertheless, they showed that they "Often" practice creative thinking activities in the classroom. Results also indicated that these activities were perceived as "Important" to enhance EFL learners' creative thinking skills.


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schedule, constant monitoring of learning, emphasis on high-stakes examination, and the vague understanding of creativity concept (Simonton, 2004). However, facilitative pedagogical practices such as designing novel learning tasks to stimulate students' creativity, planning for the learning experience that is flexible and self-directed, setting a mutual respect atmosphere, open dialogue, and collaborative activities can, for sure, foster creativity (Craft & Jeffrey, 2013). However, other dilemmas like conflicts in policy and practice; tensions in meeting the subject matter requirements, designing learning tasks to foster student creativity; the fear of curricular chaos; and the call for subject-content-based curriculum to teach for creativity can impede teachers' understanding of this concept and their attitudes toward it (Troman, Jeffrey, & Raggl, 2007). Stressing the importance of teachers' creativity is not new. Researchers since the middle of the 1990s have argued that teachers of a humanistic philosophical orientation have developed their creative competencies and implemented specific creative methods and techniques in their classrooms. Besides, they were more effective in enhancing students' creative abilities than teachers, who followed traditional teaching approaches (Esquivel, 1995).
In order to develop creativity in a child, it is necessary to create opportunities and design activities for action, for creative problem solving, and for discovering new things. For instance, Fisher (2006:6) argues that teachers should allow students specific opportunities to develop their creative thinking. They, for instance, should allow them to: 1. Use their imagination. 2. Generate questions, ideas, and outcomes. 3. Experiment with alternatives. 4. Be original. 5. Expand on what they know or say. 6. Exercise their judgment. Długosz (2015;2908-9), on the other part, claims that to develop learners' creativity, teachers should: 1. Allow learners to try new things, to make mistakes, and to reach the essence of the problem on their own instead of suggesting ready-made solutions. 2. Ask learners unconventional questions and meanwhile encourage them to ask questions that show their curiosity about the world around them. 3. Encourage them to read what is around them and stimulate their imagination. 4. Inspire and support them to play creatively and reward them by appreciating their efforts. 5. Praise them when doing something difficult, even if it is unnecessary. 6. Stimulate their vision, hearing, touch, and taste senses during the lesson. Thammineni (2012: 66), in turn, provided a set of activities, which he described as innovative and encouraged teachers to practice them inside the classroom: 1. Task-based activities 2. Contests 3. Language games 4. Video or movie sharing 5. Media literacy 6. Translation 7. Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) programs.
Creativity represents the ability to imagine or invent something original. Using such an ability, learners can create ideas, find solutions, search thoughts, and create pieces of work by using changes, distinct combinations, and replications of existing ideas. Therefore, teachers' constant and positive feedback empowers them to build their self-esteem as they learn to accept parent's and teachers' criticism in the same way they accept praise. Enhancing children's social skills by sharing new ideas, original thoughts, and novel opportunities might be the most effective creativity activities (Rotaru, 2020). In teaching English to students of other languages, Arabic, for example, it is challenging to adopt any educational context. Teachers often struggle to design enjoyable and fruitful activities to engage students in creativity. Therefore, they have to try different strategies that demand a greater level of creativity. One way to do so is to see creativity as a spark for students' motivation and making language learning more fun than an objective to attain (Hrešć, 2016). Then, they need to constantly cope with new IJAE Page 156 situations, tasks, and challenges that explore their creativity. They should firmly believe that they might be the only source for EFL learners' knowledge in the classroom environment, and so their role could be very decisive in promoting creativity (Fitriah & Elke, 2016).
Developing learners' creativity is an essential part of the pedagogical process. Like their peers of other school subjects, EFL Teachers are advocated to be more creative while asking questions, making connections, looking at things in new ways, exploring ideas, and reflecting on what they have learned and taught (Jesson, 2012). When coping with learners, they show their values and pedagogical beliefs about creativity, which can serve as a foundation for their decision-making. Nevertheless, research on EFL teachers' creativity is still not paid the attention it deserves. Most of the research has focused on creative students' issues and the process and concept of creativity in general. Throughout all the definitions provided by different studies, it can be argued that creativity is associated with several attributes of which EFL teachers and learners should be aware. These attributes involve imagination, divergence, intellectuality, lack of conventionality, originality, and flexibility (Hana & Hacène, 2017). Therefore, the present study explores teachers' views regarding creativity in EFL classrooms within Saudi public education.

METHODS
The present study was quantitative, and so the descriptive analytical approach was used to analyze the collected data.

Participants
A total of (56) EFL teachers were selected randomly from all public schools of the General Directorate of Education in Najran, Saudi Arabia. They were all teaching English to male students only as co-education in Saudi Arabia is not allowed. Therefore, all of them were requested to reply to a questionnaire prepared to achieve the study aims. Besides, they were graduated from different Saudi universities with at least a Bachelor's degree in the English Language. Demographic information of these teachers is presented in Table 1. One year -five years 3 Six years -Ten years 6 More than ten years 3 Total 12

Intermediate Stage
One year -five years 13 Six years -Ten years 6 More than ten years 4 Total 23

Secondary Stage
One year -five years 10 Six years -Ten years 5 More than ten years 6 Total 21 Total 56

Instrument
To achieve the study's aims, a four-section questionnaire was prepared according to the activities that EFL teachers should implement inside the classroom to foster their learners' creativity. The first section of the questionnaire addressed participant teachers' demographic information, i.e., teaching experience and stage. The second section consisted of (15) items and targeted EFL teacher's knowledge about creative thinking (Hana & Hacène, 2017). The third section containing (22) activities was assigned to understand to what extent participants implement activities that are assumed to foster creativity among EFL learners. Statements were arranged in a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1=never (0%), 2=seldom (10%), 3=sometimes (50%), 4=often (75%), and 5=usually (95%). Therefore, items whose mean scores range between (1.00-1.80) express sporadic activity practice, (1.81-2.60) show that the activity is seldom practiced, (2.61-3.40) mean that the activity is sometimes practiced, (3.41-4.20) reveal that the activity is often practiced, and (4.21-5.00) indicate that the activity is usually practiced.
The fourth section consists of the same (22) activities in the first part, but aimed to investigate EFL teachers' perceptions of the importance of these activities in enhancing EFL learners' creativity. Again, statements were presented in a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1=unimportant, 2=of little importance, 3=moderately essential, 4=important, and 5=very important. Therefore, mean scores ranging between (1.00-1.80) express no importance, (1.81-2.60) show little importance, (2.61-3.40) represent moderate importance, (3.41-4.20) reveal high level of importance, and (4.21-5.00) reflect very high level of importance. It is worth mentioning that the third and fourth sections were previously used by Roy (2012) and Haxhihyseni (2015).

Data analysis
SPSS software program was used for further analysis of data. First, mean scores and standard deviations of participants' responses were calculated. Moreover, ANOVA was applied to determine if significant differences between participants' perceptions due to the teaching experience and stage exist.

Knowledge of EFL teachers about Creative Thinking
To explore EFL teachers' knowledge about creative thinking, they were offered fifteen creative thinking sub-skills and were requested to distinguish the skills that, in their opinion, are related to creative thinking. Unfortunately, analysis of collected data revealed that about 50% of participants could not identify all the creative thinking skills. That is, their knowledge about creative thinking sub-skills was not satisfactory. Therefore, it can be argued that participant teachers have a pretty confusing concept of creativity and have uncertain knowledge about its characteristics. Making unusual associations among unrelated things 10 17.9 Curiosity and Risk-taking 10 17.9 Average frequency and proportion 18.6 49.82 Findings in Table 2 demonstrate that the means of six subskills out of the fifteen items were in the range of 17.9%-26.8%. These skills were "Solving problems by imagination (M=26.8); Evaluating and interpreting an idea (M=23.2); Concluding (M=23.2); Producing a solution that is both novel and suitable (M=21.4); Generalization from given facts (M=19.6); Making unusual associations among unrelated things (M=17.9), and Curiosity and risk-taking (M=17.9)". The only subskill distinguished by forty-six teachers (M=82.1) was "Brainstorming/ generating new ideas."

Activities of EFL Teachers to Enhance Learners' Creative Thinking Skills
To identify what EFL teachers mostly use in their classes to enhance their learners' creativity and creative thinking skills, a group of (22) activities were presented to them and then were requested to determine their practice degree of each activity. Mean scores and standard deviations of teachers' responses are presented in table 3. Analysis of the gathered data shows that respondents' overall practice degree of creative thinking activities was (M=3.84) indicating that they often enhance students' creativity and creative thinking skills. Table 3 shows respondents' degree of the practice of each creative thinking activity.  Table 3 show that, among all creative thinking activities, teachers usually practice holding friendly competition (M=4.48), respecting the ideas of all students (M=4.45), and carrying out activities that require students to create a solution or an idea (M=4.30). Furthermore, they usually involve students in a brainstorming process before starting a new project or concept (M= 4.29), encourage students to feel comfortable when asking questions and making mistakes (M=4.21), and allow students to choose their projects for demonstrating their knowledge (M=4.21). Nevertheless, they sometimes practice evaluating students' work based on the correct answer, not on the correct process (M=3.09), while they seldom look for the correct answers when they ask questions (M=2.50) and spend the majority of the class time leaving students seated in their desks (M=2.14).

Perceptions of EFL Teachers about the Importance of Creative Thinking Activities to Promote Learners' Creativity
To identify EFL teachers' perceptions about the importance of specific activities in promoting their learners' creativity, a group of (22) activities were presented to them and then asked to determine the importance of each activity. Data analysis showed that the presented activities were seen, in general,   Table 4 show that, among the presented creative thinking activities, teachers believe that respecting and rewarding the ideas of others (M=4.55), teaching students multiple ways to solve a problem (M=4.52), and conducting friendly competitions (M=4.45) were the most important activities by which students' creativity and creative thinking skills can be enhanced. Furthermore, they think that providing students with multiple options to demonstrate understanding of the learning material (M=4.45), using brainteasers, word problems, and puzzles (M=4.39), in addition to brainstorming before beginning a project (M=4.34), were also of great importance in promoting students' creativity. Nevertheless, their responses showed that evaluating students based on grades on the answer, not on the process (M=3.04), and asking questions with one specific answer in mind (M=2.71) were of moderate importance. Meanwhile, doing seatwork (M=2.59) was seen as of little importance in developing students' creative thinking.

Effect of Teaching Stage on the Practice Degree of Creative Thinking Activities
In order to distinguish the role of the teaching stage on creative thinking activities' practice degree, ANOVA was used. Table 5 shows the results.

Effect of Teaching Experience on the Practice Degree of Creative Thinking Activities
In order to distinguish the role of the teaching experience, participants were teaching in, on their practice degree of the creative thinking activities ANOVA was used. Table 6 shows the results. Statistics in table 6 reveal no statistically significant differences between teachers' perceptions according to the importance of the creative thinking activities due to the teaching experience from 1-5 years, 6-10 years, or above ten years.

DISCUSSION
The first part of the present study aimed to determine the level of respondent EFL teachers' knowledge about creativity. Analysis of gathered data revealed that participants lack a clear understanding of creativity. Their knowledge was too poor, too. The only skill that half of them could distinguish as one main component of creativity was brainstorming and generating new ideas. One interesting reason behind this mal knowledge and unfamiliarity, as discussed by Bereczkia & Kárpáti (2018), might be teachers' training and experience in teaching creativity; personal creativity; and overall professional competency, which might affect positively or negatively their conceptions of creativity. Lorimer (2018) presents other factors like teachers' culture and bias towards students of favorable characteristics, and high intellectual abilities may not help them recognize creativity potentials. Furthermore, teachers' understanding of innovation cognitive strategies, the distinction of the most conducive social and academic environment, and their perceptions of testing, in most cases, inhibit creative practices in the classroom. Kasmaienezhadfard, Talebloo, Roustae, & Pourrajab (2015) stressed the importance of making teachers aware of the importance of creativity in classrooms. Creative activities must be institutionalized and allocated adequate time and space, while teaching practices and techniques must be connected with creative outcomes.
The second part of the present study tried to assess how often EFL teachers practice teaching activities to promote their creativity. Data analysis showed that mean scores of respondents' responses ranged from usually to seldom, and the average mean score of their practice degree of all activities was (M=3.84), indicating that, in general, they do not always or usually think of doing so. Organizing competitions, respecting all students' ideas, carrying out activities that require students to create a solution or idea, and involving students in a brainstorming process before starting a new project or concept were the most practiced activities. This defect in EFL teachers' performance is because teachers are trained to consume knowledge, not produce creative ideas and solutions, so they begin to face problems. Therefore, training and developing new teaching content that can enhance creative performance can bridge the gap (Ritter & Mostert, 2017). Therefore, teachers need to understand how to promote their creativity in authentic contexts. It is challenging to induce creativity by telling teachers to be creative, but they should be provided with some essential supervision on how to be creative and consequently teach creatively and train students to think creatively (Niu & Liu, 2009). The findings of this study emphasize the results of Al-Qahtani (2016) concerning the little effort EFL teachers make to foster creativity in their teaching practices. Thus, textbook designers and EFL supervisors, and teachers must be familiarized with the importance and applications of creativity. Hui, Chow, Chan, Chui, & Sam (2015) interpret EFL teachers' failure to implement creative activities in the classroom by the lack of confidence and suitable training programs. Moreover, teachers themselves are not skilled enough and their perceptions of creativity because they seem ill-equipped to foster their learners' creativity.
The third aim of the present study was to determine the importance of carrying out creative thinking activities in classrooms. Mean scores of EFL teachers' responses extended from very important to moderately important. The average mean score of all activities was (M=3.97), revealing that it was essential to implement creative thinking to improve EFL learners' creativity. Nine activities were reported very important to be implemented in the class compared to ten less critical activities, i.e., necessary. The other three activities were revealed to be of moderate and minor importance. Respecting and rewarding the ideas of students (M=4.55) and teaching multiple ways to solve a problem (M=4.52) were the essential activities from the viewpoint of respondents. While asking questions with one specific answer in mind (M=2.71) and spending time doing seatwork (M=2.59) were perceived as the least important activities. Two main factors affect the creation of a creative teaching environment. The first is the teachers' level of awareness of their roles in enhancing learners' creativity. The second is their ability to integrate knowledge in a new way to make different combinations or add new ideas to previously acquired knowledge to create something unusual (Mariani & Ismail, 2015).
Furthermore, teachers' persistence, willingness to develop, acceptance of new experiences, motivation, and sense of humor were found as decisive factors influencing creative teaching (Horng,  Hong, ChanLin, Chang, & Chu, 2005). In addition, the school environment, including other teachers, the principal, other school students, and school administration policies, affect teachers' creativity (Palaniappan, 2009). One more exciting source of teachers' creativity is their perceptions and concepts of creativity, which cause them difficulties when assessing their creativity and the creativity of the activities they try to implement in classrooms (Morais. & Azevedo, 2011).
Concerning the effect of the teaching stage and experience on respondents' viewpoints, results showed no significant differences due to these two variables. Such finding can be because all participant teachers graduated from Saudi universities where higher education levels are nearly the same. Moreover, they were all subjected to similar courses offered to them during their academic study because they all acquired approximate knowledge and abilities. Therefore, the differences between them were slight. Besides, they were all teachers at public schools administered by the same regulations leading to similar teaching environments. This result confirms previous studies concluding that teachers' grade level, subject, experience, and age do not affect their perception of creativity characteristics (Kettler, Lamb, Willerson, & Mullet, 2018). In brief, investigating EFL teachers' conceptions about creative thinking activities inside classrooms showed that most of them look at themselves as creative teachers though they could not distinguish what activities are related to creativity. Hence, participant EFL teachers' responses help identify a need for a teacher training about creativity and raise suggestions for this work.

CONCLUSION
Human beings are endowed with many attributes among which is creativity. Activating this attribute can enhance our mentality and cognition. It can arouse our curiosity and make us more optimistic as we think critically of our surroundings. Creative teachers can activate their students' latent creativity and empower them to look at problems facing as interesting puzzles not as challenges. Creative thinking is a key competency for entrepreneurial activities and long life learning. Literature and scientific research show that creativity has no limits and no universal prescription can be proposed to inspire teachers' creativity, but have shown that there are many hindrances that can impede this inspiration process such school environment, principal and students. Findings of the present study have revealed the respondents' teachers' need for training to familiarize them with creativity notion and activities that may enhance it. Thus, the findings stress the importance to train Saudi EFL teachers on asking unusual questions, creating and presenting imaginative ideas, creating an ethos where ideas have value, and making combinations of existing ideas. Teaching strategies and activities that nurture students' competencies should be included in EFL school curriculum. Furthermore, developing students' creativity and creative thinking should be a broad aim of EFL teaching at schools.

Funding and Conflicts of Interest:
The authors declare that there is no funding and conflicts of interest for this research.