Conference Agenda

This study addresses the persistent gap between the longstanding research focus on creativity and its limited integration in schools. Despite broad consensus on creativity's importance in education, significant implementation remains elusive. Our research examines teachers' perceptions of creativity to understand existing and potential classroom expressions of it, focusing on how teachers define, detect, and foster creativity in various educational contexts.

Grounded in Beghetto and Kaufman's (2007) concept of mini-c creativity, our study explores small-scale expressions of creativity in classrooms. We employ a qualitative approach, utilizing interviews with 22 teachers and 41 classroom observations across diverse disciplines and age groups.

The research findings reveal a dichotomy between theoretical perspectives and practical applications. While teachers struggle with abstract definitions of creativity and perceive tensions between creativity and academic achievement, they confidently provide examples of creative moments in their teaching practice. Analysis of these moments yielded three core principles of creativity in education: pedagogical anchor (educational context or objective), unique personal expression (students expressing themselves in their own manner), and novelty (creating something original relative to the learner).

These principles form the basis of this research integrative model of creativity in education. It maps educational events according to the mix of these components, with their combination, forming the core of creative moments. It also describes how teachers dynamically use these components through dosing, balancing, and combining strategies.

The model contributes to defining creativity in educational contexts. It aligns with accepted creativity definitions while emphasizing unique personal expression as a fundamental, often overlooked component. This framework can help teachers conceptualize, analyze, and improve their pedagogical processes to foster creativity more effectively.

By bridging theory and practice, our research offers valuable insights into realizing creative potential in educational settings, contributing to the development of quality teaching practices and the broader discourse on creativity in education.

This study investigates student perceptions of skill assimilation in 43 asynchronous self-paced online courses at a large Israeli teacher education college, focusing on the implementation of 'Skillabus', a novel component that emphasizes skills and competencies within course syllabi. The 'Skillabus' approach features a standardized opening unit across all courses, introducing and detailing targeted skills such as productivity and time management, mental resilience, self-directed learning, research and discovery, and digital pedagogy. Implementation strategies include setting clear deadlines, integrating digital planning tools, promoting peer feedback and reflection, offering open-ended tasks, and incorporating AI and other digital tools. Although each course also covers content-specific skills, these are not the focus of this study. Grounded in theories of self-directed learning, digital competence, and skill-based curriculum design, the research draws on online learning, teacher education, and 21^st-century skill development. A quantitative approach using a self-report questionnaire administered to students upon course completion assesses their understanding of changes compared to non-Skillabus courses and their perceived skill improvement. The study also explores whether awareness of the skill emphasis contributed to improvement and students’ understanding of skill integration into their future classrooms. Data analysis uses descriptive and inferential statistics to identify patterns in perceptions and skill development. Preliminary results indicate that students more readily identify improvements in hard skills than in soft skills and do not easily connect skill enhancement with their learning process. These findings underscore the need for explicit links between course content and skill development in teacher education programs. This research contributes to the discussion on preparing future educators for the digital age by exploring innovative approaches in teacher education through self-directed learning and digital pedagogy and emphasizes the importance of aligning education with labor market demands by focusing on skill assimilation rather than just knowledge acquisition.

In 2022, immigrants and refugees made up over 16% of Norway's population (Green & Vaag Iversen, 2022; Statistisk sentralbyrå, 2022), presenting new challenges for teachers in increasingly diverse classrooms. While newly arrived students receive specialized Norwegian language instruction, most classroom teaching occurs in inclusive environments where linguistic diversity is a significant factor. Immigrant students typically achieve lower academic results than their peers (Statistisk sentralbyrå, 2023), often due to instruction that is either too advanced or insufficiently adapted to their language needs (Lødding et al., 2024). Skrefsrud (2018) suggests that the key question is not how multilingual students can be integrated into the existing school system, but rather how a new classroom approach centered on student self-reflection can be developed. The Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) method offers potential for supporting multilingual students, but little is known about its use or teachers' perceptions in the Norwegian context.

This study examines teachers' perceptions of the outcomes of the SIOP method in promoting participation and inclusion for multilingual students in Norwegian middle and upper secondary schools. The research aims to explore how SIOP can help bridge educational gaps by fostering engagement and participation. Grounded in self-study and educational design frameworks, the study also incorporates methodologies for examining teacher beliefs. Teachers participated through reflective journaling on their instructional experiences with the SIOP model, supported by collaborative reflection groups with researchers (Samaras, 2011; Feldman, Paugh, & Mills, 2004). Preliminary results suggest that SIOP implementation enhances student engagement and improves linguistic competence, as perceived by teachers. These findings indicate that SIOP may contribute to reducing disparities in participation and performance among diverse student populations. This research aligns with the conference theme, “Research on equitable teaching practices,” by highlighting how inclusive instructional methods like SIOP can promote equity and inclusion for multilingual students in diverse classrooms.

In recent years the role of the university in England, in relation to teacher education and teachers’ professional learning, has been under attack. Ongoing reforms have led to teacher education becoming a state endeavour, characterised by enforced compliance and fidelity to government-set curriculum design, content and delivery (Ellis and Childs, 2024). As experienced teacher educators we have borne this radical policy implementation and are provoked to move from a position of ‘creative compliance’ to developing a more robust counter-response that reimagines the place and space of university-based teacher education in England.

In this paper we describe how opportunity to leave England and engage with ITE colleagues in Denmark led us to ‘fight familiarity’ (Delamont, 2010) and speculate how we might reposition our university-based teacher education programmes to invoke more creative, critical and transformational teacher learning (Griffiths & Nuttall, forthcoming). The work of Lefebvre (1991) prompted us to interrogate physical, conceptual and lived experiences in both familiar and unfamiliar university settings. Engaging with principles of autoethnography and self-study we came to consider multiple perspectives, uncovering and examining beliefs, assumptions and taken-for-granted ways of being and knowing in teacher education. Outcomes from this work centre around relationships between physical, conceptual and affective dimensions, underpinning our possibility thinking about how we can embed equality and sustainability across our provision. We explore potential in an ‘ontological turn’ (Aldridge, 2015) in teacher education, where we endeavour to situate our [student] teachers and ourselves in a complex ecology of transformative learning, cultivating ‘self-full’ practices (Higgins, 2015) and promoting belonging.

Outlining challenges and tensions inherent in achieving our vision, we conclude with a call to action that asks the sector to consider what can be done to shift teacher education beyond homogenised, marketized and instrumental approaches and instead become a site of transformation and flourishing for all.