The growing integration of digital technologies into language education has raised questions about how classroom modality may affect teaching and learning. Yet, physical classrooms have long been the default setting for research, particularly on creativity. Thus, given the need for the re-examination of how creativity, one of the key cornerstones of education, is perceived and expressed in different contexts, this study aimed to investigate Iranian EFL teachers’ and students’ perceptions of their creativity in physical and online classes. To this end, two valid and reliable questionnaires on teacher creativity and student creativity, including the teacher creativity questionnaire as well as the student creativity questionnaire, were used to collect the data. Selected through purposeful sampling, 68 EFL teachers and 235 students from high schools and language institutes in Ilam, Iran, participated in the study. The results showed that the teachers perceived their creativity to be higher in online classes across the individual differences and expertise components of teacher creativity, but not the management component. However, the learners believed their creativity increased in online classes across all the components of student creativity. The findings, explained with reference to the features of physical and online teaching, can have implications for language education theory and practice.
