2025 : 9 : 29
Mohammad Aliakbari

Mohammad Aliakbari

Academic rank: Professor
ORCID:
Education: PhD.
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Faculty: Literature and Humanities
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Research

Title
Exploring Iranian EFL Teachers' Creativity-Supportive Behaviors
Type
JournalPaper
Keywords
Creativity; Creativity-Fostering Instruction; EFL Classrooms; Interaction; Environmen
Year
2021
Journal Journal of Foreign Language Teaching and Translation Studies
DOI
Researchers Mohammad Aliakbari ، behrooz Kalantari

Abstract

This study investigated the creativity-supportive behaviors of Iranian EFL teachers. A mixed-methods data collection approach was adopted: quantitative data were obtained from randomly selected 94 teachers and 216 students through the Persian version of the Creativity Fostering Teaching (CFT) index (Soh, 2000), and qualitative data were collected via students' reports on twelve classroom aspects. To analyze the quantitative data, an independent samples t-test and for the qualitative data, thematic analysis coding were used. There was a significant difference between the teachers' and the students' views on creativity-supportive behaviors of Iranian EFL teachers. Additionally, environment and interaction were extracted as two main themes from the analysis of the qualitative data. These two themes were discussed as the central factors influencing the creativity-supportive behaviors of the teachers. Although most Iranian EFL teachers want and try to adopt strategies and activities to develop or support creativity in their classrooms, the results showed that Iranian EFL students do not experience the classrooms as a locus of supporting creativity. Generally, creativity is not implemented and supported in Iranian EFL classrooms. The findings illustrate that teacher-training programs should equip Iranian EFL teachers with the knowledge and strategies of creativity- fostering instruction.