Effects of hierarchical versus sequential structuring of teaching content on creativity in Chinese writing

Abstract

This research employed the Learning Study approach which refers to a blend of Japanese "lesson study" and design-based research to provide support to teachers to teach creatively in Chinese writing. It reports a serendipity finding that remarkable differences in the creativity scores among these classes were noted even though they had the same learning objectives with the same lesson plan. Examining how teachers structure writing activities in a unit is essential to the understanding of how creativity works in the context of classroom instruction. We suggested that these differences were associated with the effects of hierarchical and sequential structuring of teaching content on creativity in Chinese writing. Possible ways of understanding creativity in a domain-specific training and disseminations of the findings are suggested. © 2009 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.