Teacher and Student Perception of Student Creativity

A major concern of educators is the identification and education of highly creative children. Once the teacher has been able to determine his or her most creative students, then greater opportunities for self-initiated learning and a more individualized curricuium can be provided. Torrance (1962) proposes that the identification and recognition of creative students may serve as a powerful motivating force to aid these students in better utilizing their talents. Something About Myself (Khatena, 1971) is a 50 item, forcedchoice creativity checklist that is based on the rationale that creativity is reflected in an individual’s personality characteristics, thinking strategies, used creative productions. Something About Myself is a useful instrument for classroom teachers to use in identifying highly creative children age 13 and older. It requires only 1015 minutes to administer, and each test can be hand scored in approximately one minute. The major purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between student and teacher perception of student creativity as measured by Something About Myself. An ancillary purpose was to investigate possible sex differences in student and teacher perception of creativity.