This study investigated creativity and personal barriers for its expression amongst 4th elementary grade public and private school teachers of various degrees of teaching experience. The perception of the classroom climate for creativity amongst the students of these teachers was also examined. Fifty two teachers and 967 students participated in this research. The Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking, the Inventory to Identify Barriers to Personal Creativity, and the Classroom Climate Scale for Creativity were used. The results indicated significant differences between the teachers with less and greater teaching experience in one creativity measure only. Private school teachers had a higher performance on creativity when compared to public school teachers. With regards to the barriers on personal creativity, no significant difference between the groups of teachers was identified. The students of the most experienced teachers and the ones from private schools evaluated the creativity classroom environment more positively.
Creativity; Teachers; School
