Perceptual and Motor Skills, 1977,45, 107 1-1075. @ Perceptual and Motor Skills 1977
BLACK TEACHERS' PERCEPTIONS OF THE IDEAL PUPIL BILL KALTSOUNIS
GENE HIGDON
Middle Tennessee State University
Tennessee State University
Summary.-Torrance's Ideal Child Checklist was administered to 76 black teachers. A comparison of their 10 most and least valued traits with those of the expert panel on the creative personality showed that the two groups agreed only once on the 10 most valued traits and three times on the 10 least valued traits.
Cultures may be characterized by the ways in which they encourage or discourage certain kinds of behavior among their members. Perhaps the most powerful way a culture inhibits or facilitates creative development is the way by which teachers encourage or discourage, reward or punish these characteristics necessary for creative functioning. Usually this process is reflected in what teachers regard as ideal behavior or the kind of person they would like to see a child become. There is considerable evidence to suggest that creative personalities tend to be estranged by their teachers and are not liked very well by them. Getzels and Jackson ( 1) and Torrance (4) found that teachers preferred students with high IQs and less outstanding scores on tests of creative thinking to those who had outstanding creative scores and less outstanding IQs although these children did not differ in educztional achievement. Kaltsounis and Higdon ( 3 ) in comparing the 10 most and least valued traits of ideal pupils as seen by prospective teachers with those of the experts on the creative personality found prospective teachers' values differing substantially from the perceptions of the experts who are concerned with the development of creative individuals. In an effort to pursue the study of the ideal pupil further the present study was undertaken. Operating upon the belief that "black teachers tend to encourage individuals exhibiting creative behavior," it was hypothesized that black teachers would desire to develop and reward in their students the more creative personality characteristics. This investigation studied a group ofblack teachers' concepts of the ideal pupil and compzred these black teachers' concepts of the ideal pupil with that of Torrance's experts on the creative personality.
PROCEDURE To assess what black teachers consider an ideal pupil, a list of 66 characteristics of creative personalities developed by Torrance ( 5 ) was selected. Teachers were asked to indicate by a single check the characteristics which they thought should be encouraged, by a double check the characteristics deemed most important, and by a strike-out those characteristics which should be discouraged. By assigning a value of 2 to double checks, 1 to single checks, -1 to strike outs,
B. KALTSOUNIS
1072
&
G. HIGDON
and 0 to characteristics which were left unmarked, an index of desirability was obtained for each characteristic. The 66 characteristics were then ranked from 1 (most desirable) to 66 (least desirable) in terms of the values obtained. Inservice and prospective elementary school teachers (39 undergraduate elementary majors, 23 graduate elementary teachers, 14 graduate elementary majors with no teaching experience) were chosen for this study. The 39 undergraduates and 37 graduates constituted the total black population in a Tennessee regional college for the Fall Semester of 1976. All subjects were of approximately the same age and socioeconomic background and had received their entire undergraduate education in the same regional institution. The most and least valued traits of the ideal pupil as perceived by black male and female teachers (Table 1 ) indicate that these male and female subjects vary in their perceptions of the most valued traits of an ideal pupil as they agree only on 4 of the 10 most valued traits. Ic also shows that males and females agree almost completely in their perceptions of the least desired traits of an ideal pupil as they disagreed only on one of the least valued traits. TABLE 1
Male Competitive, trying to win Self-confident Considerate of others Desirous of excelling Determined, unflinching Doing work on time Neat and orderly Persistent, persevering Striving for distant goals Versatile, well-rounded Critical of others Guessing, hypothesizing Haughty and self-satisfied Stubborn, obstinate Unsophisticated, artless Domineering, controlling Negativistic, resistant Timid, shy, bashful Fearful, apprehensive Disturbing procedures and the group
Female Most Valued Doing work on time Considerate of others Courteous, polite Neat and orderly Obedient, submissive to authority Determined, unflinching Truthful, even when it hurts Healthy physically Independent in thinking Asking questions about puzzling things Least Valued Haughty and self-satisfied Unsophisticated, artless Negativistic, resistant Critical of others Domineering, controlling Timid, shy, bashful Fault-finding, objecting Fearful, apprehensive Disturbing procedures and organization of the group organization of Stubborn, obstinate
BLACK TEACHERS' PERCEPTIONS OF IDEAL PUPIL
Table 2 lists in rank order the 10 most desired traits of creative personality as viewed by black teachers and Torrance's experts on the creative personality. An examination of the most valued traits by the experts and black teachers points to one significant finding, that there is only one common characteristic which appears in both lists. However, in the case of the 10 least valued traits, there are only three common characteristics which appear in both lists. TABLE 2 TEN MOSTAND LEASTVALUEDTRAITSOF IDEALPUPIL AS PERCEIVED BY CRBATIVITYEXPERTSAND BLACKTEACHERS Creativity Experts
Black Teachers
Most Valued Courageous in convictions Doing work on time Curious, searching Considerate of others Neat and orderly Independent in thinking Independent in judgment Courteous, polite Determined, unflinching Willing to take risks Truthful, even when it hurts Intuitiveness Becoming preoccupied with tasks Obedient, submissive to authority Persistent, persevering Healthy physically Desirous of excelling Unwilling to accept things on mere say-so Visionary, idealistic Independent in thinking Least Valued Conformity Haughty and self-satisfied Unsophisticated, artless Willingness to accept the judgment of authorities Critical of others Fearfulness, apprehensiveness Negativistic, resistant Timidity, shyness, bashfulness Domineering, controlling Obedience, submissive to authority Fault-finding, objecting Courtesy, politeness Timid, shy, bashful Promptness in doing work Stubborn, obstinate Socially well adjusted Fearful, apprehensive Haughty and self-satisfied Disturbing procedures and organization Neatness and orderliness of the group
The rank-order coefficient of correlation between the ranks derived from the responses of black teachers and those derived from Torrance's sample of creativity experts is .20. This reflects considerable dissimilarity between the two groups and is much lower than similar correlations among different groups of teachers within the United States (6). Examining the 10 most favored characteristics of each group gives the impression that these black teachers are less desirous of those characteristics which reflect creative behavior than are experts in creativity. It is discouraging to find that black teachers placed doing work on time, considerate of others, being neat and orderly and courteous as the most important of the 66 characteristics
1074
B. KALTSOUNIS
&
G. HIGDON
on the checklist. Because these characteristics are highly valued by our society and are so ingrained in our educational structure, it is not difficult to see why they are given a high ranking for an ideal pupil. Highly creative people frequently appear to lack these traits. Even though being considerate of others is a very desirable personal quality to possess giving this characteristic a high ranking in our hierarchy of values may reflect an overemphasis on conformity to the thinking of others and could conceivably be carried to such an extreme as to work against the encouragement of the creative thinking abilities. Present evidence indicates that this is one area in which highly creative individuals need help in order to become less offensive to others without sacrificing their creativity. It is encouraging to find that the black teachers selected independence in thinking as one of the top 10 characteristics. Most studies of creative individuals stress the importance of independence in thinking in genuine creative accomplishment. Highly creative persons are extremely sincere. It is so important to them that living truly and searching for the truth may almost be an obsession. Teachers must be careful to pay more than lip service to sincerity by showing genuine respect for this quality. It is difficult for teachers to refrain from punishing sincerity when the sincere thoughts expressed are not the clean and holy ones that we officially approve. Here is a major problem for both teachers and parents in the cultivation of creativity. Determination is an important characteristic of a creative personality. It has been suggested that the truly creative personality is likely to be first to give in but last to give up. Although determination is recognized as a "good thing," we tend to not like it when the determination is in opposition to our own will. Thus determination frequently brings creative individuals into conflict with teachers, employees, and other authorities. A creative person frequently refuses to take no for an answer and drives ahead to test his ideas in spite of discouragement. Perhaps teachers need to teach some of these determined creative individuals how to give in occasionally wi:hout giving up. Included among some of the least desirable characteristics are attributes which are frequently typical of highly creative persons. For example, many creative persons who are usually bold in developing, testing, and defending their ideas are very shy or timid in social relationships. An elementary school teacher may frequently encounter a highly creative student who lacks social facility. Thus a teacher may need to help the student develop socially without hindering his creative development. Creative individuals also tend to be critical of others and teachers may frequently see this expressed when children criticize work of their classmates. Teachers must constructively be on the guard to help pupils become less disparaging and more constructive in their criticism. A tendency to be stubborn
BLACK TEACHERS' PERCEPTIONS OF IDEAL PUPIL
1075
is also noted, so a teacher must devise ways of maintaining a pupil's persistence and developing social skills simultaneously. In the stubborn pursuit of independent thinking, the creative individual may at times appear to be negativistic. Although he is likely to be more open to the suggestions of others than less creative people, he is frequently unwilling to accept an answer. Highly creative individuals may also appear to be haughty and self-satisfied at times. Such situations frequently result in the individual's being disliked by peers and superiors. Because he develops novel ideals which may run counter to accepted notions and practices, the problem may be one of accepting this characteristic but helping the individual to become less annoying to others. Another difficulty arises out of the fact that the productively creative individual often finds fault, although usually in a constructive way. Creative children may frequently appear domineering, particularly in group activities. These creative individuals seem to have a unique talent for disturbing and disrupting existing organization wherever they find themselves. Needless to say, this is disturbing to teachers, and it ranks lowest in almost all the groups thus far studied. Finally, if the evaluation and ranking of the traits liked most and least by Torrance's experts on the creative personality be considered as the criterion, one will see that this group of black teachers, by their emphasis on uncritical, unimaginative, and self-conscious conformity, may discourage creativity. This group's perceptions of the ideal pupil were almost identical to those of a white group from the same region but different regional institution ( 2 ) . Teachertraining institutions may help ameliorate this deficiency by giving more attention to the importance of recognizing and reinforcing pupils' creativity. REFERENCES 1. GETZELS, J. W., & JACKSON, P. W. Creatiuity and intelligence. New York: Wiley, 1962. 2. KALTSOUNIS, 33. Middle Tennessee teachers' perceptions of the ideal pupil. Perceptual a d Motor Skills, 1977, 44, 803-806. 3. KALTSOUNIS,B., & HIGDON,G. Student teachers' perceptions of the ideal pupil. Perceptd and Motor Skills, 1977, 44, 160. E. P. Gaiding creative talent. Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall, 4. TORRANCE, 1962. 5. TORRANCE, E. P. The creative personality and the ideal pupil. Teachers College Record, 2963, 65, 220-227. 6. TORRANCE, E. P. Ideal Child Checklist. Athens, Ga.: Georgia Studies of Creative Behavior, 1975. Accepted Se~ternbe~ 28, 1977.
BLACK TEACHERS' PERCEPTIONS OF THE IDEAL PUPIL BILL KALTSOUNIS
GENE HIGDON
Middle Tennessee State University
Tennessee State University
Summary.-Torrance's Ideal Child Checklist was administered to 76 black teachers. A comparison of their 10 most and least valued traits with those of the expert panel on the creative personality showed that the two groups agreed only once on the 10 most valued traits and three times on the 10 least valued traits.
Cultures may be characterized by the ways in which they encourage or discourage certain kinds of behavior among their members. Perhaps the most powerful way a culture inhibits or facilitates creative development is the way by which teachers encourage or discourage, reward or punish these characteristics necessary for creative functioning. Usually this process is reflected in what teachers regard as ideal behavior or the kind of person they would like to see a child become. There is considerable evidence to suggest that creative personalities tend to be estranged by their teachers and are not liked very well by them. Getzels and Jackson ( 1) and Torrance (4) found that teachers preferred students with high IQs and less outstanding scores on tests of creative thinking to those who had outstanding creative scores and less outstanding IQs although these children did not differ in educztional achievement. Kaltsounis and Higdon ( 3 ) in comparing the 10 most and least valued traits of ideal pupils as seen by prospective teachers with those of the experts on the creative personality found prospective teachers' values differing substantially from the perceptions of the experts who are concerned with the development of creative individuals. In an effort to pursue the study of the ideal pupil further the present study was undertaken. Operating upon the belief that "black teachers tend to encourage individuals exhibiting creative behavior," it was hypothesized that black teachers would desire to develop and reward in their students the more creative personality characteristics. This investigation studied a group ofblack teachers' concepts of the ideal pupil and compzred these black teachers' concepts of the ideal pupil with that of Torrance's experts on the creative personality.
PROCEDURE To assess what black teachers consider an ideal pupil, a list of 66 characteristics of creative personalities developed by Torrance ( 5 ) was selected. Teachers were asked to indicate by a single check the characteristics which they thought should be encouraged, by a double check the characteristics deemed most important, and by a strike-out those characteristics which should be discouraged. By assigning a value of 2 to double checks, 1 to single checks, -1 to strike outs,
B. KALTSOUNIS
1072
&
G. HIGDON
and 0 to characteristics which were left unmarked, an index of desirability was obtained for each characteristic. The 66 characteristics were then ranked from 1 (most desirable) to 66 (least desirable) in terms of the values obtained. Inservice and prospective elementary school teachers (39 undergraduate elementary majors, 23 graduate elementary teachers, 14 graduate elementary majors with no teaching experience) were chosen for this study. The 39 undergraduates and 37 graduates constituted the total black population in a Tennessee regional college for the Fall Semester of 1976. All subjects were of approximately the same age and socioeconomic background and had received their entire undergraduate education in the same regional institution. The most and least valued traits of the ideal pupil as perceived by black male and female teachers (Table 1 ) indicate that these male and female subjects vary in their perceptions of the most valued traits of an ideal pupil as they agree only on 4 of the 10 most valued traits. Ic also shows that males and females agree almost completely in their perceptions of the least desired traits of an ideal pupil as they disagreed only on one of the least valued traits. TABLE 1
Male Competitive, trying to win Self-confident Considerate of others Desirous of excelling Determined, unflinching Doing work on time Neat and orderly Persistent, persevering Striving for distant goals Versatile, well-rounded Critical of others Guessing, hypothesizing Haughty and self-satisfied Stubborn, obstinate Unsophisticated, artless Domineering, controlling Negativistic, resistant Timid, shy, bashful Fearful, apprehensive Disturbing procedures and the group
Female Most Valued Doing work on time Considerate of others Courteous, polite Neat and orderly Obedient, submissive to authority Determined, unflinching Truthful, even when it hurts Healthy physically Independent in thinking Asking questions about puzzling things Least Valued Haughty and self-satisfied Unsophisticated, artless Negativistic, resistant Critical of others Domineering, controlling Timid, shy, bashful Fault-finding, objecting Fearful, apprehensive Disturbing procedures and organization of the group organization of Stubborn, obstinate
BLACK TEACHERS' PERCEPTIONS OF IDEAL PUPIL
Table 2 lists in rank order the 10 most desired traits of creative personality as viewed by black teachers and Torrance's experts on the creative personality. An examination of the most valued traits by the experts and black teachers points to one significant finding, that there is only one common characteristic which appears in both lists. However, in the case of the 10 least valued traits, there are only three common characteristics which appear in both lists. TABLE 2 TEN MOSTAND LEASTVALUEDTRAITSOF IDEALPUPIL AS PERCEIVED BY CRBATIVITYEXPERTSAND BLACKTEACHERS Creativity Experts
Black Teachers
Most Valued Courageous in convictions Doing work on time Curious, searching Considerate of others Neat and orderly Independent in thinking Independent in judgment Courteous, polite Determined, unflinching Willing to take risks Truthful, even when it hurts Intuitiveness Becoming preoccupied with tasks Obedient, submissive to authority Persistent, persevering Healthy physically Desirous of excelling Unwilling to accept things on mere say-so Visionary, idealistic Independent in thinking Least Valued Conformity Haughty and self-satisfied Unsophisticated, artless Willingness to accept the judgment of authorities Critical of others Fearfulness, apprehensiveness Negativistic, resistant Timidity, shyness, bashfulness Domineering, controlling Obedience, submissive to authority Fault-finding, objecting Courtesy, politeness Timid, shy, bashful Promptness in doing work Stubborn, obstinate Socially well adjusted Fearful, apprehensive Haughty and self-satisfied Disturbing procedures and organization Neatness and orderliness of the group
The rank-order coefficient of correlation between the ranks derived from the responses of black teachers and those derived from Torrance's sample of creativity experts is .20. This reflects considerable dissimilarity between the two groups and is much lower than similar correlations among different groups of teachers within the United States (6). Examining the 10 most favored characteristics of each group gives the impression that these black teachers are less desirous of those characteristics which reflect creative behavior than are experts in creativity. It is discouraging to find that black teachers placed doing work on time, considerate of others, being neat and orderly and courteous as the most important of the 66 characteristics
1074
B. KALTSOUNIS
&
G. HIGDON
on the checklist. Because these characteristics are highly valued by our society and are so ingrained in our educational structure, it is not difficult to see why they are given a high ranking for an ideal pupil. Highly creative people frequently appear to lack these traits. Even though being considerate of others is a very desirable personal quality to possess giving this characteristic a high ranking in our hierarchy of values may reflect an overemphasis on conformity to the thinking of others and could conceivably be carried to such an extreme as to work against the encouragement of the creative thinking abilities. Present evidence indicates that this is one area in which highly creative individuals need help in order to become less offensive to others without sacrificing their creativity. It is encouraging to find that the black teachers selected independence in thinking as one of the top 10 characteristics. Most studies of creative individuals stress the importance of independence in thinking in genuine creative accomplishment. Highly creative persons are extremely sincere. It is so important to them that living truly and searching for the truth may almost be an obsession. Teachers must be careful to pay more than lip service to sincerity by showing genuine respect for this quality. It is difficult for teachers to refrain from punishing sincerity when the sincere thoughts expressed are not the clean and holy ones that we officially approve. Here is a major problem for both teachers and parents in the cultivation of creativity. Determination is an important characteristic of a creative personality. It has been suggested that the truly creative personality is likely to be first to give in but last to give up. Although determination is recognized as a "good thing," we tend to not like it when the determination is in opposition to our own will. Thus determination frequently brings creative individuals into conflict with teachers, employees, and other authorities. A creative person frequently refuses to take no for an answer and drives ahead to test his ideas in spite of discouragement. Perhaps teachers need to teach some of these determined creative individuals how to give in occasionally wi:hout giving up. Included among some of the least desirable characteristics are attributes which are frequently typical of highly creative persons. For example, many creative persons who are usually bold in developing, testing, and defending their ideas are very shy or timid in social relationships. An elementary school teacher may frequently encounter a highly creative student who lacks social facility. Thus a teacher may need to help the student develop socially without hindering his creative development. Creative individuals also tend to be critical of others and teachers may frequently see this expressed when children criticize work of their classmates. Teachers must constructively be on the guard to help pupils become less disparaging and more constructive in their criticism. A tendency to be stubborn
BLACK TEACHERS' PERCEPTIONS OF IDEAL PUPIL
1075
is also noted, so a teacher must devise ways of maintaining a pupil's persistence and developing social skills simultaneously. In the stubborn pursuit of independent thinking, the creative individual may at times appear to be negativistic. Although he is likely to be more open to the suggestions of others than less creative people, he is frequently unwilling to accept an answer. Highly creative individuals may also appear to be haughty and self-satisfied at times. Such situations frequently result in the individual's being disliked by peers and superiors. Because he develops novel ideals which may run counter to accepted notions and practices, the problem may be one of accepting this characteristic but helping the individual to become less annoying to others. Another difficulty arises out of the fact that the productively creative individual often finds fault, although usually in a constructive way. Creative children may frequently appear domineering, particularly in group activities. These creative individuals seem to have a unique talent for disturbing and disrupting existing organization wherever they find themselves. Needless to say, this is disturbing to teachers, and it ranks lowest in almost all the groups thus far studied. Finally, if the evaluation and ranking of the traits liked most and least by Torrance's experts on the creative personality be considered as the criterion, one will see that this group of black teachers, by their emphasis on uncritical, unimaginative, and self-conscious conformity, may discourage creativity. This group's perceptions of the ideal pupil were almost identical to those of a white group from the same region but different regional institution ( 2 ) . Teachertraining institutions may help ameliorate this deficiency by giving more attention to the importance of recognizing and reinforcing pupils' creativity. REFERENCES 1. GETZELS, J. W., & JACKSON, P. W. Creatiuity and intelligence. New York: Wiley, 1962. 2. KALTSOUNIS, 33. Middle Tennessee teachers' perceptions of the ideal pupil. Perceptual a d Motor Skills, 1977, 44, 803-806. 3. KALTSOUNIS,B., & HIGDON,G. Student teachers' perceptions of the ideal pupil. Perceptd and Motor Skills, 1977, 44, 160. E. P. Gaiding creative talent. Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall, 4. TORRANCE, 1962. 5. TORRANCE, E. P. The creative personality and the ideal pupil. Teachers College Record, 2963, 65, 220-227. 6. TORRANCE, E. P. Ideal Child Checklist. Athens, Ga.: Georgia Studies of Creative Behavior, 1975. Accepted Se~ternbe~ 28, 1977.
