“Self-Perpetuating Mechanism” in Experiences Stimulating Academic Teachers to Creative Didactic Work - Research Report

Abstract

Objective: The main aim of paper is to present results from research concerning creative didactic work understood as consciously taken actions whose aim is to invent/implement and popularize new and valuable teaching strategies, me thodical and organizational solutions. The paper presents an area of experiences that stimulate academic teachers to innovative didactic work. Methods: In a qualitative research conducted with the use of a theoretical-methodological ap proach of Gruber (1989) titled The Evolving Systems Approach to Creative Work (ESA). In it, the author applied a case study and conducted an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to contents deriving from semistructured interviews carried out with 13 academic teachers-innovators that for at least 5 years invented/implemented new strategies/methods/techniques/programes/didactic aids in the process of teaching-learning with students. Results: Such expe riences of didactic work as: positive emotions accompanying the process of inventing and implementing creative didactic solutions, good feedback from students, reaching educational goals, and encouragement from: students, co-workers, and significant persons make up the “self-propelling mechanism” for creativity in didactic work. Conclusions: Each stage of didactic work: from idea through implementation of the solution to its popularization is connected with pleasure and satisfaction taken by teachers. It makes them eager to continue their work in the form of various activities that create an internally related “weave of actions.” Thus, teaching in a creative way becomes a “self-propelling mechanism” thanks to which it is also subject to a process of continuous evolution of it.