Teacher perceptions of ICT and risk taking in creative design

Identifying creativity as an important aspect of innovation has resulted in recent years in educators seeking ways to engage greater creativity among students in the classroom. Essential in any application and encouragement of creativity is the characteristic of risk taking. This thesis investigates teacher perceptions of the encouragement and inducement of risk taking behaviours in student creative design work. More specifically, the study asks whether a selection of art, design and technology teachers viewed ICT as a vehicle, which could deliver processes supporting and motivating students to take creative risks. A case study research design was used from seven teacher participants in the fields of art, design technology and ICT. The study used two main data sources, interviews and observation notes. Teachers were asked a series of semi-structured questions in two rounds of interviews to determine whether they understood and could identify strategies for developing risk taking in student design work using ICT. The interviews were followed with class observation, discussion and member checking to validate the information collected. The findings from the research showed that teachers could articulate the notion of risk taking using their own terms and language as well as strategies for encouraging students to take creative risks. From this perspective, teachers viewed the use of ICT as a positive tool in the encouragement of risk taking in student creative design work. The findings also showed that ICT allowed risk taking to occur in ways that motivated students while shielding them from possible failure and adverse criticism from their peers. The research found that nurturing such a climate for creative risk taking took a degree of skill, particularly on the level of student management, which amounted to risk taking by teachers in their teaching practice.