Knowledge about the Creativity of Pedagogy Students Starting Their Studies at Higher Education Institutions

Introduction: Demonstrating scientific knowledge of creativity by students of pedagogy is essential for their conscious planning and designing of an educational environment that supports the development of children’s creative attitudes. Knowledge is the basis for the development of human competences, therefore, in order to reliably and reflectively organize the didactic and educational process, including the process of developing the creativity of future pupils, it is important for students to use a resource of professional knowledge about creativity in a broad sense, and not only common, intuitive knowledge. Determining the level of knowledge about creativity of students of pedagogy starting their studies at a higher education institution is an important stage in planning the didactic process, because it can be an opportunity to introduce changes in the educational process. Research Aim: The main purpose of the research presented in this article was to check the level of knowledge about creativity of students starting pedagogical studies. Research Method: The research adopted a quantitative research strategy using the diagnostic survey method. 648 people took part in the study. Results: The research results indicate that students of pedagogy preparing to work as teachers are characterized by a lower level of general knowledge about creativity than students of other specialties, these results are statistically significant. However, students – high school graduates – have a higher level of theoretical knowledge about creativity than people who graduated from technical secondary schools. At the same time, technical school graduates demonstrate a higher level of knowledge resulting from their life experiences and intuition compared to high school graduates, and these results are also statistically significant. Conclusion: The conducted research indicates a great need to engage students in practical and theoretical activities, because, as the research results indicate, the general level of knowledge about the creativity of high school graduates is very low.