Is Creativity Better Promoted among Gifted Students by Exclusive Schools, Exclusive Classes, or Integrated Classes? A Qualitative Study in Saudi Arabia

Promoting students' creativity is a vital goal of many educational institutions. Recent research, however, has shown that not all schools are successful in enhancing student creativity, and schools in Saudi Arabia are no exception. This qualitative research was conducted to achieve an understanding of how creativity is promoted among gifted students in Saudi Arabia in three different school-settings for gifted students. Data were collected from observations and interviews and analysed in two separate and successive phases. Phase one involved observations of classroom practices in three different school settings for gifted students and within two different pedagogical contexts, curricular and extracurricular lessons. Phase two examined the experiences and perspectives of the teachers and gifted students. Results reported similarities in the practices of promoting creativity across the three school settings for most themes under the conceptual framework of this research, however, the student-centred approach used in the inclusive class had a seemingly more positive impact on promoting creativity. Regarding the type of lesson, the extracurricular lessons seemed to promote creativity more than the curricular lessons. The study highlighted deficiencies in the current physical environment of the classroom in Saudi Arabia for promoting creativity. Implications include beneficial practices for promoting self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation among gifted students which, in turn, promotes their creativity according to the framework used in this study. The implications also include the benefit of extracurricular lessons and student-centred learning to promote creativity in schools in Saudi Arabia.