Exploring secondary school teachers' creativity in differentiated instruction (DI) practices across Indonesian EFL classrooms

Abstract

The emergence of social, technological, and other aspects of life leads to increasing complexity in EFL instruction, requiring teachers to modify their instructions and accommodate students' learning needs through differentiated instruction (DI). DI requires that teachers diversify their instruction to optimize it. However, many teachers regard DI as challenging, requiring advanced teaching skills and creative thinking. Thus, this qualitative study aimed to investigate how teachers express their creativity in DI education and which areas of creativity need to be addressed. The data was collected by observing teaching performances and interviews with six Indonesian EFL secondary school instructors. The DI-Quest instrument was used for observation, and the English Language Teaching Creativity Scale (ELT-CS) was used to build the interview guide. The findings revealed diverse types of creativity in five dimensions: motivation, originality and elaboration, brainstorming, fluency and flexibility, and press and materials. However, teachers experienced difficulties articulating the creative aspect of autonomy in DI classrooms. Some pedagogical implications are addressed, particularly in teacher professional development programs.