Creative teaching behaviors of health care school teachers in Taiwan: mediating and moderating effects

BACKGROUND: Considerable attention has been paid to the variables for creative abilities of teachers and the creative climate of the schools in which they teach, as well as the direct relationships between these variables. However, research on the indirect links between these variables concerning creativity in higher education has been limited. Researches on creative teaching behaviors among health care teachers are scant, particularly in Taiwan. METHODS: This study used a cross-sectional descriptive design to investigate potential mediating and moderating effects of Taiwanese health care school teachers’ creative teaching self-efficacy and a school’s creative climate, the relationship between these variables, and the relationship between creative teaching self-efficacy and creative teaching behaviors. Participants were purposively selected from five vocational and technical health care schools in Northern Taiwan representing the departments of nursing, gerontological care and management, and nutrition and health. Data were collected from five self-report questionnaires regarding teaching, the school environment, and creativity. Data were analyzed using Pearson’s correlation coefficient and simple and hierarchical multiple regression models. RESULTS: A total of 53 teachers completed the questionnaires. Pearson’s correlation analysis showed the teamwork component of school creative climate was correlated with the creative teaching behavior of characteristics and motivations. The mediation model indicated creative teaching self-efficacy fully mediated the effect of teamwork on teachers’ characteristics and motivations. The moderation model indicated that teamwork negatively moderated the effect of teachers’ creative teaching abilities for characteristics and motivations on creative teaching behaviors (β = − 0.01, p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings fill a gap in the literature regarding creative teaching behaviors and school climate in Taiwan. School teachers’ creative teaching self-efficacy and creative teaching abilities are crucial mediating and moderating variables on the relationship between school creative climate and creative teaching behaviors, respectively. The empirical data confirm the validity of our proposed mediation and moderation models of creative teaching behaviors. Therefore, our findings may be effective references for health care teachers regarding creative teaching. Improving creative teaching behaviors of teachers responsible for educating students in health care schools could be facilitated by enhancing teachers’ creative self-efficacy and creative abilities.