Dataset of Preservice Early Childhood Teachers' Beliefs of Creative Pedagogy

This dataset was collected through a questionnaire survey and aims to investigate preservice early childhood teachers’ beliefs about creative pedagogy, creative mindsets, and creative self-efficacy in China. The data were collected online using the platform Wenjuanxing A cluster sampling method was employed to recruit participants from senior undergraduate students, junior college students, and final-year Master of Education students majoring in early childhood education at four normal universities in southern China.After obtaining informed consent from the participants, a total of 620 preservice teachers and graduate students took part in the survey. Among them, 598 valid questionnaires were collected, yielding a response validity rate of 96.5%.This dataset includes data collected using the following three measurement instruments and information regarding participants' gender, grade, educational attainment and period of internship:(1) Creative Mindsets Scale. In this study, the Creative Mindsets Scale developed by Maciej Karwowski was translated and adapted into Chinese to measure participants’ beliefs about the nature of creativity. The scale consists of two dimensions: growth creative mindset and fixed creative mindset, each containing five items. All items are rated on a five-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree).(2) Creative Self-Efficacy Scale. This study translated and used the Creative Self-Efficacy subscale (six items) from the Short Scale of Creative Self developed by Maciej Karwowski and colleagues. The scale is used to assess preservice early childhood teachers’ confidence in their own creative abilities. All items are rated on a five-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree).(3) Preschool Teachers’ Beliefs about Creative Pedagogy Questionnaire. This study adopted the questionnaire developed byRebecca Hun-Ping Cheung and Chi-Hung Leung, which consists of 22 items designed to measure teachers’ beliefs regarding the importance of creative pedagogy. The instrument was originally developed to examine Hong Kong preschool teachers’ beliefs about creative pedagogy and includes four dimensions: Self-Initiated Pursuit, iInterpersonal Exchange, possibility thinking, and Teacher-Oriented Pursuit. All items are rated on a five-point Likert scale (1 = not important at all, 5 = very important).This dataset provides empirical data for examining creativity-related psychological constructs and educational beliefs among preservice teachers. It may support future research in teacher education, creativity studies, and early childhood education.