Zone of proximal creativity: An empirical study on EFL teachers’ use of ChatGPT for enhanced practice

•ChatGPT can create a zone of proximal creativity for EFL teachers.•It can enhance creative thinking stimulating comprehensive exploration and diverse perspectives.•It offers supplementary resources for EFL instructors in their pursuits of creativity.•Teacher's input quality influences ChatGPT's creative output.•A reciprocal teacher-ChatGPT relationship fosters innovation. Enhancing creativity among educators has emerged as a crucial aspect of contemporary education. The emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots such as ChatGPT, renowned for its advanced language generation capabilities and interactive conversational interface, presents a promising opportunity to support teachers in their creativity pursuits. While interest in ChatGPT for educational applications is rising, there is a lack of empirical research exploring its effectiveness in fostering teacher creativity. Therefore, this timely study aims to fill this gap by investigating the efficacy of ChatGPT in facilitating creativity, particularly among English as a foreign (EFL) teachers. A total of twenty-nine teachers enrolled in a post-graduate program participated in the study. Conducting an inductive content analysis, teachers’ ChatGPT inquiry threads, lesson plans, written reflections, and responses to an open-ended survey were analysed. The analysis revealed that ChatGPT enabled teachers to (a) seek for novel perspectives, (b) explore multiple ideas, (c) expand on ideas, (d) change perspectives, (e) refer for information, (f) inquire about teaching tools, and (g) ask for information. Two challenges were also identified: (a) the need for precise input and (b) repetitive content. Building on these findings, a conceptual model is proposed that frames ChatGPT as a tool for creative ideation and a knowledge resource, facilitating EFL teachers' progression towards their Zone of Proximal Creativity, with its effectiveness contingent on the teacher's existing expertise.