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Creativity is nowadays seen as an essential feature in higher education. Nevertheless, there is a discrepancy between the need for creativity and what higher education classrooms provide. This study assessed the perceptions of 1599 higher education students from two countries (1059 Brazilian and 540 Portuguese students), from two academic domains (Sciences and Technologies -Sc&T; Social Sciences, Arts, and Humanities -SScA&H), about the presence of creativity in their teachers' instruction and evaluation practices. The study's findings evidence interactive effects between the variables country and academic domain for most of the assessed factors: encouragement of new ideas, climate for the expression of ideas, and interest in students' learning. Brazilian Sc&T students presented more negative perceptions of their classroom environments when compared to SScA&H students; Portuguese students showed opposite patterns of results. Some hypothetical explanations are discussed and future directions for research are presented.Keywords: higher education, creativity, teaching work, students, culture Práticas Docentes para Criatividade na Universidade: Estudo em Portugal e no BrasilResumo: Criatividade é atualmente tomada como aspecto essencial na Educação Superior. Há, contudo, discrepância entre a necessidade de criatividade e o que a universidade proporciona. Este estudo avaliou percepções de 1599 alunos universitários de dois países (1059 brasileiros e 540 portugueses), de duas áreas curriculares (Ciências e Tecnologias -Sc&T; Ciências Sociais, Artes e Humanidades -SscA&H) sobre a presença de criatividade nas práticas docentes, instrucionais e avaliativas, de que são alvo. Os resultados mostraram efeitos interativos significativos entre as variáveis país e área curricular para a maioria dos fatores avaliados: encorajamento de novas ideias, clima para expressão de ideias e interesse pela aprendizagem dos alunos. Os estudantes brasileiros de Sc&T mostraram percepções mais negativas da sala de aula, comparados com os de SScA&H; os alunos portugueses obtiveram padrões opostos nos resultados. Algumas hipóteses explicativas são discutidas e são apresentadas orientações para pesquisa futura.Palavras-chave: ensino superior, criatividade, trabalho docente, estudantes, cultura Prácticas Docentes para Creatividad en la Universidad: Estudio en Portugal y BrasilResumen: La creatividad está actualmente considerada como aspecto esencial en la Educación Superior. Sin embargo, existe discrepancia entre la necesidad de creatividad y lo que la universidad ofrece. Este estudio evaluó percepciones de 1.599 estudiantes universitarios (1.059 de Brasil y 540 de Portugal) de dos áreas curriculares (Ciencia y Tecnología -Sc&T; Ciencias Sociales, Artes y Humanidades -SscA&T) acerca de la presencia de creatividad en las prácticas docentes, instructivas y evaluativas dirigidas a ellos. Los resultados mostraron efectos de interacción significativos entre las variables país y área curricular para la mayoría de los factores evaluados: foment...

The Future Problem Solving Program International (FPSPI) is an internationally applied educational program that involves young people. Its theoretical foundation is both the Creative Problem Solving Model and the Futurist Thinking. It aims to promote creative and critical thinking through a futurist approach to problems. This study intended to analyze the effects of the program on creative skills evaluated by the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (Figural Version). The participants’ perceptions of the efficacy of the program were also assessed. This intervention was carried out with 131 adolescents over a period of 7 months in an extra‐curricular context. The evaluation of the program takes into account periods both before and after interventions, using similar experimental and control groups. The results showed significant statistical differences for the all skills studied and very positive perceptions of the efficacy of FPSPI. Two significant gender differences in creative performance were also found. The results are described and discussed in order to promote awareness for future research concerning this program.

In order to verify the factorial structures of the Torrance verbal and figural tests, two activities of each instrument were applied with 193 students from the 10th and 12th years of education in Portugal. We tried to demonstrate that the collinearity of the fluency and flexibility variables could create methodological artifacts that hinder the understanding of the internal structure underlying the test. The principal component analysis without control of collinearity indicated a solution composed of four basic factors that separeted activities. Controlling for collinearity, we found a new solution, which also contained four factors that, unlike the previous result, grouped variables with similar processes but of different activities. The verbal and figural content is also an important element in the factor structure. This new arrangement makes more sense with the theory that underlies the instruments separating the different processes and content which are being measured by the activities.

Creativity has become essential to the innovation that is demanded today. In this context, the university is fundamental in promoting creative skills and, thus, meeting such demand. Despite the lack of research concerning what college students think about creativity, these students perceive barriers to their creative expression. A total of 582 Portuguese college students were analyzed in the present study regarding their perceived barriers to the expression of creativity, using an inventory concerning psychological and social dimensions. Gender differences were assessed, not only considering the inventory’s factors, but also items independently. Statistically significant differences were found in both analyses. These results are the starting point to a debate about the role of university in students’ development, which should be not only professional, but also social and personal, besides the importance of finding place to creativity in their daily academic lives.

The topic of creativity in higher education has been increasingly emphasized as support to the social and technological innovation. This study presents the adaptation and validation of the Inventory of Barriers to Personal Creativity (Alencar, 1999) for Portuguese college students. The sample was composed by 582 students from a public university in Northern Portugal, whose ages ranged from 18 to 59 (M=23.41; SD=5.38), belonging to three main domains of graduation courses (Arts and Humanities, Social Sciences, and Sciences and Technologies). An exploratory factor analysis identified the four factors included in the original questionnaire: Inhibition/Shyness, Lack of Motivation, Lack of Time and Opportunities, and Social Repression. The psychometric properties of the instrument are adequate, concerning internal consistency reliability and structural validity, for items and the four dimensions. Some guidelines are provided in order to use this questionnaire in future researches to increase the levels of creativity in teaching and learning processes in higher education.

A criatividade envolve características de personalidade e vários estudos reforçam a motivação intrínseca como necessária a uma personalidade criativa. É importante também um clima estimulante em sala de aula, o qual não será alheio ao professor e suas características criativas, incluindo a motivação. Há ainda que considerar, para a prática criativa, a motivação do docente face ao trabalho. Neste estudo exploratório, analisa-se a relação entre personalidade criativa e motivação para o trabalho em docentes e, particularmente, se os docentes mais e menos criativos assumem diferentes perfis motivacionais no trabalho. Foram avaliadas as perceções de 120 professores do Norte de Portugal. A motivação para o trabalho foi avaliada pela Escala Multi-Fatorial no Trabalho e para as características criativas usou-se a Escala de Personalidade Criativa. Os resultados mostram correlações baixas e positivas, mas estatisticamente significativas entre as dimensões da motivação para o trabalho e a personalidade criativa. Constituídos quatro grupos de docentes, em função das classificações na personalidade criativa, uma análise de variância aponta diferenças estatisticamente significativas em três das quatro dimensões da motivação de acordo com a criatividade dos docentes. Tendencialmente, a motivação para o trabalho aumenta à medida que os docentes se consideram mais criativos. Este estudo permite reflexões, nomeadamente enfatizando criatividade e motivação na formação de docentes e de outros agentes do contexto escolar.

El Programa Empreender na Escola (Programa Emprender en la Escuela) es un programa de educación que busca la promoción del desarrollo de competencias en el área del emprendimiento a través de la creación y gestión, por parte de los alumnos, de microempresas de “importación/exportación” que funcionan en alianzas comerciales, intercambiando productos entre sí que serán posteriormente comercializados en la comunidad local. Realizado en el ámbito del Programa Estratégico de la “Red de Ciudades y Centros Urbanos para la Competitividad y la Innovación del Corredor Azul”, fue implementado en 12 escuelas de 7 municipios de la región de Alentejo, en Portugal, involucrando 281 alumnos y 27 profesores de primaria y bachillerato, organizados en 18 “empresas” y 9 alianzas comerciales. Recurriendo a una muestra aleatoria de alumnos y profesores participantes, buscamos conocer su opinión sobre el desarrollo del proyecto y sobre su participación a través de un cuestionario desarrollado para tal efecto. Los resultados demostraron que el establecimiento de relaciones interpersonales es un aspecto muy importante para los participantes y que debe ser mantenido y fomentado en programas de este género. Además, debe existir también una reducción de carga burocrática para que al final del primer trimestre las microempresas ya estén en condiciones de comercializar los productos “importados” de la “empresa” aliada.