Assessing creative thinking skills in higher education: deficits and improvements

Undergraduate Students' Critical Evaluations of University Education

“…Regarding the issues related to innovation and creativity in students' undergraduate education, the criticisms that there is no search for innovation by their universities, that the continuation of the current functioning is generally accepted, that the education they receive discourages rather than encouraging innovation, and that it ignores creativity rather than encouraging it to flourish. However, in Karunarathne and Calma's (2024) study on creativity with university students, it was concluded that the creativity to be gained by students during undergraduate education will provide significant benefits in their professional and daily lives. For this purpose, it can be stated that it is crucial to design resources, learning activities, assessment practices and feedback processes to provide both learning experiences and opportunities to develop creative thinking skills in universities.…”

“…Many studies on university students (Grebennikov & Shah, 2013;Hill, 2013;Planas, Soler, Fullana, Pallisera & Vilà, 2011;Maunder, Cunliffe, Galvin, Mjali & Rogers, 2013;Berman, 2013) discuss their power of change and transformation in relation to teaching. In this context, according to Karunarathne and Calma (2024), the combination of learning design, use of technology, active learning strategies, authentic assessments and experiential learning can play a significant role in providing students with opportunities to learn and further develop their skills. In Karadağ and Yücel's (2017) study, it was concluded that there is no focus on whether learning takes place in university courses, and there is no understanding of making sure that students learn during the learning process.…”