Creativity in Higher Education: Challenges and Facilitating Factors

Abstract

The importance of fostering student creativity in higher education has been widely recognized, due to the need for preparing young people for the uncertain and complex world of work, which requires individuals to be able to use their creative abilities. Despite this recognition, the encouragement of creativity in higher education has been a challenge for faculty. Although there is agreement that college students should be creative, college faculty are generally not familiar with learning and teaching environments that promote creativity. Furthermore, many factors impact creativity expression in higher education institutions, such as students' resistance, organizational structure of universities, faculty attributes and pedagogical practices. This article addresses various challenges to creativity blooming in higher education, as well as some factors that facilitate its nurturance in this type of educational setting. Keywords:Creativity, higher education, faculty, students, pedagogical practices. Criatividade na Educação Superior:Desafi os e Fatores Facilitadores Resumo A importância de se estimular a criatividade de estudantes da educação superior tem sido amplamente reconhecida devido à necessidade de preparar os jovens para o mundo incerto e complexo do trabalho, que requer dos indivíduos habilidade para utilizar suas capacidades criativas. Apesar desse reconhecimento, o incentivo à criatividade na educação superior tem se constituído um desafi o para os professores. Embora haja consenso de que os estudantes universitários sejam criativos, os professores, em geral, não estão familiarizados com ambientes de ensino-aprendizagem promotores da criatividade. Além disso, muitos fatores impactam a expressão criativa em instituições de ensino superior, tais como resistência dos estudantes, estrutura organizacional das universidades, atributos dos professores e práticas pedagógicas. Este artigo discute vários desafi os ao fl orescimento da criatividade na educação superior, bem como alguns fatores que facilitam seu desenvolvimento nesse tipo de contexto educativo. Palavras-chave:Criatividade, educação superior, professores, estudantes, práticas pedagógicas.

The role of creativity in graduate education according to students and professors

“…The presented conceptions of creativity were associated with innovation, breaking standards, overcoming boundaries, problem solving, and innovative products. Overall, both students' and professors' responses to the concept and importance of creativity have been aligned with the literature in the area, which defines a creative response as something new, efficient, appropriate and relevant to the context, and considers the creative phenomenon as associated with multiple, combined, factors of a personal, social, cultural and historical nature (Alencar et al, 2017;Csikszentmihalyi, 1999;Omdal & Graefe, 2017). Many participants have stated that creativity cannot be understood by focusing solely on individual aspects, but the environment also needs to be considered.…”

“…In this sense, the school is seen as a privileged context of opportunities to be developed. As it is in this environment that individuals spend most of their lives, it makes sense that several authors emphasize the importance of the implementation of creative skills, in several knowledge domains, throughout the school trajectory (Alencar & Fleith, 2016;Alencar, Fleith, & Pereira, 2017;Cropley, 2016;Morais et al, 2017;Omdal & Graefe, 2017;Souza, Witter, & Araújo, 2014). In Brazil, according to Nakano and Wechsler (2007), most of the studies carried out have been conducted in the context of basic education, compared to the research carried out in the higher education context.…”

Scholarships versus training for happiness gained from an education in creativity: A dynamic analytical model

“…Note that the purpose of a mathematical approach is to make the analysis more objective once the underlying subjective assumptions have been clearly defined, thereby allowing future researchers to modify the assumptions if they want to explore the effects of changing those assumptions. Moreover, a dynamic mathematical model permits objective comparisons, and it can subsequently be expanded in future research to compare different approaches to education reforms that will promote creativity; these reforms should be both intra-disciplinary (De Alencar, Fleith, & Pereira, 2017;Egan, Maguire, Christophers, & Rooney, 2017) and inter-disciplinary (Almond & Power, 2018;Daly, Mosyjowski, Oprea, Huang-Saad, & Seifert, 2016;Fischer, Oget, & Cavallucci, 2016;Marquis, Radan, & Liu, 2017). Finally, the purpose of quantification is to improve the objectivity of an analysis, thereby revealing new insights by harnessing the power of mathematics to detect key factors that might otherwise be missed.…”

Creative use of information and communication technologies according to university professors and students

“…In Higher Education, the introduction of ICT has enabled the student to play a more active role in building their knowledge (Iniesta-Bonillo, Sánchez-Fernández, & Schlesinger, 2013). According to Alencar, Fleith, and Pereira (2017), Higher Education must also promote flexible, creative, and critical students.…”