Abstract
There is an increasing awareness of the importance of fostering creativity in higher education. The benefits of creativity to individuals and societies have also been increasingly recognized, as well as the key role of higher education in the information age. In spite of this recognition, there has been little research exploring creativity in graduate courses. This study addresses this issue. We examined professors' view of the importance attributed to creativity in higher education, especially in graduate programs, and what actions the University, as an institution responsible for the development of professionals, should take to stimulate professors' and students' creativity. Twenty Brazilian professors were interviewed and the data were submitted to content analysis. The results indicated that all professors considered creativity very important in higher education, especially in Sciences and Humanities graduate programs. The reasons for why it is important to foster creativity in higher education were related to its role in the production of knowledge, innovation, society's demands, and the possibility of using creative strategies to motivate students. The participants suggested planning and promotion of several activities that encourage creativity, the removal of barriers that stunt creativity and infrastructure improvement as procedures to enhance professors' and students' creativity by the higher education institution.
Highlights
An increasing rate of changes, uncertainties, challenges and problems characterizes today's world
Governments of several countries, such as China and England, have taken initiatives aiming at the implementation of educational policies that ensure the development of creativity through education, Paradoxically, despite the recognition of the importance of developing students’ creative abilities, in early education and in higher education, as a condition to prepare students to succeed in an uncertain future, there is agreement that creativity has not received the necessary attention in university courses [10,11,12,13,14,15,16]
Creativity is very relevant in higher education, especially in graduate programs
Summary
An increasing rate of changes, uncertainties, challenges and problems characterizes today's world. The labor market is increasingly competitive, demanding employees who can successfully meet the workplace challenges, innovate, act quickly and present effective solutions to unexpected problems [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]. In this scenario, creativity is of utmost importance, a survival skill that needs to be nurtured in different contexts. Fryer [17], in a study with 90 teaching fellows who were interviewed about different aspects related to creativity and its promotion in higher education, identified several conditions that limit the opportunities for developing students’ creativity, such as inadequate preparation time, excessive non-teaching workload and insufficient class contact time
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