Abstract
While a consensus has emerged on the importance of creativity in graphic design and multimedia field, little systematic research has attempted to understand its facilitators or inhibitors in the graphic and multimedia education across colleges and universities. The current investigation surveys a sample of experts as well as professors teaching across the Arab World concerning their perceptions on the most significant correlates of creative thinking among students. Results point to the importance of: (1) instructors’ engagement; (2) appropriate use of instructional strategies, tools, and resources; (3) institutional support; (4) peer support; and (5) the removal of red-tape regulatory frameworks. Most importantly, this research highlights the need to move away from the rigid higher education creativity model assuming perfection, precision, accuracy, and optimal effectiveness to a more flexible creativity framework. The Multi-Layered Autonomous Phases Model (MLAPM) is proposed as an alternative approach to cultivating creativity at the higher education level. The MLAPM applies to all levels beginning with the students and the instructor in the classroom and all instructional tools applied, moving upward to the institutional administration levels. The model offers cost-effective, flexible, dynamic, and effective practices that improve levels of creativity and creative thinking among students without the need to invest in new costly equipment, tools, curriculum, or instructional programs.
Highlights
Creativity is defined as “the process of sensing problems or gaps in information, identifying the difficulties and seeking solutions through trial and error or through forming hypotheses” (Torrance, 1966)
This study examines graphic design and multimedia classrooms in which creativity and innovation are essential and critical
This study is situated within the literature on creativity in higher education in the Arab World
Summary
Creativity is defined as “the process of sensing problems or gaps in information, identifying the difficulties and seeking solutions through trial and error or through forming hypotheses” (Torrance, 1966). Creativity has been found to significantly improve students’ academic performance, employability, productivity at work, and career promotion prospects (Jackson, 2006; Jahnke et al, 2017; McIntyre et al, 2018; Sharif, 2019). Undergraduate students across countries have performed poorly on creativity assessments (Kim, 2011; Niu & Sternberg, 2001; Sebastian & Huang, 2016). Irrespective of college major, students have exhibited low scores on verbal and figural creativity tests (Beck & Davidson, 2001; Kohn, 2000; Milner, 2012; Proctor et al, 2006; Rana & Mahmood, 2010). Numerous studies reported meagre achievement of undergraduates on emotional expressiveness, storytelling articulation, vitality, elaboration, novel visualization, richness of imagery, colorfulness, fantasy, playfulness, and [AQ: 1]
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