Abstract
It is known that the overall competitive advantages enjoyed by the Taiwanese higher education system have been decreasing in recent years relative to the educational systems of other countries. In light of aiming to become a kingdom of innovation, how to regain its competitive advantages over the very short term has become a critical issue requiring immediate attention. Based on previous research indicating that improving innovation is among the primary ways of enhancing an education system’s competitive advantages, that creativity is the foundation of innovation, that organizations that truly understand human creativity and are committed to nurturing it and living with the consequences of doing so are those that are most likely to succeed, and that students are a major group to be regarded as the backbone of a nation’s future development, the aim of this study is to explore critical criteria for creativity, which could significantly improve the creativity of college students. Although related studies can be found today, these studies seem to ignore the different effects of different dimensions of creativity evaluation, leading to results that are irrational and not completely suitable for real practice. In this regard, a perception of interrelationships among these dimensions is thus taken into account while calculating weights of evaluation creativity dimensions and criteria. In accordance with the result, the top six explored critical creativity criteria are shown to help enhance today’s college students’ creativity.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Allison D.: Creativity, students’ academic writing, and EAP: exploring comments on writing in an English language degree programme. J. Engl. Acad. Purp. 3, 191–209 (2004)
Amabile T.M.: The Social Psychology of Creativity. Springer, New York (1983)
Amabile T.M.: A model of creativity and innovation in organizations. In: Staw, B.M., Cummings, L.L. (eds) Research in Organizational Behavior, pp. 123–167. JAI, Greenwich (1988)
Amabile T.M.: Creativity in Context: Update to the Social Psychology of Creativity. Westview Press, Boulder (1996)
Baer J.: The case for domain specificity of creativity. Creat. Res. J. 11, 173–178 (1998)
Barron F.: The disposition toward originality. J. Abnorm. Soc. Psychol. 51, 478–485 (1955)
Batey, M.D.: A psychometric investigation of everyday creativity. Unpublished doctoral thesis, University of London (2007)
Baughman W.A., Mumford M.D.: Process-analytic models of creative capacities: operations influencing the combination and reorganization process. Creat. Res. J. 8, 37–62 (1995)
Bharadwaj S., Menon A.: Making innovation happen in organizations: individual creativity mechanisms, organizational creativity mechanisms or both?. J. Prod. Innov. Manag. 17, 424–434 (2000)
Brophy D.R.: Understanding, measuring, and enhancing individual creative problem solving efforts. Creat. Res. J. 11, 123–150 (1998)
Chen, I.S., Chen, J.K.: Improvement in national innovation: student creativity and innovative universities. Manuscript submitted for publication (2009a)
Chen, I.S., Chen, J.K.: To be a creative student: a study on secondary education system. Manuscript submitted for publication (2009b)
Chen, J.K., Chen, I.S.: A network hierarchical feedback system for Taiwanese universities based on the integration of total quality management and innovation. Manuscript submitted to a journal (2009c)
Chen J.K., Chen I.S.: TQM measurement model for biotechnology industry in Taiwan. Expert Syst. Appl. 36(5), 8789–8798 (2009d)
Chen J.K., Chen I.S.: A pro-performance appraisal system for the university. Expert Syst. Appl. 37, 2108–2116 (2010)
Clegg P.: Creativity and critical thinking in the globalised university. Innov. Educ. Teach. Int. 45(3), 219–226 (2008)
CNA: Taiwan Breaking News. http://gov.cna.com.tw/ReadNews/FeatureNews_Read.aspx?TopicNo=86&ID=200901170227 (2009a). Retrieved 8 Aug 2009
CNA: Taiwan Breaking News. http://gov.cna.com.tw/ReadNews/FeatureNews_Read.aspx?TopicNo=86&ID=200901170030&pageNum=1 (2009b). Retrieved 8 Aug 2009
Cox, S.: How to unleash your creativity. Balanced Existence. http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/unleash-your-creativity/ (2008). Retrieved 1 Dec 2009
Cropley, A.J.: Definitions of creativity. In: Encyclopedia of Creativity, pp. 511–524. Academic Press, San Diego (1999)
Davidson J.E.: The suddenness of insight. In: Sternberg, R.J., Davidson, J.E. (eds) The Nature of Insight, pp. 125–155. MIT, Cambridge (1995)
Dewett T., Gruys M.L.: Advancing the case for creativity through graduate business education. Think. Skills Creat. 2, 85–95 (2007)
DiPietro W.R., Anoruo E.: Creativity, innovation, and export performance. J. Policy Model. 28, 133–139 (2006)
Dodds R.A., Smith S.M., Ward T.B.: The use of environmental clues during incubation. Creat. Res. J. 14, 287–304 (2002)
Driver M.: Fostering creativity in business education: developing creative classroom environments to provide students with critical workplace competencies. J. Educ. Bus. 77(1), 28–33 (2001)
Erickson K.A., Charness W.: Expert performance: its structure and acquisition. Am. Psychol. 49, 725–747 (1994)
Eysenck H.J.: Creativity and personality: suggestions for a theory. Psychol. Inq. 4, 147–178 (1993)
Eysenck H.J.: Genius: The Natural History of Creativity. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1995)
Fagerberg J.: The need for innovation-based growth in Europe. Challenge 42(5), 63–78 (1999)
Fairweather J.S.: Diversification or homogenization: how markets and governments combine to shape American higher education. High. Educ. Policy 13, 79–98 (2000)
Flowers L.S., Hayes J.R.: A cognitive process theory of writing. Coll. Compos. Commun. 32, 365–387 (1981)
Furnham A., Batey M., Anand K., Manfield J.: Personality, hypomania, intelligence and creativity. Pers. Individ. Differ. 44, 1060–1069 (2008)
Gardiner H.: Creating Minds. Basic Books, New York (1993)
Gelade G.: Creative style, personality and artistic endeavour. Genet. Soc. Gen. Psychol. Monogr. 128, 213–234 (2002)
George J.M., Zhou J.: When openness to experience and conscientiousness are related to creative behavior: an interactional approach. J. Appl. Psychol. 86, 513–524 (2001)
Getzel J.W., Jackson P.W.: Creativity and Intelligence: Exploration with Gifted Children. Wiley, New York (1962)
Ghiselin B.: Ultimate criteria for two levels of creativity. In: Taylor, C.W., Barron, F. (eds) Scientific Creativity: Its Recognition and Development, pp. 30–43. Wiley, New York (1963)
Gilad B.: Entrepreneurship: the issue of creativity in the market place. J. Creat. Behav. 18, 151–161 (1984)
Gilbert F.W., Prenshaw P.J., Ivy T.T.: A preliminary assessment of the effectiveness of creativity training in marketing. J. Market. Educ. 18, 46–56 (1996)
Guilford J.P.: Creativity. Am. Psychol. 5, 444–454 (1950)
Guilford J.P.: Way Beyond the IQ. Creative Education Foundation, Buffalo (1977)
Hervani A., Helms M.M.: Increasing creativity in economics: the service learning project. J. Educ. Bus. 79(5), 267–274 (2004)
Hitchfield E.M.: In Search of Promise. William Clowes and Sons, London (1973)
Huang J.J., Tzeng G.H., Ong C.S.: Multidimensional data in multidimensional scaling using the analytic network process. Pattern Recogn. Lett. 26, 755–767 (2005)
James K.: Goal conflict and originality of thinking. Creat. Res. J. 8, 270–285 (1995)
Kasoff J.: Creativity and breadth of attention. Creat. Res. J. 10, 303–316 (1997)
Katz A.H.: Creativity and the right cerebral hemisphere: towards a physiological based theory of creativity. J. Creat. Behav. 12, 253–264 (1978)
Kaufman J.C., Lee J., Baer J., Lee S.: Captions, consistency, creativity, and the consensual assessment technique: new evidence of reliability. Think. Skills Creat. 2, 96–106 (2007)
Kulkarni D., Simon H.: The process of scientific discovery: the strategy of experimentation. Cogn. Sci. 12, 129–175 (1990)
Leonard D.: Wellsprings of Knowledge. Harvard Business School Press, Boston (1998)
Lin C.J., Wu W.W.: A causal analytical method for group decision-making under fuzzy environment. Expert Syst. Appl. 34(1), 205–213 (2008)
Liou J.H., Tzeng G.H., Chang H.C.: Airline safety measurement using a hybrid model. J. Air Transp. Manag. 13(4), 243–249 (2007)
Lubart, T.I., Guignard, J.H.: The generality specificity of creativity: a multivariate approach. In: Sternberg, R.J., Grigorenko, E., Singer, J.L. Creativity: From Potential to Realization, APA, Washington (2004)
Magee G.B.: Rethinking invention: cognition and the economics of technological creativity. J. Econ. Behav. Organ. 57, 29–48 (2005)
Martindale C.: Personality, situation, and creativity. In: Glover, J.A., Ronning, R.R., Reynolds, C.R. (eds) Handbook of Creativity, pp. 211–232. Plenum Press, New York (1989)
McCloskey D.N.: 1066 and a wave of gadgets: the achievements of British growth. In: Gouk, P. (ed.) Wellsprings of Achievement: Cultural and Economic Dynamics in Early Modern England and Japan, pp. 114–132. Variorum, Aldershot (1995)
Meek V.L.: Diversity and marketisation of higher education: incompatible concepts. High. Educ. Policy 13, 23–39 (2000)
Ministry of Education: The White Paper of Creative Education. Ministry of Education, Taipei (2002)
Mody A., Yilmaz K.: Imported machinery for export competitiveness. World Bank Econ. Rev. 16(1), 23–48 (2002)
Mokyr J.: The Gifts of Athena: Historical Origins of the Knowledge Economy. Princeton University Press, Princeton (2002)
Momoh J.A., Zhu J.: Optimal generation scheduling based on AHP/ANP. IEEE Trans. Syst. Man Cybernet. B 33(3), 531–535 (2003)
Moss S.A.: The impact of environmental clues in problem solving and incubation: the moderating effect of ability. Creat. Res. J. 14, 207–211 (2002)
Mumford M.D., Gustafson S.B.: Creativity syndrome: integration, application, and innovation. Psychol. Bull. 103, 27–43 (1988)
Mumford M.D.: Managing creative people: strategies and tactics for innovation. Hum. Resour. Manag. Rev. 3(3), 313–351 (2000)
Mumford M.D.: Where have we been, where are we going? Taking stock in creativity research. Creat. Res. J. 15, 107–120 (2003)
Mumford M.D., Reiter-Palmon R., Redmond M.R.: Problem construction and cognition: applying problem representations in ill-defined domains. In: Runco, M.A. (ed.) Problem Finding, Problem Solving, and Creativity, pp. 3–39. Ablex, Norwood (1994)
Oldham G.R., Cummings A.: Employee creativity: personal and contextual factors at work. Acad. Manag. J. 39, 607–634 (1996)
Owens W.A.: Cognitive, non-cognitive, and environmental correlates of mechanical ingenuity. J. Appl. Psychol. 53, 199–208 (1969)
Qin Y., Simon H.A.: Laboratory replication of scientific discovery processes. Cogn. Sci. 14, 281–312 (1990)
Redmond M.R., Mumford M.D., Teach R.J.: Putting creativity to work: leader influences on subordinate creativity. Organ. Behav. Hum. Decis. Process. 55, 120–151 (1993)
Ripple, R.G.: Teaching creativity. In: Encyclopedia of Creativity, pp. 629–638. Academic Press, San Diego (1999)
Runco M.A., Chand I.: Problem finding, evaluation thinking, and creativity. In: Runco, M.A. (ed.) Problem Finding, Problem Solving, and Creativity, pp. 40–76. Ablex, Norwood (1994)
Saaty J.T.: The Analytic Hierarchy Process. McGraw-Hill, Columbus (1980)
Sanchez M.P., Elena S.: Intellectual capital in universities improving transparency and internal management. J. Intellect. Cap. 7(4), 529–539 (2006)
Scott R.K.: Creative employees: a challenge to managers. J. Creat. Behav. 29, 64–71 (1995)
Shalley C.E.: Effects of productivity goals, creativity goals, and personal discretion on individual creativity. J. Appl. Psychol. 76, 179–185 (1991)
Shin S.J., Zhou J.: Transformational leadership, conservation, and creativity: evidence from Korea. Acad. Manag. J. 45(6), 703–714 (2003)
Siegelman M.: Parent behavior correlates of personality traits related to creativity in sons and daughters. J. Consult. Clin. Psychol. 40, 43–47 (1973)
Simonton D.K.: Age and outstanding achievement: what do we know after a century of research?. Psychol. Bull. 104, 251–267 (1988)
Sternberg R.J.: The Nature of Creativity: Contemporary Psychological Perspectives. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1988)
Sternberg R.J.: The Nature of Cognition. MIT, Cambridge (1999)
Sternberg R.J.: Wisdom, Intelligence, and Creativity Synthesized. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2003)
Sternberg R.J.: Creativity or creativities?. Int. J. Human-Computer Stud. 63, 370–382 (2005)
Sternberg R.J., Davidson J.E.: Cognitive development of the gifted and talented. In: Horowitz, F.D., O’brien, M. (eds) The Gifted and Talented: A Developmental Perspective, American Psychological Association, Washington (1985)
Tardif T.Z., Sternberg R.J.: What do we know about creativity?. In: Sternberg, R.J. (ed.) The Nature of Creativity: Contemporary Psychological Perspectives, pp. 429–440. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1988)
Taylor, C.W.: Various approaches to and definitions of creativity. In: The Nature of Creativity: Contemporary Psychological Perspectives. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1988)
Tierney P., Farmer S.M., Graen G.B.: An examination of leadership and employee creativity: the relevance of traits and relationships. Pers. Psychol. 52, 591–620 (1999)
Torrance, E.P.: Creativity: What Research Says to the Teacher. Association of Classroom Teachers of the National Education Association, Washington (1963)
Tzeng G.H., Chiang C.H., Li C.W.: Evaluating intertwined effects in e-learning programs: a novel hybrid MCDM model based on factor analysis and DEMATEL. Expert Syst. Appl. 32(4), 1028–1044 (2007)
Walberg H.J.: Creativity and talent as learning. In: Sternberg, R.J. (ed.) The Nature of Creativity, pp. 340–361. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1988)
Weifens P., Addison J., Audretsch D., Gries T., Grupp H.: Globalization, Economic Growth and Innovation Dynamics. Springer, Berlin (2000)
Weiner R.P.: Creativity and Beyond: Cultures, Values, and Change. State University of New York Press, Albany (2000)
Weisburg R.W.: Creativity: Genius and Other Myths. Freeman, New York (1986)
Whiting B.G.: Creativity and entrepreneurship: how do they relate?. J. Creat. Behav. 22, 178–183 (1988)
Williamson B.: Lifeworlds and Learning: Essays in the Theory, Philosophy and Practice of Lifelong Learning. National Institute of Adult and Continuing Education, Leicester (1998)
Williamson B.: Creativity, the corporate curriculum and the future: a case study. Futures 33, 541–555 (2001)
Wolfradt U., Pretz J.: Individual differences in creativity: personality, story writing, and hobbies. Eur. J. Pers. 15, 297–310 (2001)
Woodman R.W., Schoenfeldt L.F.: Individual differences in creativity: an interactionist perspective. In: Glover, J.A., Ronning, R.R., Reynolds, C.R. (eds) Handbook of Creativity: Perspectives on Individual Differences, pp. 3–32. Plenum Press, New York (1989)
Woodman R.W., Sawyer J.E., Griffin R.W.: Toward a theory of organizational creativity. Acad. Manag. Rev. 18, 293–321 (1993)
Wu, H.Y., Chen, H.C., Huang, R.J., Chen, I.S.: A study on the critical evaluation factors of creativity for college students. Manuscript submitted to a journal (2009)
Wu H.Y., Chen J.K., Chen I.S.: Innovation capital indicator assessment of Taiwanese universities: a hybrid fuzzy model application. Expert Syst. Appl. 37(2), 1635–1642 (2010)
Wynder M.: Facilitating creativity in management accounting: a computerized simulation. Account. Educ. 13, 150–231 (2004)
Yang Y.P., Shieh H.M., Leu J.D., Tzeng G.H.: A novel hybrid MCDM model combined with DEMATEL and ANP with applications. Int. J. Oper. Res. 5(3), 160–168 (2008)
Yu R., Tseng G.H.: A soft computing method for multi-criteria decision making with dependence and feedback. Appl. Math. Comput. 180(1), 63–75 (2006)
Zhou J.: Feedback balance, feedback style, task autonomy, and achievement origination: interactive effects on creative performance. J. Appl. Psychol. 83, 261–276 (1998)
Zhou J.: When the presence of creative coworkers is related to creativity: role of supervisor close monitoring, developmental feedback, and creative personality. J. Appl. Psychol. 88, 413–422 (2003)
Zhou J., George J.M.: When job dissatisfaction leads to creativity: encouraging the expression of voice. Acad. Manag. J. 44, 682–696 (2001)
Zhou J., George J.M.: Awakening employee creativity: the role of leader emotional intelligence. Leadersh. Q. 14, 545–568 (2003)
Zuckerman H., Cole J.R.: Research strategies in science: a preliminary inquiry. Creat. Res. J. 7, 391–406 (1994)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Chen, JK., Chen, IS. Critical creativity criteria for students in higher education: taking the interrelationship effect among dimensions into account. Qual Quant 46, 1057–1075 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-011-9448-7
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-011-9448-7