Creativity and Higher Education in Portugal and Brazil:

do country, gender and field of study differentiate students?

Abstract

The university plays a key role in training creative agents for the future. There are, however, some difficulties still to be overcome and there is a lack of research on the topic in this context. Realizing how students position themselves in relation to creativity can then be useful to facilitate the university's promoting role in innovation. Cultural differences influence ways of thinking about creativity and, therefore, comparative studies between different countries are necessary. This study analyzes how 326 students (Brazilian and Portuguese) assess themselves as creative, how they think about concepts within the scope of creativity and how it is present and promoted in college education. For each country, it was also explored whether the gender and the frequency of different areas of study (Arts; Social and Human Sciences; Science and Technology) set differences in these assessments. Finally, regression analyzes weigh the influence of different variables on students' assessment of their creativity. Significant differences were found between countries in the three dimensions studied, and even differences taking in account gender and (less) the area of study. Low predictive values compared to the self-assessment of creativity were found in both countries. Reflections on a practice at universities that can encourage creativity can be made from these data.