The Perspectives of Students on the Lecturers’ Creativity: A Qualitative Analysis of the Data From Private Higher Educational Institutions in China

Abstract

Private higher educational institutions (PHEIs) have always been an essential part of the education industry, and lecturers are a necessary driving force for development. However, there are few studies on lectures’ creativity in PHEIs. This study recruited 30 students to participate in a semi-structured interview based on the creativity component theory to explore the connotation and the influence factors of lectures’ creativity. By utilizing Nvivo12, it processed the data by performing the word frequency analysis, the correlation analysis, and the hierarchical analysis. It proposes a conceptual framework related to lecturers’ creativity. The research revealed that the lecturers’ creativity contains domain-related and creation-related skills. The study demonstrates that students’ perception of lecturers’ creativity comes from teaching practice. Students can explain the composition of lecturers’ creativity from the part of domainrelated skills and creation-related skills. Furthermore, the research discovers that the creative and youth personality characteristics affect the lecturers’ creativity. Finally, it suggests that Chinese PHEIs should encourage lecturers to be more creative in teaching practice, an important strategic measure to strengthen the construction of lecturers and improve the competitiveness of the industry.