A Study on Creative Climate in Project-Organized Groups (POGs) in China and Implications for Sustainable Pedagogy

Abstract

This paper aims to explore a research question: what are the drivers and barriers to fostering a creative climate in POGs in China and how to improve POGs towards a better sustainable pedagogy? Theoretically, this paper bridges studies on creativity, collaborative learning, creative climate, and sustainable pedagogy in one framework. Empirically, mixed methods of quantitative questionnaire survey (n = 126) and qualitative interviews (n = 15) were used to collect data. The findings demonstrate that the drivers to a creative climate include the challenge of the task, openness, trust between peers, experts' help, and group diversity, etc. However, some group problems, such as poor management, lacking of supervision supports, and students' fear of authority, etc., are barriers to a creative climate. This implies the needs of restructuring the relationships between teachers and students in POGs in order to improve it as a better sustainable pedagogy.

Students’ Innovation in Education for Sustainable Development—A Longitudinal Study on Interdisciplinary vs. Monodisciplinary Learning

“…Following Zhou's [9] results, group diversity should function as a driver of a creative climate and therefore might support students' innovation-idea generation and promotion-in project-based learning in HESD. Research into diversity suggests that its role in innovation might be more complex, which we address in the following section by comparing advantages and disadvantages of both pedagogies interdisciplinary and monodisciplinary project-based learning.…”

“…Since novel and innovative ideas are essential to ensure global SD, there is a need to enable students to create change for sustainability. Students' creativity and innovation are still unemployed resources in HESD [1,9]. Few studies have investigated the status quo of students' creativity within the field of SD [2,3] or their creativity skill development through HESD [4][5][6] or evaluated educational settings regarding their potential to enhance creativity in HESD [7][8][9].…”

“…Consequently, suitable pedagogies to foster students' innovation capacity are problem-based learning, project-based learning, experiential learning, and inquiry learning. Zhou [9] used a mixedmethod approach to study the drivers of and barriers to fostering a creative climate in project-based learning HESD in China. The results show that drivers of a creative climate include the challenge of the task, openness, trust between peers, experts' help, and group diversity regarding expertise.…”

“…Many researchers expect positive results regarding students' innovation with the implementation of interdisciplinary teaching and learning in HESD, including in terms of divergent thinking [7], creativity [9], tolerance of uncertainty, and complex problem-solving [42]. Cebrián and Junyent [43] explored student teachers' views on ESD, with the results indicating the necessity of establishing a dialogue between disciplines to address sustainability issues holistically (social, economic, and environmental dimensions) and generate innovation.…”

“…So far, students' innovative capacity has been neglected in HESD. Few studies have investigated the status quo of students' creativity within the field of SD [2,3] or their creativity skill development through HESD [4][5][6] or evaluated educational settings regarding their potential to enhance creativity in HESD [7][8][9]. The present study takes initial steps toward investigating students' innovation in HESD.…”