According to Leung and Chiu (2010), students’ multicultural experience has positive influences on students’ creative performance. However, there is little literature on educators’ use of cultural elements in their teaching practice and its impact on students’ creativity. Anvarjonovna (2021) analyzed educators’ aesthetic culture and discussed potential use of the findings, but the study is limited to the context of early childhood education. To this end, the researchers explored college educators’ use of culture in their classroom and its impact on students’ creativity, employing both qualitative and quantitative research methods. First, the researchers interviewed eight college educators in the field of design. All of them have utilized cultural elements in varying extents in their classroom. They believe that students exposed to diverse cultures can expand their creative horizons by incorporating various cultural elements (e.g., aesthetics, materials, and techniques) into their design process. This is a "challenging problem-solving process" for students because they need to "study new things and find innovative ways." Participants further discussed that multi-cultural experience allows students to "see so much from outside their little pond, and grow so much." Additionally, 260 college students who took at least one culture-related course(s) were recruited via Qualtrics. Students who agreed that educators well used their cultural elements into the course (M=5.40, SD=1.03) demonstrated significantly higher creativity score compared to students who disagreed with instructors’ use of cultural elements (M=4.93, SD=0.92), t(260)=-3.22, p=0.001. This finding indicates that the importance of use of cultural elements in a classroom setting.

Authors:
Jooyoung Shin, Indiana University Bloomington, United States
Seoha Min, California State Polytechnic University, United States
Claire Whang, California State Polytechnic University, United States

About the Presenter(s)
Dr. Jooyoung Shin is an Assistant Professor of Fashion Design at Indiana University. She has explored dress aesthetics, fashion history, and multicultural perspectives represented through dress as a designer, researcher, and educator since 2003.

Connect on Linkedin
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jooyoung-shin-897206122

Additional website of interest
https://www.jooyoungshin.com

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