Creativity-Fostering Teacher Behaviors in Higher Education: A Transdisciplinary Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

While society’s demand for creativity is echoed across the world, teachers in higher education often struggle to support students’ development of creative competencies. This transdisciplinary systematic literature review of 58 peer-reviewed empirical studies provides a comprehensive overview of creativity-fostering teacher behaviors identified across all academic disciplines in higher education. In our thematic analysis, we identified 22 themes grouped into six overarching dimensions (the six dimensions of fostering creativity, namely, [a] affective, [b] cognitive, [c] behavioral, [d] metacognitive, [e] creativity-in-action, and [f] uncertainty). Based on these dimensions, we developed a new conceptual model of teacher behaviors for creativity: the “meta-creativity” model. This model highlights the transdisciplinary, interactive, and interdependent nature of creativity-fostering teacher behaviors, which are subject to the conflicting needs and tensions of creative processes. This review provides key practical insights for teachers, administrators, and policymakers and new research directions for a more holistic approach to teaching for creativity.