Problem Solving and Creativity

Data Collection Procedure

A total of 2027 participants were included in the analysis, with data from 18 students eliminated due to age non-compliance target (i.e., Ph.D. students). The final sample included 2009 students (50.37% females) ranging from 18 to 23 years old (M = 20.71, SD = 1.58) from 17 American universities. The research was approved by institutional review boards and education authorities. Students were recruited via email and bulletin board announcements. Confidentiality and anonymity were ensured, and all participation was voluntary and anonymous. Each participant was entered into a random drawing to receive a coffee coupon valued at USD 20 as a token of appreciation.

At the top of each page, a clear explanation was provided to ensure that the participants were aware of how to respond. An example is "Please recall the experience in the classroom. There is no right or wrong answer. Give your choice without too much consideration". After the participants had answered all the questions, they entered their demographic information to qualify for the drawing. Their identifying information was kept separate from the data analysis.

In order to suit the context of this study, we conducted in-depth interviews. For example, to measure the students' creativity, we used a questionnaire from the Creative Achievement Questionnaire (CAQ). An example from the original questionnaire is "I designed an invention for a course assignment and sold it to someone I knew". However, the results of interviews indicated that the probability of this phenomenon is low (1.3%). The reason may be that the students who were tested with the original CAQ were all from Harvard University, whereas this study measured students' creativity on average. As a result, we deleted this item.

In addition, the expression of the questionnaire was also modified through in-depth interviews with teachers and students. For example, pilot tests revealed that 7.9% of students chose "strongly agree" or "agree" in response to the question "Do you have conflicts with teachers in the classroom during this semester?" However, the in-depth interviews indicated that conflict often occurred (68.2%). We found the reason may be that students thought only intense disagreements (e.g., quarrels) could be defined as a conflict. Hence, we added an explanation ("disagreement between the teacher and students are considered as a conflict") in the final version of the questionnaire. This change increased the validity of the questionnaire from 0.79 to 0.88.

Measurement Instruments

The responses to the items were given on a Likert scale, with responses ranging from 1 ("strongly disagree") to 5 ("strongly agree"). The details of scales used in this study are presented as follows.

Students' Creativity

It was assessed by Creative Achievement Questionnaire, which included 10 domains with 61 questions, such as visual arts, music, and inventions. A sample item is "I wrote an original short story or poem for a class".

Understanding Conflict

It was assessed using the scale developed by Cronin and Weingart; a sample item is "Teacher and I frequently have disagreements about the understanding of the content in the classroom".

Process Conflict

It was assessed using the scale adopted by Cronin and Weingart; for example, "I frequently have disagreements about teacher' teaching styles in the class".

Relationship Conflict

It was assessed using the scale developed by Jehn and Mannix; a sample item is "My teacher and I had quite different personalities".