@2025 Afarand., IRAN

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ISSN: 2228-5468    Education Strategies in Medical Sciences 2015;8(3):137-143

Background
… [1-6] Torrance in a research definition defines creativity as the process of sensing the problems, issues, information gaps, missing elements and bad things, hypothesizing about these defects, evaluating and testing of these conjectures and hypotheses, testing and retesting them, and finally transferring of the results [7]. … [8-11] According to the Torrance theory, creativity is composed of four dimensions: a) fluency, b) originality or innovation, c) flexibility and d) elaboration [12]. … [13]
Previous Studies
Teachers` creative approaches [14], duration of teaching, teaching methods, students` previous experiences in creative activities [15], leadership [16], teachers` experience and age [17], have been focused in different studies. … [18]
Aim(s)
This study aimed to evaluate the status of creativity and its four dimensions in the university instructors of basic science at Iran University of Medical Sciences based on the Torrance theory and its analysis in relation to demographic variables.
Research type
This is a descriptive and correlational study.
Research society, place and time
The basic sciences university instructors of Iran University of Medical Sciences were studied during the second semester of the academic year 2013-2014.
Sampling method and number
Due to the limitation of the population, all 67 university instructors were selected as sample. 60 university instructors completed and returned the questionnaire.
Used devices&materials
The research instrument was Torrance creativity questionnaire. The questionnaire includes 60 items in total. Items one to 15 are related to fluency; items 16 to 30 are related to flexibility; items 31 to 45 refer to originality or innovation and items 46 to 60 are related to elaboration. The questionnaire is three-point Likert scale and the respondent receives the scores zero to two for each question and no score for unanswered questions. By definition, 100 scores and above are equivalent to very high creativity; the scores 85 to 100 are equivalent to high creativity; the scores 75 to 85 are equivalent to the medium creativity; the scores 50 to 75 indicate low creativity, and scores below 50 indicate a very low creativity. Formal and content validity of a Persian version of Torrance creativity questionnaire [19] was confirmed by experts and its reliability was calculated 0.88 using Cronbach's Alpha method. Participants were empowered to exclude the study and choose the necessary period of time and right place to complete the questionnaire. After ensuring the normal distribution of quantitative variables by the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, the difference between four dimensions of creativity as well as the difference between creativity and its dimension were analyzed based on demographic variables including age, gender, marital status, domestic or foreign graduates of universities, teaching experience, academic ranking, educational group and management experience using SPSS 16 software and Pearson Correlation test, Levene test, ANOVA test and Kruskal-Wallis test according the variables.
Findings by Text
None of the university instructors were in the range of very low creativity (less than 50), and only 10 instructors (16.7%) were assessed having low creativity. On the other hand, only 9 instructors (15.0%) had very high creativity and 41 (68.3%) had medium and high creativity (table 1). The mean score of creativity in total and all dimensions (fluency, flexibility, elaboration, and creativity) as well as the quantitative variables of age and teaching experience were normally distributed. Scores for creativity and all four dimensions of Torrance creativity had a direct correlation with the total score of creativity. In other words, people with low creativity, were weak in all four dimensions and people with high creativity were strong in all four dimensions. Analysis of variance confirmed the significant differences both within and between the dimensions, and the score for the dimension of creativity was obviously lower than other dimensions. Among the demographic variables, only the relationship between the variables of age and creativity as well as the relationship between the variables of teaching experience and creativity were significant. Accordingly, these two variables had a weak and inverse correlation with the creativity that might intensify the inverse effect of each other on the creativity. The creativity scores slightly decreased significantly with increasing age in university instructors of basic sciences at Iran University of Medical Sciences. This decrease was primarily related to originality or mental innovation. The inverse correlation between teaching experiences of university instructors of basic science of Iran University of Medical Sciences and score of creativity was weak. However, this correlation was slightly stronger than the inverse correlation between age and creativity. The significant decrease in the score of creativity by increasing teaching experience, in addition to the dimension of creativity, was observed in fluency and elaboration as well. The detailed analysis of this correlation using compare means test showed that the mean of variables of age and teaching experience of university instructors have been significantly increased by lowering the level of creativity. In other words, the score of university instructors of creativity was decreased with increasing age and teaching experience (Table 2).
Main comparison to the similar studies
At all level of creativity, the professors had obtained the lowest score in the dimension of originality and the highest score in the dimension of fluency. Creativity and its main component namely originality had the inverse correlation with age and more inverse correlation with teaching experience. This finding is consistent with other studies [17, 20]. The result of teaching experience variable is mostly explained by the effect of organization management on the creativity of university instructors. This means that the effect of working environment on the reduction of professors` creativity is more than the effect of natural factor of age on their creativity. Centralized management, formal setting of organization, coordination and compliance with environment, imperious behavior, direct control and the hierarchical structure are negatively correlated with staff creativity [21, 22] that these results are consistent with the above results. Direct correlation between organizational culture and creativity has been confirmed in university instructors of the University of Applied Sciences and Technology [23]. Although creativity requires internal motivation, environmental factors such as organizational atmosphere, reinforcement leadership and colleague support have positive effects on intrinsic motivation [24]. In addition to environmental factors, organizational support and motivation, other factors such as training and performance evaluation, staff understanding of their role, having the ability (knowledge and skill), and trust in the organization play important roles in the efficiency and innovation of the organization [24-26]. Knowledge management has a positive effect on the university instructor`s performance through the variable of creativity [27]. Three covert and overt layers of organizational culture including values, norms and behaviors must act in accordance with each other to develop creativity and innovation in an organization [28]. … [29-34]
Suggestions
It is important for management processes to maintain and improve the creativity.
Limitations
Non-declared
Conclusions
The level of creativity in basic sciences university instructors of Iran University of Medical sciences was evaluated as high. However, considering the weakness in the dimension of originality as well as inverse correlation between creativity and teaching experience, it can be said that the management system of Iran University of Medical Sciences serves to weaken the organizational creativity.
Acknowledgments
Basic sciences university instructors of Medical Education and Training Division of Medicine School are appreciated.
Conflict of interest
Non-declared
Ethical Permissions
Non-declared
Funding Sources
This paper reports some findings of the MA thesis belonged to the corresponding author in the field of medical education at Iran University of Medical Sciences.

TABLES and CHARTS

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