Abstract Book of the 9th International Conference on Research in Education, Teaching and Learning
Year: 2025
DOI:
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Creativity While Preparing Dissertation: PhD Students’ Experiences
Monika Kelpsiene, Vilma Zydziunaite, Monika Simkute-Bukante, Julija Grigenaite, Marius Daugela
ABSTRACT:
Problem. Creativity allows PhD students to consider alternative viewpoints and challenge existing assumptions. By thinking outside the box, PhD students can explore unconventional theories and perspectives that may lead to paradigm shifts in their field. Doing PhD is a creative process, which incorporates research, technical, intellectual, social skills. PhD student selects mostly a novel problem, and does some novel research that will yield some interesting results. Doing PhD is also an exercise in following instructions as well as technical process focused on how to write the dissertation and do the research. A lot depends upon what PhD student is doing her/his degree in: some fields are highly technical (natural, technological, agricultural, medical and health sciences), other are highly creative (social sciences, humanities, arts). However, regardless of the field of study represented by a PhD student, creativity is required of him/her, although there is no clear answer as to what this entails. Therefore, there is a need to study the creativity of a PhD student in order to understand its content, process and impact on the preparation of the dissertation and the process of doctoral studies. Here it is important to focus on the experiences of PhD students. Aim. To reveal factors related to PhD students’ creativity while preparing dissertation. Research question: “What and how is influenced the PhD students’ creativity at a time of preparing the dissertations?” Methodology. Sample consisted of 16 PhD students representing social, agricultural, technological, natural sciences, humanities and arts. Qualitative data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analysis by applying latent qualitative content analysis. Results. PhD students’ creativity while preparing dissertation is related to three dimensions – PhD student, supervisor and academic community school. Components related to PhD student include self-efficacy, autonomy, meaningfulness of time, courage to be creative, internal freedom, personal identity, serendipity through studying. Factors related to supervisor incorporate inspirational motivation, recognising otherness, academic support, and practice-related thinking. Aspects that are related to academic community are the following: academic empowerment, academic recognition, academic freedom, collaboration, intellectual and creative ‘recharging’. Conclusions. Factors in three dimensions – PhD student, supervisor, academic community – influence outcomes, which indicate PhD students’ creativity potential and possibilities while preparing dissertation. These outcomes are of different characters and are related to PhD students’ scientific productivity, scientific arguments, personalised visibility, cyclical learning, informational saturation, autonomous decision-making, purposeful work, breaking stereotypes, self-respect and respect to others, creative interface of different experiences, effective conversations, partnership, learning from authorities, practice- and knowledge-based creativity, ‘disappeared’ competition, creativity recognition of others, focus on values, reflecting experiences in creativity, and knowledge-based saturation of personal freedom.
keywords: academic community, qualitative content analysis, semi-structured interview, supervisor, university