Persistence to completion of doctoral degrees in light of student creativity

Helene Maliko-Abraham

doi:10.17918/etd-7040

The problem in this study is the lack of an objective creativity assessment that can be added to existing doctoral program selection criteria to possibly help decrease doctoral program attrition rates. This study built upon existing research with undergraduate admissions and exam-ined prospective student creativity as an admission option in an attempt to identify those stu-dents with hidden talents who do not do well on traditional admission assessments but who may be successful doctoral students. Understanding participant possession of creativity, tolerance for ambiguity and risk tak-ing in those participants who were either progressing or have completed a doctoral degree pro-gram, was the primary focus of this research study. Scholars have studied attrition rates in doc-toral programs for decades in an effort to ameliorate them. One solution may lie within the selec-tion criteria of potential students into doctoral programs. Creativity assessments could potential-ly be included in the current battery of selection criteria for admission to identify those applicants who are creative problem solvers, especially those who tolerate ambiguity and are risk takers. This mixed methods convergent parallel research design employed both quantitative and qualitative data collection efforts. Research efforts were conducted in two phases. Creativity assessments were administered to 326 participants during Phase One efforts. Sixty of these par-ticipants were selected and administered an additional assessment and a personal interview dur-ing Phase Two efforts. Results of this research indicate that this participant sample was homoge-nous as a group, and they were creative as measured by the assessments utilized in this study. Participants selected for inclusion in the interview process of Phase Two of this research study were aware of their individual creativity, and they demonstrated their creativity, tolerance of ambiguity and risk taking in their approaches to creative problem solving in their professional, personal and academic lives. Eight major themes emerged from this research: 1) Age differences and creativity, 2) Gender differences and creativity, 3) Degree differences and creativity assess-ment scores, 4) Creativity awareness, 5) Tolerance of ambiguity awareness, 6) Risk taking aware-ness, 7) Creativity demonstration, and 8) Relationship between high scores on creativity related assessments and degree persistence.

Persistence to completion of doctoral degrees in light of student creativity

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Persistence to completion of doctoral degrees in light of student creativity

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