Assessing the Effects of Higher Education on the Creative Thinking Abilities of Future Japanese Teachers

Assessing the Effects of Higher Education on the Creative Thinking Abilities of Future Japanese Teachers

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of how a rather closed society like Japan is able to foster creative thinking in its future teachers. This study is based on the assumption that an important role of higher education is to promote in the new generations of teachers the creative thinking skills required by the post-industrial society in which Japanese are beginning to live. After providing some explanations on the favorable and unfavorable conditions for the development of creative thinking abilities that Japanese society in general, and higher education in particular, places upon its people, the following hypothesis is stated: Higher Education does not have an statistically significant effect on the creative thinking abilities of future Japanese teachers. This hypothesis could not be rejected by the results of a Test applied to a sample of students enrolled in the Faculty of Education in one of the best universities in Japan.