RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INTERCULTURAL INTERACTIONS IN THE UNIVERSITY AND CREATIVITY OF RUSSIAN STUDENTS: ROLE OF INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE

2019.

Bultseva M. A., Lebedeva N.

This research is devoted to the study of the relationship between home country intercultural experience, intercultural competence and creativity among Russian students. We assume that students from culturally heterogeneous groups or/and student having the study course dedicated to intercultural issues are more creative, as cultural diversity and cultural learning are associated with a higher level of intercultural competence, and intercultural competence may be positively related to creativity.  The sample of the first study included 72 students and the sample of the second study included 272 students of the Higher School of Economics. Creativity was measured by the indicators of creative thinking (fluency, flexibility, and originality) via "Many instances game" from the creativity test battery of M. Runco; intercultural competence was measured via scales of "Assessment of intercultural competence" create in the project of A. Fantini & A. Tirmizi. Home country intercultural experience was operationalized via presence of students from other countries in the study groups and via inclusion of Cross-Cultural Psychology course into the students’ curriculum. The results of the first study show that cultural learning in the home country institution leads to the higher levels of creativity, while cultural heterogeneity of the groups is associated with an increase in creativity only when cultural learning was applied. The results of the second study show such components of intercultural competence as attitudes and adaptability of behavior play an important role in creativity of Russian students: attitudes are positively and adaptability of behavior is negatively related to creativity.  

Keywords: креативность, культурная гетерогенность, creativity, intercultural contacts, межкультурные контакты, межкультурная компетентность, intercultural learning, intercultural competence, культурное обучение, cultural heterogeneity