Disposition toward critical thinking and creative confidence beliefs in higher education students: The mediating role of openness to diversity and challenge

Creative thinking and critical thinking are complementary cognitive processes that are important for dealing with complex challenges. The primary aim of this study was to examine the mediating role of openness to diversity and challenge in the relationship between disposition toward critical thinking and creative confidence beliefs in higher education students. Participants were 1,627 students from two universities in Spain (Mondragon Unibertsitatea and Florida Universit`aria), ranging in age from 17 to 44 years (Mage = 20.35, SD = 2.62; 53.05% female). Results showed not only a direct, positive relationship between critical thinking disposition and students’ creative confidence beliefs but also that this relationship was mediated by openness to diversity and challenge. Thus, those students more disposed toward critical thinking are also more open to diversity and challenge and have a stronger creative self-concept. These results highlight the importance of enhancing students’ disposition to use critical thinking so as to strengthen their creative self-concept. Higher education institutions also need to develop teaching strategies and contexts that promote students’ openness to diversity and challenge as a step towards their becoming active and responsible citizens

Entrepreneurial self-efficacy among first-year undergraduates: Gender, creative self-efficacy, leadership self-efficacy, and field of study

Objective: To contribute to a better understanding of the factors that influence university students’ confidence in their ability to engage in entrepreneurial behaviours. Research Design & Methods: Participants were 1741 first-year students (792 women, 949 men) from two Spanish universities (Mage = 18.76, SD = 1.82). They were enrolled in degree programmes in two broad fields: engineering and architecture, and social sciences and law. Using a quantitative cross-sectional design, we obtained measures of creative self-efficacy, leadership self-efficacy, and entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Findings: Results showed that both leadership self-efficacy and creative self-efficacy predicted entrepreneurial self-efficacy, although creative self-efficacy was the variable that contributed most to the expected change in entrepreneurial self-efficacy. There were also differences in entrepreneurial self-efficacy according to gender and field of study, with students enrolled in a technical field and men in general scoring higher. Mediation-moderation analysis showed that creative self-efficacy mediated the relationship between gender and entrepreneurial self-efficacy, and also that the field of study buffered the effect of gender on entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Implications & Recommendations: The results of this study showed that entrepreneurial self-efficacy is predicted by creative self-efficacy and leadership self-efficacy, and hence both these variables should be addressed by training initiatives aimed at promoting entrepreneurship among undergraduates, particularly among young women. Moreover, our results highlighted the importance of taking into consideration individuals’ educational backgrounds when analysing students’ entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Contribution & Value Added: This research contributes to the literature on entrepreneurship by identifying factors that influence the entrepreneurial self-efficacy of university students. The findings highlight the importance of considering creative self-efficacy when analysing students’ entrepreneurial development. Furthermore, we show that creative self-efficacy has a mediating effect on the association between gender and entrepreneurial self-efficacy, and also that this relationship is moderated by students’ fields of study. Overall, these results suggest that reinforcing the creative self-efficacy of women could help to close the gender gap in entrepreneurial self-efficacy. It might also be useful to design specific training initiatives for undergraduates enrolled in social sciences, the aim of which would be to foster an entrepreneurial culture and encourage them to recognize their potential role as entrepreneurs

First-year university students entrepreneurial competence: Exploring the relationship between grit, creative self-efficacy and entrepreneurial self-efficacy

[EN] Grit, creative self-efficacy and entrepreneurial self-efficacy have been associated with the development of entrepreneurial behaviours that can prepare students for a rapidly changing world of work. The main purpose of this study is to analyse the relationship between the three variables amongst first-year university students. A positive relationship, albeit modest, was found between grit and the two measures of self-efficacy. Furthermore, findings suggest that grit can be considered a predictor variable for student self-efficacy beliefs in the context of entrepreneurship. However, this relationship was found to be weak and not to offer significant opportunities for the improvement of student creative and entrepreneurial self-perception, beyond those already contemplated in social cognitive theory. Moreover, results revealed a significant and robust positive relationship between creative and entrepreneurial self-perceptions in university students. The strong relationship found between creative and entrepreneurial self-efficacy renders an opportunity to develop informed interventions directed towards improving student entrepreneurial self-perceptions. In this regard, the results suggest the importance of cultivating creativity in educational institutions.Álvarez-Huerta, P.; Larrea, I.; Muela, A. (2021). First-year university students entrepreneurial competence: Exploring the relationship between grit, creative self-efficacy and entrepreneurial self-efficacy. En 7th International Conference on Higher Education Advances (HEAd'21). Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 1295-1302. https://doi.org/10.4995/HEAd21.2021.12830OCS1295130

La contribución de la Universidad a las necesidades para la innovación de las instituciones educativas

Los objetivos del presente estudio consistieron en identificar las necesidades de las instituciones educativas para promover la innovación y en examinar cómo podría contribuir la universidad a responder a las mismas. Se realizaron tres entrevistas semiestructuradas y un grupo focal en los que participaron un total de 10 profesionales de cinco instituciones educativas de Bachillerato, Formación Profesional y Universidad inmersas en procesos de innovación educativa. Los resultados pusieron de manifiesto la importancia de la formación continua de toda la comunidad educativa, principalmente del profesorado, y de la realización de evaluaciones externas. Asimismo, los hallazgos asociaron la contribución de la universidad a la realización de proceso de investigación y transferencia relacionados con los procesos de investigación e innovación educativ

First-year university students entrepreneurial competence: Exploring the relationship between grit, creative self-efficacy and entrepreneurial self-efficacy

Grit, creative self-efficacy and entrepreneurial self-efficacy have been associated with the development of entrepreneurial behaviours that can prepare students for a rapidly changing world of work. The main purpose of this study is to analyse the relationship between the three variables amongst first-year university students. A positive relationship, albeit modest, was found between grit and the two measures of self-efficacy. Furthermore, findings suggest that grit can be considered a predictor variable for student self-efficacy beliefs in the context of entrepreneurship. However, this relationship was found to be weak and not to offer significant opportunities for the improvement of student creative and entrepreneurial self-perception, beyond those already contemplated in social cognitive theory. Moreover, results revealed a significant and robust positive relationship between creative and entrepreneurial self-perceptions in university students. The strong relationship found between creative and entrepreneurial self-efficacy renders an opportunity to develop informed interventions directed towards improving student entrepreneurial self-perceptions. In this regard, the results suggest the importance of cultivating creativity in educational institutions

IMI2-PainCare-BioPain-RCT2 protocol: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover, multicenter trial in healthy subjects to investigate the effects of lacosamide, pregabalin, and tapentadol on biomarkers of pain processing observed by non-invasive neurophysiological measurements of human spinal cord and brainstem activity.

BACKGROUND: IMI2-PainCare-BioPain-RCT2 is one of four similarly designed clinical studies aiming at profiling a set of functional biomarkers of drug effects on specific compartments of the nociceptive system that could serve to accelerate the future development of analgesics. IMI2-PainCare-BioPain-RCT2 will focus on human spinal cord and brainstem activity using biomarkers derived from non-invasive neurophysiological measurements. METHODS: This is a multisite, single-dose, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, 4-period, 4-way crossover, pharmacodynamic (PD) and pharmacokinetic (PK) study in healthy subjects. Neurophysiological biomarkers of spinal and brainstem activity (the RIII flexion reflex, the N13 component of somatosensory evoked potentials (SEP) and the R2 component of the blink reflex) will be recorded before and at three distinct time points after administration of three medications known to act on the nociceptive system (lacosamide, pregabalin, tapentadol), and placebo, given as a single oral dose in separate study periods. Medication effects on neurophysiological measures will be assessed in a clinically relevant hyperalgesic condition (high-frequency electrical stimulation of the skin), and in a non-sensitized normal condition. Patient-reported outcome measures (pain ratings and predictive psychological traits) will also be collected; and blood samples will be taken for pharmacokinetic modelling. A sequentially rejective multiple testing approach will be used with overall alpha error of the primary analysis split between the two primary endpoints, namely the percentage amplitude changes of the RIII area and N13 amplitude under tapentadol. Remaining treatment arm effects on RIII, N13 and R2 recovery cycle are key secondary confirmatory analyses. Complex statistical analyses and PK-PD modelling are exploratory. DISCUSSION: The RIII component of the flexion reflex is a pure nociceptive spinal reflex widely used for investigating pain processing at the spinal level. It is sensitive to different experimental pain models and to the antinociceptive activity of drugs. The N13 is mediated by large myelinated non-nociceptive fibers and reflects segmental postsynaptic response of wide dynamic range dorsal horn neurons at the level of cervical spinal cord, and it could be therefore sensitive to the action of drugs specifically targeting the dorsal horn. The R2 reflex is mediated by large myelinated non-nociceptive fibers, its circuit consists of a polysynaptic chain lying in the reticular formation of the pons and medulla. The recovery cycle of R2 is widely used for assessing brainstem excitability. For these reasons, IMI2-PainCare-BioPain-RCT2 hypothesizes that spinal and brainstem neurophysiological measures can serve as biomarkers of target engagement of analgesic drugs for future Phase 1 clinical trials. Phase 2 and 3 clinical trials could also benefit from these tools for patient stratification. TRIAL REGISTRATION: This trial was registered on 02 February 2019 in EudraCT ( 2019-000755-14 )