Creativity areas and creativity evaluation of students studying in the field of STEAM in higher education

Objective: The purpose of this research is to examine the creativity areas of students studying in STEAM fields in higher education and the individual's self-evaluation in terms of creativity in terms of various variables (gender, interest in art, classical and philosophical work reading habits and the field they study). Material and Methods: The study was conducted in the fall semester of the 2024-2025 academic year with a total of 981 students studying in the Engineering Department (232 girls, 267 boys), Science Department (107 girls, 48 boys), Fine Arts Department (69 girls, 55 boys), and Education Department (148 girls, 55 boys) at Aydın Adnan Menderes University. The sample of this study was determined according to the criterion sampling in purposeful sampling, which is a non-random sampling method. The relational survey model, which is a quantitative research method, was used in the study. To collect data, the "How creative are you?" scale developed by Raudsepp (1979), adapted into Turkish by Sungur (1997), was used to determine students' creativity levels. The "Kaufman Creativity Areas Scale," developed by Kaufman (2012) and adapted into Turkish by Kandemir and Kaufman (2020), and the "Personal Information Form" were used to determine students' creativity areas. Findings: Findings regarding the Kaufman Creativity Areas Scale; the mean scores for the subscales "artistic creativity" in Education and Science, "creativity in artistic performance" in Fine Arts, and "academic creativity" in Engineering were high. According to the total scale score, a statistically significant difference was found between the Fine Arts-Engineering and Education-Engineering fields. According to the gender variable; Statistically significant differences were found in all fields. According to the interest in art variable, there is a statistically significant difference between the interest in art of students studying in the fields of Education, Science, and Engineering. According to the classical and philosophical reading habits variable, there is a statistically significant difference between the classical and philosophical reading habits of students studying in the fields of Education and Engineering. Findings of the Self-Assessment Scale in Terms of Creativity; While the creativity of students studying in the fields of Education, Science, and Fine Arts was above average, the creativity of engineering students was below average. Based on the total scale scores, a statistically significant difference was found between the fields of Science and Engineering, Education and Engineering, and Fine Arts and Engineering. There was not found any significant difference between students' self-perceived creativity levels and their gender. According to the interest in art variable, there is a statistically significant difference between the interest in art of students studying in the fields of Engineering and Fine Arts. According to the classical and philosophical reading habits variable, there is a statistically significant difference between the classical and philosophical reading habits of students studying in the fields of Engineering. Conclusion: Significant differences were found between the creativity areas of students studying in different undergraduate fields and their self-evaluation levels in terms of creativity. Students' self-assessments of creativity and differences in their creativity areas stand out as key variables influencing these differences, including the students' field of study, their interest in art, and their reading habits of classical and philosophical works.