The relationship between creative self-concepts, perceptions of global readiness, and travel experiences of engineering students

The purpose of this research paper is to examine the relationship between self-concepts relating to two attributes necessary for successful engineers in today's society: creativity and global readiness. Some previous studies have shown a positive relationship exists between multicultural exposure and later creative performance. However, no studies were found that examine the relationship between students' self-concepts of these attributes. This paper seeks to examine several hypotheses: 1) Students who have traveled internationally will have stronger global readiness and perceive global readiness as being more valuable. 2) Students who have had more international experiences will have higher creative self-efficacy, stronger creative identity, and perceive creativity as being more valuable to them. 3) Students who believe they are more globally ready will have higher creative self-efficacy and stronger creative identity. 4) Students who value global readiness will also value creativity. The results show that international experiences influence students' perceived value of global readiness and other measures of global readiness. Measures of creative self-concepts are impacted if students spend a significant length of time in an international setting.