How to promote playful study design, study engagement and creativity in higher Education: The role of study and personal resources

Abstract

Although the importance of playful study design for fostering students' study engagement and creativity has been recognized, empirical research on its antecedents and consequences remains limited. Drawing upon proactive motivation theory, this study develops an integrative model to examine the factors influencing students' playful study design and its consequences within higher education. Participants were 213 students from a university in China, school of management, who filled out two questionnaires administered with one month in between. As hypothesized, the results showed that autonomy support, as a study resource, provided “reason to” motivation for playful study design, while psychological capital, as a personal resource, offered “can do” motivation. Both factors significantly promoted designing fun and designing competition. Furthermore, “can do” motivation enhances the effect of “reason to” motivation in such a way that students with high autonomy support and high psychological capital acted most often in playful study design. In turn, designing fun directly and indirectly fostered students’ self-perceived creativity by enhancing study engagement. These findings contribute novel insights into how to promote playful study design, study engagement, and self-perceived creativity and offer practical implications for optimizing the study environment in higher education.