How Classroom Curiosity Affects College Students’ Creativity?

In today’s rapidly evolving social and technological environment, college students’ creativity is increasingly recognized as a core competency essential for fostering future innovation and societal development. As a result, identifying effective strategies to cultivate creativity has become a pressing focus in educational research. This study explores the intrinsic relationship between classroom curiosity and creativity by constructing a Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Model (PLS-SEM). A total of 690 valid questionnaires were collected from students at several universities in Guangzhou and Macau. The respondents represented a diverse range of majors and academic levels. The results reveal a significant positive correlation between curiosity and situational interest, as well as between perceived teacher support, classroom curiosity, and knowledge-seeking behavior. These findings not only enrich our understanding of how creativity is fostered through classroom learning processes but also offer theoretical foundations and empirical support for optimizing educational practices.