ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Educ.
Sec. Assessment, Testing and Applied Measurement
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2025.1624324
The Role of Semantic Stimuli in Enhancing Creativity in Art and Design Education
Provisionally accepted
Yu Yang1,2*
Yukari Nagai1- 1Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Nomi, Japan
- 2Dalian Polytechnic University, Dalian, China
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Previous studies have emphasized the role of verbal stimuli in fostering creativity, yet a systematic exploration of semantic stimuli within the context of art and design education remains scarce. This study aims to investigate, through empirical methods, the effects of different types of semantic stimuli, the proactive application of creativity evaluation criteria, and the role of individual differences in the process of generating design ideas. Two main innovations are proposed: first, the introduction of expert commentary terms as semantic stimulus materials to enhance their relevance and effectiveness in educational settings; second, the transformation of creativity evaluation criteria from traditional outcome assessment tools into thinking guidance tools, applied at the early stages of the design process.Unlike visual, auditory, or memory-based stimuli, verbal semantic stimuli—specifically semantic words—offer a controllable, abstract, and cognitively integrative format that enables precise experimental manipulation and interpretation in design education.The results show that both abstract and concrete semantic terms effectively stimulate students' creative thinking. Creativity evaluation criteria are found to not only serve as tools for post-project assessment but also exhibit potential in guiding the direction of creative thinking during the early stages of design.Chi-square tests reveal that individual differences, such as participants' educational background and major, significantly influence preferences for using semantic stimuli and the performance of idea generation.This study provides an operable semantic stimulation method for art and design education, promoting a shift in teaching models from experience-driven approaches to rational guidance. It also offers a new form of support for design practice during the concept generation phase.
Keywords: art and design education, Creativity stimulation, Semantic stimuli, Expert commentary words, Proactive evaluation criteria
Received: 07 May 2025; Accepted: 03 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yang and Nagai. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yu Yang, Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Nomi, Japan
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