This study examines the effectiveness of different types of teacher-student conflict in promoting students' creativity in universities. Previous studies mainly focused on the negative effects of conflict; few examined its positive effects. Teacher-student conflict in university classes can take many forms; however, there are no clear definitions of the various types of such conflict. This study classified teacher-student conflict as understanding conflict, process conflict, and relationship conflict, and we used this classification to extend prior research by revealing the beneficial impacts of teacher-student conflict on students' creativity. We empirically examined the relationship between teacher-student conflict and students' creativity. The hypotheses were supported by using data from questionnaires completed by 2009 students at 17 American universities. We then conducted a hierarchical regression analysis of the data using structural equation modeling. The findings indicate that understanding conflict and process conflict had significant positive effects on students' creativity, whereas relationship conflict had a significant negative effect on students' creativity. This study thus revealed the positive effect of teacher-student conflict in university classes and suggests encouraging conflict (understanding conflict and process conflict) as a unique teaching method to stimulate students' creativity.
Keywords: students’ creativity; sustainable development education; teacher–student process conflict; teacher–student relationship conflict; teacher–student understanding conflict.