Enhancing Creative Capacity: How Engineering Students Learn Creativity

University Of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign, Urbana IL

Investigators

Abstract

This Engineering Education Research project will examine the enhancement of personal creativity and determine how engineering students become more creative. Subjects will include first-year and fourth-year students and other students enrolled in classes on creativity. A variety of qualitative and quantitative methods, including both third-party instruments and methods developed by the research team, will be used. The study proposes a theory of creativity enhancement based upon strategic and iterative creating, presentation, feedback and reflection ? nurturing creation to foster creativity. Applying a set of strategies in practice develops creative competence, while tasks that spiral back to familiar cognitive terrain promotes confidence and development of creative identity. The understanding gained from the research about creativity enhancement will inform the teaching and learning process, particularly instructional design and methodology. The results will also provide a framework for the teaching and learning of creativity for large numbers of students and provide data to assist in decision making regarding whether development of creativity should earn a more established position in the engineering curriculum.