TEACHING ENGINEERING STUDENTS CREATIVITY: A REVIEW OF APPLIED STRATEGIES

• Main Author: Chunfang Zhou
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Czech University of Life Sciences Prague 2012-06-01
• Series: Journal on Efficiency and Responsibility in Education and Science
• Subjects: Creativity; Engineering Education; Problem-Based Learning (PBL); Strategy
• Online Access: http://www.eriesjournal.com/_papers/article_174.pdf

Recent studies have emphasized the necessity of educating creative engineers. This paper aims to provide a literature review by answering what strategies can be applied to develop creativity in engineering education. As the literature demonstrates, creativity has been studied by a diversity of perspectives such as psychology, social psychology and sociology. Studies on engineering creativity indicate the importance of problem-solving skills for engineers. For developing creativity, strategies such as using thinking tools, learning by solving problems and building learning environment conductive to creativity have been suggested in engineering education. Problem-Based Learning (PBL) is a good example of fostering creative engineers, so characteristics of PBL, learning cycle in PBL and methods for enhancing group dynamics in PBL are discussed in this paper.