Creativity in engineering 1 Fostering creativity in engineering undergraduates

Fostering creativity in engineering undergraduates Summary A total of 64 male engineering undergraduates received three lectures on creativity at the beginning of a course on engineering innovation. Some of them (N = 37) also completed a " creativity " test and were individually counselled on the basis of test scores. A separate control group (N = 21) took the test together with these students, but otherwise did not participate in any way in the study. Upon retesting six weeks later the counselled students were more innovative, whereas the control group were simply less inhibited. In addition, machines constructed by the counselled students were more elegant and creative than those of the 27 students who merely attended the lectures. Thus, the training was associated with changes in behaviour not only on the test, but in a practical activity too. Creativity in engineering 3 Creativity in engineering 4 Fostering creativity in engineering undergraduates Almost from the beginning, modern research has demonstrated that although students with high IQs usually obtain good grades both at school and university, they are consistently outstripped by those with not only a high IQ but also high creativity (see Cropley & Urban, in press, for a recent summary). In the specific case of engineering, Facaoaru (1985) showed that engineers rated most highly by their colleagues displayed, among other things, factual knowledge, rapid recall, and logical thinking (central aspects of conventional intelligence) combined with properties such as having unusual ideas, tolerating the unconventional, and seeing unexpected implications (elements of creativity). Apparently, creativity adds something to intelligence. Indeed, Sternberg and Lubart (1992) concluded that " contrarianism " (going against the conventional way) is a characteristic of all gifted individuals. Hassenstein (1988) argued that Klugheit (literally cleverness, but used by Hassenstein as a label for a more encompassing concept of giftedness) Following this approach, Cropley (1995) argued that creativity is indispensable for " true " giftedness. In the present paper, then, creativity will be regarded as an integral part of giftedness. Creativity in engineering 5 The call for education to foster creativity in engineers was one of the main reactions to the " Sputnik shock " of 1957, when the then Soviet Union succeeded in launching the first successful earth satellite, and was widely regarded as having beaten the United States in the first event of the space race. This perceived failure of American science and engineering was attributed to lack …