Educating a creative engineer: learning from engineering professionals

The rapid growth of engineering knowledge has resulted in continuous expansion of novel technologies and materials that can be used in designing new products and processed. Computer- and web-based technologies allowed engineers to significantly shorten the development of novel artefacts. These advances intensified the competition between engineering companies and shortened the lifespans of the majority of engineering products. As a result, practicing engineers are now expected to deliver creative designs to markets much more swiftly than ever before. This paper presents the results of a survey that intended to establish the ways and the means of enhancing engineering creativity that suit the engineering industry of the 21st Century. This study engaged 46 engineering experts from the major international corporations who utilised numerous creativity techniques including TRIZ in their day-to-day engineering work. It had been found that the surveyed engineering experts think that in the current Information age (i) knowledge beyond engineering profession is more important for creativity than the discipline knowledge; (ii) learning creativity methods and problem solving heuristics is more important than acquiring additional discipline knowledge; (iii) the problem solving stage of identifying and understanding a problem is the key to a creative solution

Eight fields of MATCEMIB help students to generate more ideas

This paper presents the results of the idea generation experiment that repeats the study originally conducted at RMIT. In order to establish the influence that the experimental treatments make on the number and the breadth of solution ideas proposed by problem solvers with different knowledge levels, students from different years of study were recruited. Ninety students from the Offenburg University of Applied Sciences, Germany were divided into three groups. All students were asked to generate ideas on cleaning lime deposits from the inside of a water pipe and were given 16 minutes to record their individual ideas. Students of two experimental groups were shown some words for two minuted each. The Su-Field group was exposed to the eight fields of MATCEMIB. The Random Word group was shown eight random words every two minutes. The Su-Field group outperformed both the Control group and the Random Word group in the number of ideas generated. It was also found that the students from the Su-Field group proposed significantly broader solutions than the students from the Control and Random Word groups. The overall results of the experiment support the conclusions made by the RMIT researchers that simple ideation techniques can significantly improve idea generation and that the systematised Substance-Field Analysis is a suitable heuristic for engineering students

Perceptions of computer and pen-and-paper based learning environments for engaging in creative problem solving activities

BACKGROUND Previous research has established that engineering students are able to complete creative problem solving tasks effectively using either a computer or a pen-and-paper approach and that several factors including self-efficacy, open-mindedness and reflection have been linked to effective problem solving performance. As a result, computer based tools designed to teach creative problem solving skills, should enhance the development of these factors at least as well as a traditional pen-and-paper based approach. There is currently a lack of understanding as to whether using a computer has any beneficial or detrimental effect regarding facilitating enhancement of these factors during creative problem solving activities. Understanding whether students consider each platform to be effective and how this compares to their performance, may help engineering educators to best identify the means for both increasing the problem solving skills of students, and providing it though an environment which also aims to enhance factors which influence problem solving performance itself. PURPOSE It is important to comprehend whether students consider a computer platform to be as effective as a pen-and-paper approach for enhancing their creative problem solving skills, to understand whether the platform itself may have the unintended effect of discouraging students from such engaging in creative problem solving tasks. DESIGN/METHOD Students first engaged in a task that taught them how to apply a creative problem solving technique, using either a computer or pen-and-paper or web based approach. Feedback asking how the task had affected students’ performance, confidence and reflection was gathered at the conclusion of the task using 7-point Likert scale questions, and student performance was established based on the number of independent ideas they had generated. Feedback data was compared to the performance of students during this task and a follow up task conducted eleven weeks later to see whether students rated one platform as superior, and whether their perceptions matched their immediate and long term performance. RESULTS Students’ average performance and perception of the benefits of the first activity were slightly higher when the student had used pen-and-paper, as opposed to computer based approach, but all differences were statistically insignificant. Conversely, students who had used a computer approach in the first task were actually able to perform more effectively during the second task than students who had previously used a pen-and-paper approach, but the difference was statistically insignificant. CONCLUSIONS Outcomes of this study have shown students perceive completing a creative problem solving task using pen-and-paper is slightly more effective for enhancing factors important to the development of problem solving skills, suggesting using a computer may lead to less motivation to engage in such activities. However, long term performance indicated it was actually of more benefit to complete the task using a computer, meaning educators would need to overcome initial perceptions which may dissuade some students from utilising what turns out to be an effective resource and mode of delivery

Cognitive foundations of TRIZ problem-solving tools

This paper considers the cognitive foundations of TRIZ tools. It analyses reasons for the effectiveness of TRIZ tools in directing users to achieve superior solutions. The cognitive bases for application of the systematised Substance-Field analysis, Method of the Ideal Result, Situation Analysis, the 40 Innovative Principles as well as the Contradiction Table are considered

Can students predict their grade accurately in order to self-regulate?

Students' skills in self-regulation are critical for achieving sound learning outcomes. They are also important for effective life-long learning. It has been found that learners who actively self-regulate achieve higher grades and are more confident than their peers (Pintrich, 1995; Zimmerman & Schunk, 2001). Moreover, educational scholars are convinced that nurturing students' skills in self-regulation entails engaging them in structured, regular diagnostic assessment and self-monitoring, which leads to metacognitive reflection on their learning (Crisp, 2012; Nicol & Macfarlane-Dick, 2006). PURPOSE This paper investigates whether on-campus students possess adequate skills to self-regulate their learning and tries to establish the means by which we can nurture students' capacity for self-regulation. DESIGN/METHOD Seventy one student enrolled in a third year unit on electrical engineering were asked to predict their grades for two class tests that were conducted in weeks 6 and 9 of a 12-week semester. They evaluated the expected marks three times: (i) directly after the reading time, (ii) straight after they had completed the test and (iii) after the test solutions were presented to them. These predictions were compared with each other and with the actual test grades obtained by the students. In order to gain further insight into the results of student predictions, their Task Evaluation and Reflection Instrument for Student Self-Assessment (TERISSA) (Belski, 2007) responses were also analysed. RESULTS As it had been anticipated, most students were unable to make accurate predictions of their test results after reading the task. On average students over estimated their grades by nearly 26% in test 1 and by 11% in test 2. High performing students were better able to accurately predict their actual marks, then the rest of the class

Cultivating Student Skills in Self-Regulated Learning through Evaluation of Task Complexity

In order to self-regulate, students need to honestly reflect on their learning and to take appropriate corrective action. A simple procedure to cultivate student skills in self-regulated learning, known as the Task Evaluation and Reflection Instrument for Student Self-Assessment (TERISSA) is discussed in this paper. TERISSA guides students through two evaluations of the complexity of a task: the first is undertaken just before solving the task and the second straight after completing the task. This study involved 63 undergraduate students and observed a statistically significant difference (p = 0.007) in performance between the students who did (6.1/10) and did not (4.1/10) use TERISSA during tutorials leading up to an assessment task

Clickers: enabling valuable diagnostic feedback to both students and instructors in real time

This paper is devoted to the investigation of the capability of classroom response systems (clickers) in enabling real-time diagnostic assessment during tutorial sessions. The study involved two hundred and seven students who were divided into five tutorial groups. Clickers were used to conduct the Task Evaluation and Reflection Instrument for Student Self-Assessment (TERISSA) procedure in order to anonymously reveal students' individual evaluations and reflections to the whole class. It was discovered that 62% of the surveyed participants were able to clearly identify the study areas that required their immediate attention and that 54% of the surveyed addressed these learning needs. It was also found that the use of clickers with TERISSA enabled tutors to obtain a real-time evaluation of students' prior knowledge and their misconceptions. Differences in prior knowledge and misconceptions between five tutorial groups were also established

Teaching thinking and problems solving at University: A course on TRIZ

Thinking and problem solving skills are considered to be of significant importance in many professions. Surveys indicate that university education fails in appropriately enhancing these skills. This paper presents a concept of teaching thinking and problem solving as a separate course, based on the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ). Student surveys showed that students' perception of their abilities in problem solving changed vastly as a consequence of the course. Students reflected that they would never have expected themselves to come up with the ideas they eventually thought of and suggested while conducting their final project, had they not been formally taught about the tools of problem solving. It was also found that this course on TRIZ thinking tools impacted students' problem solving abilities much more than discipline-based courses, supporting the superiority of the `enrichment' over the 'infusion' approach

Impact of dynamic (videotaped) worked examples on knowledge transfer

The effectiveness of worked examples in instructional guidance has received a considerable amount of attention from researchers. Rapid increases in computer power as well as the expansion of the world-wideweb have created opportunities for educators to offer students 'dynamic' worked examples (DWE) - solutions that incorporate both visual and sound instructions and can be watched over and over again (Belski, 2011; Moreno & Mayer, 1999; O'Shea, 1999; Wandel, 2010). It has also been reported that when students have been offered a set of dynamic worked examples to supplement their face-to-face learning their examination performance in that year improved significantly (Belski, 2011). However it is not yet clear whether DWE impact on knowledge transfer, and if so whether it is near or far transfer that is most affected. PURPOSE This paper investigates whether significant improvement in student examination performance that occurred as a result of the provision of DWE, was related to its usage patterns and impact on near or far knowledge transfer. Engineering and science educators developing new educational resources need to consider developing DWE that permit students to expand their self-learning and enhance their far knowledge transfer skills

Student-created dynamic (video) worked examples as a path to active learning

This paper aims to investigate the effectiveness of learning new course material in disciplines of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) by means of engaging students in creating short DWE on topics new to them and assess their enjoyment of the task