Linking mind-set to creativity

Abstract

The nature of student mindset has been often probed in the recent engineering education literature. In this paper, we revisit a multi-year study to provide updated on a particular facet of mindset in engineering education we find particularly revealing - the misunderstood link between creativity and other mindset factors such as creatvity. This entrepreneurial mindset instrument used to investigate mindset of engineering and computer science students was utilized at a private liberal arts university in the United States and first reported as a study on Dweck mindset among first through fourth year students. In this brief work in progress paper, we revisit this survey to determine the link between creativity and curiosity that has previously been uninvestigated, including variations of our original themes: (i) what diversity of curiosity and creativity is carried by first-year students into the university experience, (ii) how curiosity and creativity evolve during the undergraduate experience, and (iii) whether differences in curiosity and creativity can be identified by gender or discipline. While previously, the evidence suggested that mindset shifts somewhat towards fixed mindset as students progress towards their final year, the same contention may not exist for creativity or curiosity.