Incorporating divergent thinking skills development into a project-based course in industrial and systems engineering

Abstract

We developed curriculum for a divergent thinking skills development (DTSD) module and incorporated this module into a project-based course in industrial and systems engineering. DTSD curriculum includes a series of idea generation exercises that the students completed individually or in teams. In each divergent thinking exercise, students were asked to generate multiple ideas for a given 'problem under a strict time constraint. After each exercise, a facilitated reflection session allowed for students to learn the idea generation approaches that were used by their peers. We examined the effectiveness of the DTSD module using two measures: (1) changes in self-perceptions of creative ability and mindsets and (2) reflections on the influence of DTSD training. Questionnaires containing the Short Scale of Creative Self and Creative and Fixed Mindset measures were administered before training, after training, and at the end of the course. Reflections on the training were collected after training and at the end of the course. Students responded to prompts about the influence of the DTSD module on their creative self-perceptions, their approach to the course deliverables, and their future careers as well. Data was collected in summer 2019 and fall 2019 semesters. Although first round of data collection in summer 2019 semester provided some evidence on the effectiveness of the training module, the second round of data collection in fall 2019 did not provide further support for the evidence. Our third round data collection is ongoing, and will allow for more in depth analysis of the barriers to teaching divergent thinking to engineering students.