(Kazerounian, K. & Foley, S. "Barriers to Creativity in Engineering Education: A Study of Instructors and Students Perceptions" ASME Journal of Mechanical Design, Vol 129, July 2007, available at http://www.mcrit.com/enginycat/XF/RTK/barriers.pdf)
In their study, Kazerounian and Foley identify 10 "Maxims of Creativity in Education":
1. Keep an Open Mind
2. Ambiguity is Good
3. Iterative Process that Includes Idea Incubation
4. Reward for Creativity
5. Lead by Example
6. Learning to Fail
7. Encouraging Risk
8. Search for Multiple Answers
9. Internal Motivation
10. Ownership of Learning
They then investigate both student and instructor perspectives on these 10 maxims and their value and presence in education in engineering, sciences and humanities. They find engineering only has maxim 10 "Ownership of Learning" - one out of ten!
As an engineering professor, I am both stunned and not surprised. I am stunned since all 10 are such basics of learning of anything, not just creativity. But I am also not surprised, having seen how and what we (all engineering professors, not just us in our department) teach our students and especially what we test them on.
Interestingly the study also finds that both professors and students value creativity but do not see it in each other. The lack of creativity seems to stem from deep and we have a long road ahead of us!
