Fostering Creativity in Engineering Education through Experiential and Team-based Learning

The Engineering Accreditation Commission (EAC) of ABET, the recognized accreditation agency for engineering in the United States, requires a set of learning outcomes (known as ABET a-k) to be regularly self-evaluated. Results of this self-evaluation is expected to be used to improve educational programs. As part of the effort to improve educational programs based on a self evaluation of an active learning model, this study investigates how creativity can be fostered among freshman engineering students as a result of exposing them to various creative problem solving exercises in an active, experiential, and team-based learning environment. An introductory course to engineering design at Texas A&M University was used to determine how creativity was promoted among students after completing the course. Established research findings in creativity studies were used to measure creativity both as a construct and a process among students. Qualitative approaches were used and the research design included extensive field observations, focus group interviews, student questionnaires, and portfolios assessments. Results of the study showed that the use of an experiential and team-based learning model in the freshman engineering design course enhanced both process-and construct-based creativity dimensions among students during the course of the study.