Work in progress: Creativity, mindset, and implications for engineering design instruction

Abstract

As a design-based profession, advances in engineering rely, in part, on the creativity of its practitioners. Therefore, it is important to explore means by which creativity, along with other critical skills, can be nurtured. As part of our research on the teachable nature of creativity, we are investigating the relationship between a person's belief that intelligence and talent are either fixed or can be developed and his/her assessment of changes in his/her creative skills. Preliminary findings indicate that, as may be expected, students with a fixed mindset report no changes. Possible pedagogical implications are discussed.