Improving creativity in engineering undergraduate students in private institution of higher learning in Malaysia - a pilot study

Abstract

Creativity is an essential factor when it comes down to engineering designs. Creativity and engineering complement each other to provide useful and yet eye-opening solutions to anyone’s every-day problems. Recent research conducted had indicated that creativity, which happens to be one of the vital skills for the engineers in the 21st Century that can be taught and learnt, has reduced significantly over the years. Thus, there is a need for engineering educators to address this reduction issue by introducing creative thinking as a skill to be acquired by the current generation of engineering undergraduates. This research paper presents the outcome of research conducted to improve and enhance the creativity level of local engineering undergraduates at a private institution of higher learning. Such enhancement is done through a Creative Thinking Module that features few proposed creative thinking tools such as Brainsketching, Concept Maps and Morphological Analysis. The Torrance Test of Creative Thinking Figural Forms was applied to measure the creativity level of respondents in this research. A pilot study had been conducted in a local private university, and results indicated improvement in the creative ability of the students upon completion of the Creative Thinking Module.