Developing engineering students’ willingness and ability to perform creative tasks

Abstract

PURPOSE : The purpose of this paper is to explore creativity and how it changes over time among engineering students in practice-based entrepreneurship in higher education. This change was examined in students over a one-semester course in entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship courses that use creativity tools for practice-based learning are expected to develop creativity as a learning outcome. This study discusses the extent to which some learning outcomes are more easily developed than others. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH : This research uses a longitudinal design by applying a pre- and post-test survey. The student population consists of engineering students enrolled in an entrepreneurship course with practice-based learning involving creativity tools. The course includes team-based idea generation and business model development. To measure actual changes in students’ creativity, two measures were used to reflect different aspects. FINDINGS : The results show that students’ ability to perform creative tasks increased, while students’ willingness to engage in and their enjoyment of creative tasks decreased as a result of the course. Non-significant differences in changes were found between the two measures, but a difference was found in how the two measures changed during the course. In line with the research question, the results suggest that education may influence ability to a greater extent than willingness. ORIGINALITY/VALUE : The research used two different creativity measures to explore the extent to which engineering students experienced a change in creativity over a one-semester entrepreneurship course. In this way, the research contributes to the discussion on what could be learnt and by what means.