A curriculum for developing creative thinking skills in engineering students

The Institution of Engineers, Australia produced a report in 1993, which contained a set of National Competency Standards designed to act as a benchmark for identifying the overall balance of knowledge, skills, judgement, ethical standards and experience required by Professional Engineers. In that report it was recommended that engineers should undertake professional development in lateral analysis and creative thinking skills. This dissertation examines the main themes in the creative thinking literature with a particular interest in the information relating to left and right brain thinking skills and how mental blocks can inhibit creative thinking from occurring. Visual thinking skills are examined. The dissertation outlines the development of a curriculum to introduce first year undergraduate engineering students to a variety of creative thinking skills. A representative set of teaching material is presented for each of the six topics contained in the curriculum. The curriculum has been designed to provide students with a set of learning experiences that will help them to personalise the knowledge. The curriculum has not yet been presented to students but it has been very favourably commented on by the nine professional colleagues from the field of education who evaluated the curriculum. Recommendations are presented for initially implementing the curriculum with a group of volunteer students. This would be a valuable part in the process of formative evaluation of the curriculum and be a help in improving the fidelity between the written and taught curriculum.