Open AccessComponential Theories of Creativity: A Case Study of Teaching Creative Problem Solving
Author(s) -
Chris Rennick,
Kenneth N. McKay
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
proceedings of the ... ceea conference
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2371-5243
DOI - 10.24908/pceea.v0i0.12991
Subject(s) - creativity , process (computing) , domain (mathematical analysis) , computer science , set (abstract data type) , mathematics education , ideation , flexibility (engineering) , cognition , event (particle physics) , engineering design process , creativity technique , psychology , artificial intelligence , human–computer interaction , cognitive science , engineering , programming language , social psychology , mathematics , mechanical engineering , mathematical analysis , statistics , physics , quantum mechanics , neuroscience
Engineering is the discipline of applying scientific and mathematical tools to solve practical problems for society. At the core of a person’s problem-solving abilities is their creativity. This is a preliminary and exploratory theory-based paper summarizing the two most prevalent componential theories of creativity as applied to a case study. These theories outline a set of processes which contribute to a person’s ability to be creative in a domain. The components differ slightly between models, but include: motivation; domain-specific knowledge, skills, and abilities; and cognitive process of creativity including problem finding, ideation, and evaluation.To demonstrate the practical application of these theories to engineering pedagogy, they will be applied to a case study of a 2-day academic hackathon called “Tron Days”. Tron Days guides students through a multi-step modelling and verification process and concludes with teams of students designing and constructing a robotic arm. At the end of the second day, students demonstrated their functioning robotic prototypes. This event has now been run twice for first semester Mechatronics Engineering students, and similar implementations with different problems have been run in seven other engineering programs at the same institution. Each section of this paper will demonstrate the application of componential theories of creativity by drawing connections to the Tron Days event.