CAREER: Developing Divergent Thinking throughout Engineering Education and Practice

许多专业报告指出，工科毕业生的技术能力很强，但也指出他们缺乏创造性思维。解决工程问题的创造性方法需要发散性思维来探索广泛的可能解决方案。发散思维允许工程师在解决问题的每个阶段都考虑备选方案；例如，他们定义问题的方式，他们考虑的不同方法，以及设计的潜在解决方案的范围。如果没有发散性思维，工程师就会经常采用常规方法，而不考虑改变或创新的方法。研究表明，创造力的关键是学会在不同选择的发散思维和趋同决策之间轻松地来回转换。虽然工程教育在培训聚合性技术技能方面表现出色，但人们普遍认为，工程教育工作者在教授创造力所需的发散性思维技能方面存在困难。在工程课程中开展发散性思维的培训将通过在工程文化中嵌入创造力来改变工程教育。此外，通过支持工程师的发散思维来探索想法，创新的方法和解决方案可以成功地解决他们所面临的复杂工程问题。本项目确定了工程背景下的发散思维实践，并开发了基于经验的方法来训练工程学生在发散过程中培养灵活和创造性的工程问题解决方案。在两个关键框架（搜索空间和社会认知理论）的指导下，本研究将利用工程经验访谈和基于场景的实验来回答以下研究问题：1)工程学生和从业者如何结合和探索问题和解决方案？2)工科学生和实践者如何自我评估他们的过程、进展和结果？3)哪些认知和感知环境因素会影响选择的选择和探索？这项工作还将产生基于经验的教育工具，包括发散性思维指南、发散性思维自我评估工具、关于发散性思维的工程故事库和混合学习模块。这些教育成果将作为高中和本科工程教育课程改革的基础，并利用专业工程实践的培训经验，将发散思维融入核心工程技能。此外，随着工程专业的学生越来越意识到工程领域对发散思维的高度重视，对工程创造性贡献感兴趣的学生将找到更多的方式参与并为该领域做出贡献，通过建立他们在该领域的联系、支持和归属感来支持他们进入并留在工程领域的选择。培养不同的技能，以不同的方式思考是该领域的试金石：来自不同贡献者的不同想法加强了工程领域的教育和实践。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Numerous professional reports cite the strong technical skills of engineering graduates, but also point to their lack of creative thinking. Creative approaches to engineering problems require divergent thinking to explore a wide range of possible solutions. Divergent thinking allows engineers to consider alternatives at every stage during problem solving; for example, in the ways they define the problem, differing approaches they consider, and the range of potential solutions devised. Without divergent thinking, engineers frequently apply the usual approaches without considering ways to change or innovate. Studies show that the key to creativity is learning to move easily back and forth between divergent thinking about alternatives and convergent decision making. While engineering education excels in training on convergent technical skills, there is widespread agreement that engineering educators struggle with teaching about the divergent thinking skills required for creativity. Developing training on divergent thinking within the engineering curricula will transform engineering education by embedding creativity within engineering cultures. Further, by supporting engineers in divergent thinking to explore ideas, innovative approaches and solutions can successfully address the complex engineering problems they face. This project identifies divergent thinking practices in engineering contexts and develops empirically-based methods for training engineering students in divergent processes to foster flexible and creative solutions for engineering problems. Guided by two key frameworks (Search Spaces and Social Cognitive Theory) the research will leverage interviews about engineering experiences and scenario-based experiments to answer the following research questions: 1) How do engineering students and practitioners bound and explore problems and solutions? 2) How do engineering students and practitioners self-assess their process, progress, and outcomes? 3) What cognitive and perceived environmental factors impact bounding and exploration of alternatives? This work will also produce empirically-based educational tools including a divergent thinking guide, a divergent thinking self-assessment tool, a repository of engineering stories about divergent thinking, and a hybrid learning module. These educational deliverables will serve as a foundation for curricular reform in high school and undergraduate engineering education, and leverage training experiences in professional engineering practice to integrate divergent thinking within core engineering skills. Further, as engineering students become increasingly aware of the high value placed on divergent thinking within engineering, students interested in creative contributions to engineering will find more ways to engage with and contribute to the field, supporting their choice to enter and stay in engineering by building their feelings of connection, support, and belonging in the field. Building divergent skills to think differently is a touchstone for the field: Diverse ideas from diverse contributors strengthen education and practice in engineering.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.