Improving Students’ Creative Problem Solving Skills in Engineering using Visual Representation Methods

该项目旨在通过开发、实施和评估创造性问题解决（CPS）活动来帮助工程学生学习如何解决复杂问题，从而为国家利益服务。虽然CPS被认为是工程劳动力的一项重要技能，但缺乏综合的CPS教学材料和策略已经成为丰富学生高阶思维技能的重大障碍。该项目将实施一系列主动学习模块，学生在其中创建视觉表示，作为电子电路课程中动态CPS策略的一部分。这些模块将包括空间推理活动，通过让学生捕捉或将问题转化为视觉形式，写出叙事反思，并与其他学生分享他们的工作，使学生参与到工程问题中来。这些学习经历将使学生超越传统的线性思维和结构化问题解决，探索具有挑战性的工程问题的创新解决方案。本研究将探讨创意体验的影响、学生对创意认知的改变，以及透过创意技能的发展，对学业成长的影响。通过调查、学生访谈和学生作业评估，该项目将研究这种方法对学生CPS技能发展和学生参与水平的影响。将创建讲习班和教程，以帮助其他机构的工程学院采用和适应这种CPS策略。该项目的目标是通过将CPS模块和策略引入现有的电子电路课程来提高学生的CPS技能。视觉表现方法将用于帮助学生通过连接在当前学习环境中似乎不相关的概念、对象和想法之间的关系来进行创造性练习。学生将从事一系列CPS活动，带领学生经历CPS的各个阶段，即：(1)批判性反思，学生在其中识别问题，反思他们已经学到的知识，然后积极探究和进一步研究主题；(2)头脑风暴，从不同的角度激发想象力和发散性思维；(3)创意方案的可视化与综合；(4)将创意与知识领域的基本原则联系起来的情境化。这些创造性练习旨在培养创造性技能（如流畅性、灵活性和独创性），促进学生追求创造性解决方案的动机，并发展引人入胜、具有挑战性和鼓舞人心的课堂学习。该项目将解决一系列研究问题，包括：(1)这些模块在多大程度上提高了学生的CPS技能？(2)如果有的话，这些模块对学生在课程中的学习有什么影响？通过比较对照组和实验组的结果，学生调查和学生作业评估的结果将用于回答研究问题。该项目将为工程学院提供展览和研讨会，以提高对CPS策略和学生参与的认识。NSF IUSE: EHR计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生STEM教育的有效性。通过参与学生学习轨道，该计划支持有前途的实践和工具的创建，探索和实施。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。

This project aims to serve the national interest by developing, implementing, and evaluating creative problem solving (CPS) activities that help engineering students learn how to solve complex problems. While CPS is recognized as an important skill for the engineering workforce, the lack of integrated CPS instructional materials and strategies has become a significant barrier to enriching students’ higher order thinking skills. This project will implement a series of active learning modules in which students create visual representations as part of a dynamic CPS strategy in an electronics circuits course. The modules will involve spatial reasoning activities that engage students in engineering problems by having students capture or transform the problems into visual forms, write narrative reflections, and share their work with other students. These learning experiences will allow students to go beyond traditional linear thinking and structured problem solving to explore innovative solutions for challenging engineering problems. This study will examine the impact of creative experiences, changes in students’ perception of creativity, and academic growth through the development of creative skills. Using surveys, student interviews, and assessments of student work, the project will study the impact of this approach on the development of students’ CPS skills and level of student engagement. Workshops and tutorials will be created to help engineering faculty at other institutions adopt and adapt this CPS strategy. The goal of this project is to improve students’ CPS skills by introducing CPS modules and strategies into an existing electronics circuits course. Visual representation methodologies will be used to help students practice creative exercises by connecting relationships between concepts, objects, and ideas that seem unrelated in current learning contexts. Students will work on a series of CPS activities that take the students through the stages of CPS, namely, (1) critical reflection in which students identify the problem, reflect on what they have already learned, and then engage in active inquiry and further research on subject matter; (2) brainstorming that catalyzes imaginative and divergent thinking from different perspectives; (3) visualization and synthesis of creative solutions; and (4) contextualization that links creative ideas with the underlying principles of the knowledge domain. These creative exercises will be designed to foster creative skill sets (such as fluency, flexibility, and originality), promote students’ motivation to pursue creative solutions, and develop engaging, challenging, and inspiring classroom learning. The project will address a set of research questions including: (1) To what extent do the modules improve students’ CPS skills? (2) What effect, if any, do the modules have on student learning in the course? Results from student surveys and assessments of student work will be used to answer the research questions by comparing the results from a control group and a treatment group. This project will offer exhibitions and workshops for engineering faculty to increase awareness of strategies for CPS and student engagement. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.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.