Engaging engineering students in creative problem solving tasks: How does it influence future performance?

This study investigated whether engaging engineering students in learning a creative problem solving technique for less than an hour has a positive influence on students' ability to generate creative solution ideas more effectively in the long term, and whether the platform used to learn the technique (computer or pen-and-paper based) makes a difference to long term performance. At the beginning of a semester, students learnt how to apply a creative problem solving technique using either a computer or pen-and-paper based approach. Their immediate testing showed that on average students performed the same regardless of the platform used. Eleven weeks later, students were engaged in another creative problem solving task, but were not provided with any suggested approach methodology. Results showed that students who had learnt the problem solving technique eleven weeks prior, outperformed students who had not previously learnt the technique, with statistically significantly higher idea fluency and idea flexibility with large effect sizes. Additionally, there were no significant differences in performance based upon the platform which had previously been used to learn the technique. These findings suggest that even short lessons that teach creative problem solving techniques may have notable long term benefits, and may be effectively conducted using either a pen-and-paper or computer based approach.