The creativity model for fostering greater synergy between engineering classroom and industrial activities for advancement of students’ creativity and innovation

• Autores: Teboho Pitso
• Localización: The International journal of engineering education, ISSN-e 0949-149X, Vol. 29, no. 5, 2013, págs. 1136-1143
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • This article describes the TRIZ-based Creativity model whose prototype was iteratively tested for efficacy in closing thetransactional space between undergraduate classroom activities and industrial processes with the purpose of advancingundergraduates’ creativity and innovation. The testing of this creativity model included presentations in two conferences of theInternational Multi-Conference on Engineering and Technological Innovation (IMETI) organised under the auspices of theInternational Institute of Informatics and Systematics (IIIS) and received excellent reviews (an average of 85%). The effectiveness ofthis creativity model in developing students’ creative abilities was also tested on twenty-four, final-year Process Instrumentationundergraduates after two iterative pilot studies. The pre- and post-test results derived from evaluating students’ creative abilitiesthrough the standardised Torrance’s Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT) show significance as measured through the t-test. Giventhe establishment of statistical significance in this study, it can reasonably be inferred that the TRIZ-based Creativity model withits leveraging of the university-industry nexus had a positive effect on increasing undergraduates’ creative abilities and setsconducive conditions for students’ innovativeness. The design and testing of this creativity model needs to be understood within the framework of the emerging synergistic connection among universities, industry and government which seeks to drive greaterinnovation and technological advancements for which the university-industry nexus was accentuated in this study.