Cultivating imagination in entry-level civil engineering students: exploring the effects of an innovative instructional model

• Autores: Hsiou-Huai Wang, Shih-Chung Kang, Tsung-Kai Lee
• Localización: The International journal of engineering education, ISSN-e 0949-149X, Vol. 29, no. 5, 2013, págs. 1248-1259
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Imagination, the limitless ability to form mental images and concepts through thinking, is inherent in human cognition as the basisfor the creative activities and inventions that have driven human technological and engineering innovations. Imagination should becultivated in the process of preparing future engineers. This study develops an imagination instructional model for entry-levelengineering college students. Three features of imagination: possibility, connectivity and boundary-crossing, are established as thetheoretical basis for an instructional model called IDEAL. This model was implemented in an introductory engineering course andits effect was evaluated. The results showed that: (i) The IDEAL model significantly increased students’ overall imagination, andmore especially, (ii) it significantly enhanced students’ boundary-crossing capacity. This study makes contributions to currentengineering education by first exploring the inherent features of imagination, constructing a workable instructional model for thecultivation of imagination, implementing the model to an introductory engineering course and showing its effect.