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"Engineering" Student Creativity in a Probability and Statistics Course: Investigating Perceived Versus Actual Creativity
Journal article   Peer reviewed

"Engineering" Student Creativity in a Probability and Statistics Course: Investigating Perceived Versus Actual Creativity

Jen Katz-Buonincontro, Richard W Hass and Gary Friedman
Psychology of aesthetics, creativity, and the arts, v 11(3)
Aug 2017
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/aca0000118
Featured in Collection :   UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel

Abstract

creative self mindsets classroom creativity measurement
Perceived versus actual creative competence is a growing area of research that lacks investigation in everyday environments such as the college classroom. This article reports on the results of a mixed methods educational study of 55 undergraduate engineering students enrolled in a probability and statistics course. The quantitative part of the study measured students' perceived creativity using the Beliefs about Creativity Scales, and explored the relationship between these perceptions to actual creativity, which were ratings of the degree of originality and fluency of student responses to 4 open-ended assignments that had been developed for the study. The qualitative part of the study included focus group interviews with students about the perceived relevance of creativity for learning. Results show that students' perceived creativity had varied relationships with actual creativity. Of note, creative performance on 1 of the open-ended assignments strongly predicted midterm scores in the course. Examination of perceived creativity found that fixed mindsets about creativity were negatively related to performance on the assignment testing real world problem solving, which is consistent with previous research. In the focus group interviews, students believed creativity was very important for their identity as professional engineers, but held mixed beliefs about being creative in the course. These results are discussed in terms of self-theories, learning and mindset research as well as future directions for researching perceived versus actual creativity in the college classroom.

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15 Record Views
13 citations in Web of Science
17 citations in Scopus

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UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#4 Quality Education

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Humanities, Multidisciplinary
Psychology, Experimental
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