Educational Affordances That Support Development of Innovative Thinking Skills in Large Classes

Innovative thinking skills are among the top characteristics that employers look for when hiring engineers. Universities are therefore charged with investigating and providing the type of learning environments that will foster the development of innovative thinking especially in large classes. This involves considering multiple factors such as the technology, teacher support, and learning task or educational affordances that are needed. This qualitative study examines undergraduate engineering students enrolled in large classes and their perspectives on educational affordances (i.e., technology, teacher support, and learning tasks) that they think will help them develop innovative thinking skills. Preliminary findings suggest that there are key factors in the educational environment that facilitate development of innovative thinking. Discussion will focus on effective practices and tools as well as suggestions for future research toward designing a model that presents effective pedagogical approaches to impact the development of innovative thinking skills among engineering undergraduates enrolled in large lecture classes. [For the full proceedings, see ED562107.]