Fostering Creative Cognition in Design Education: A Comparative Analysis of Algorithmic and Heuristic Educational Methods in Basic Design Education (original) (raw)
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Cognitive heuristics in design: Instructional strategies to increase creativity in idea generation
Design Computing and Cognition ’10, 2011
This paper explores the use of heuristics as cognitive strategies invoked during the process of design. Heuristics are reasoning processes that do not guarantee the best solution, but often lead to potential solutions by providing a simple cognitive "shortcut." We propose that designers use specific design heuristics to explore the problem space of potential designs, leading to the generation of creative solutions. We test whether design heuristics can be taught to novices, and suggest their use will facilitate the design process at multiple levels of instruction. In the present empirical study, we evaluate a set of six instructional heuristics and validate their effectiveness with product concepts generated by novice designers. Six hundred seventy-three drawings were created by 120 first-year college students under four instructional conditions. Drawings were coded according to their content, use of heuristics, creativity, and practicality. The most creative concepts emerged from the experimental conditions where heuristics were introduced. Heuristics appeared to help the participants "jump" to a new problem space, resulting in more varied designs, and a greater frequency of designs judged as more creative. Our findings suggest that simple demonstration of design heuristics may, at times, be sufficient to stimulate divergent thinking, perhaps because these heuristics are readily grasped and contextual application is not required. Based on these findings, a conceptual model for design education emphasizing the importance of using a variety of heuristics is proposed. This model suggests that learning can be enhanced through exposure to a variety of design heuristics, and can supplement formal education and foster personal development in design learning.
Assessing Design Heuristics for Idea Generation in an Introductory Engineering Course
International …, 2012
Design Heuristics are prompts that encourage design space exploration during concept generation. Design Heuristics were developed by analyzing trends in innovative products and patterns in ideation by engineering and industrial designers of varying experience levels. In this study, 48 freshmen engineering students were given a short design task and a set of twelve Design Heuristics Cards. Each card described a heuristic, and gave two examples of its application in a product. Students were asked to create new design concepts using the heuristics. The results showed that the concepts created without Design Heuristics were less developed, and were often replications of known ideas or minor changes to existing products. However, concepts created using Design Heuristics resulted in more developed, creative designs. Students often applied the same heuristic in multiple ways, supporting our premise that the heuristics lead to exploring multiple solutions. The results also showed that some students readily applied the heuristics, while others struggled to understand how to apply them. . Her research focuses on the investigation and application of complex professional skills, specifically design ideation, innovation practices, and creative processes within engineering, outside of engineering, and cross disciplinarily. Her research includes an emphasis on the translation of research to practice in the form of pedagogy, curriculum development, and faculty support and programming in implementing evidence-based best practices in teaching and learning.
Proceedings of the ASME 2015 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences
We report four cases from a larger study, focusing on participants’ self-identified “most creative” concept in relation to their other concepts. As part of an ideation session, first-year engineering students were asked to create concepts for one of two engineering design problems in an 85-minute period, and were exposed to one of two different forms of fixation. Participants worked as individuals, first using traditional brainstorming techniques and generating as many ideas as possible. Design Heuristics cards were then introduced, and students were asked to generate as many additional concepts as possible. After the activity, participants ranked all of the concepts they generated from most to least creative. Representative cases include a detailed analysis of the concept that each participant rated as “most creative,” idea generation method used, and relative location and relationship of the concept to other concepts generated by that participant. Across four cases, we identified a number of characteristic “misrules” or misconceptions, revealing that first-year students judge creativity in their concepts in ways that could inhibit their ability to produce truly novel concepts. We present Design Heuristics as a tool to encourage the exploration of creative concept pathways, empowering students to create more novel concepts by rejecting misrules about creativity.
Assessing design heuristics in idea generation within an introductory engineering design course
International Journal of Engineering Education (IJEE), 2012
Design Heuristics are prompts that encourage design space exploration during concept generation. Design Heuristics were developed by analyzing trends in innovative products and patterns in ideation by engineering and industrial designers of varying experience levels. In this study, 48 freshmen engineering students were given a short design task and a set of twelve Design Heuristics Cards. Each card described a heuristic, and gave two examples of its application in a product. Students were asked to create new design concepts using the heuristics. The results showed that the concepts created without Design Heuristics were less developed, and were often replications of known ideas or minor changes to existing products. However, concepts created using Design Heuristics resulted in more developed, creative designs. Students often applied the same heuristic in multiple ways, supporting our premise that the heuristics lead to exploring multiple solutions. The results also showed that some students readily applied the heuristics, while others struggled to understand how to apply them. . Her research focuses on the investigation and application of complex professional skills, specifically design ideation, innovation practices, and creative processes within engineering, outside of engineering, and cross disciplinarily. Her research includes an emphasis on the translation of research to practice in the form of pedagogy, curriculum development, and faculty support and programming in implementing evidence-based best practices in teaching and learning.
Usage of Heuristic Methods in Teaching Students in Higher Educational
This article argues various theoretical approaches in determining the significance of the concept of "creative activity of students", the necessity of applying heuristic methods and tasks to form the creative ability of university students is substantiated. A heuristic task is explained as a task that involves student teachers in a motivated activity to create and study an educational product and is aimed at improving the creative competence of an individual. The conclusion is presented that heuristic teaching methods make it possible to overcome the monologue of the pedagogical process and contribute to the disclosure of the student's personal, creative potential, which manifests itself in creative, cognitive, activity, personality characteristics.
Usage of Heuristic Methods in Teaching Students in Higher Educational Institutions
This article argues various theoretical approaches in determining the significance of the concept of "creative activity of students", the necessity of applying heuristic methods and tasks to form the creative ability of university students is substantiated. A heuristic task is explained as a task that involves student teachers in a motivated activity to create and study an educational product and is aimed at improving the creative competence of an individual. The conclusion is presented that heuristic teaching methods make it possible to overcome the monologue of the pedagogical process and contribute to the disclosure of the student's personal, creative potential, which manifests itself in creative, cognitive, activity, personality characteristics.
CREATIVITY AND PROBLEM SOLVING: an experiment with Design students
Anais do 11º Congresso Brasileiro de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento em Design, 2014
Functional fixedness (FF) is a concept from Gestalt Theory that describes how subjects tend to be fixated on previously known patterns. FF hinders creativity and diminishes problem solving abilities. Therefore, the nature of design requires that its practitioners exhibit less FF than the general population. In this article, we describe the results of an experiment that intended to verify whether formal Design education lessens the effects of FF on problem-solving. To this end, 75 students from the 1 st (n=40) and 3 rd (n=35) semesters of a Graduate Design Course were asked to solve the 2 variations of Duncker's Box Problem (1945). Two other variations were added, regarding the influence of dealing with real materials or visual representations (drawings). The study compared the strength of FF in freshmen with 3 rd semester students in 4 situations: Duncker's (a) inside and (b) outside the box and (c) concrete objects and (d) 2D visual representations. Results suggest variations in the strength of FF on problem-solving when using concrete materials in comparison to with visual representations (drawings). No significant difference in the results obtained by the two populations was found, apart that the 3 rd semester students were more likely to present the solutions they proposed in ways that can be interpreted as attempts to overcome FF.
Innovative Project Thinking of Designers as a Pedagogical Issue
Universal Journal of Educational Research, 2020
The leading trend in the 21st century is an innovative approach in science, education, and culture, manifested in various spheres of human activity-especially those related to the creative transformation and improvement of the world. Thus, the study of the development and functioning of heuristic thinking of designers, associated with innovative ideas and concepts of material culture, is becoming increasingly relevant. The emergence of such professions as creative state moderator or mental fitness coach has been predicted. The purpose of the study is to identify pedagogical technologies aimed at the formation of innovative thinking necessary for a designer's project activity. Designers should be trained based on innovative projects, brainstorming methods, problem-based tasks, and cases, ensuring that students master the system of values, meanings, and models of innovative creative activity. Only then will design projects launch the process of deliberate change that introduces qualitative changes into the environment. Innovative project thinking is a universal competence of designers, necessary for successful professional activities in the modern world in its various forms and types. Therefore, its formation is one of the most important pedagogical problems of today. A new aspect of the study is the methodological recommendations on the training of designers in innovative thinking, which includes three stages of this process: creating an object, assessing the degree of novelty, and mastering in real life. As practice has shown, students form innovative thinking in the classroom if they comprehend innovative projects from the concept to the specific implementation and assessment of the result.