ENGINEERING EDUCATION

versus

CREATIVITY

Rolf A~ It'aste May 22: 19'70

One can hardly get through the day without hearing about

the occurence of some new contlict or catastrophy. Probably

most frightening to adults is an awareness of a schism devel­

oping between themselves and their offspl"ing. No doubt Chicago

1968 1~111 be used by future historians as the location and date

of t he surfacing of this polarityo It was there under the

watchful gaze of live television at the Democratic National

Convention that the nation was able to watch either in glee as

the police officers dutifully protected the law, order end

property of Chicago (the cornerstones of American democracy)

or in horror as the fascist pigs smashed the innocent and peace­

loving youth of our nation who were seeking only freedom of

speech and participation in the democratic process {the found­

ation of the United States), depending on one 0 s point of view~

No matter what one's point of view the immediate question was

w7·.y? How did this come to pass?

The events in Chicago and since ar~ the direct result of

the rapid pace of modern civilization.. Change is talked abo1.1t

so much it has become a cliche, yet few people hesitate long

enough to consider ~hat it meanso fr~ a day to day basis chru1ge

is a subtle event. The fact that a quarter of the number of

humans who have ever lived a~e alive today1, and that this

1 Kenneth Eo Boulding 1 The Meaning of the 20th Century 1 (New York» 1964), p.8

number is increasing at an eA;ponential rate, does not mru~e one

day look much dtfferent from the day before or the week before ..

Kenneth Boulding, in The Me~ing of the 20th Century, tells us

t hat the half life of history (in a growing sensa rather than a

decEty:ing sense) is well within our memoryo For example, when

he ~?ote his book in 1964, the mid-point of our kl1owledge of

chemistry, as measured by the amount of scientific papers

published in technical journalsp was 195020 Every field of

scientific inquiry h~s shown similar growtho Indeed the mid­

point of the number of scientific disciplines probably lies

wlthin the past twenty years as well--fully 90% of all the

scientists who have ever lived are also alive to~o

The young people of today are to a large part a product

of these technologieal ehangea fo~ most of them occurred during

their lifetimeso Sputnik went up within thai~ childhood memory

and ten short years later in their early adulthood the Ee.gle

l anded on the moono Live visual communication with the rest of

the world~ thanks to communication satellites, has become easier

than walking to schoolo Through these modern techn:J.ques the

youth of today have been able to compare what they see live on

t elevision m th what ·chay :read in their school books and with

what they hear from parents and teacherso They have been able

t o watch, for example~ the whole civil rights movement proceed

2 Ibido, po7

3 Ibid., p.8

at a painfully slow pace~ At the same time in their history

classes they learn about such things as Lincoln freeing the

slaves and Custar being killed at the Little Bighorno The

disparity between what is tought and what is seen is obvious,

and when required to pledge allegiance to the flag many balk

at the words "•oowith liberty and jtlstice for all". What was

true for their parents is no longer true for themo The future

is thrown completely open to doubto Warrin Go Bennis puts it

t his way:

"Parents cannot define the parameters of the future for their children--cannot even establish the terms of possible change or a range of alternative outcomes. They are therefore useless and obsolete in a way that rarely befell parents of any previous centuryo n4

Another source states that 60% of the children born today will

grow up to take a job which did not even exist todayo

It does ~ot require great mental effort to realize the

need for a different sort of education: one capable of helping

these young people to cope With unpredictable change and later

to be able to raise their own children during even more aston­

ishing changeso Traits in need of development are an openness

to new axperienc~, long-range thinking, acceptance of change

and the challenge of making order out of ohaos, a tolerance

for ambiguity and an ability to combine information in new ways

to solve problems. In ahortg what are required are precisely

those traits which are used tp describe creative people.

4 Warrin G. Bennis, "The Temporary Society", J ournal of Cr ea tive Behavior, Fall 1969, pD224

A creative frame of mind is necessary for more than just

coping ur.i..th changes the future will bring.. The rapid changes

of the last fifty years have been a result of solutions to

problems of communication, mass production and transportation ..

These solutions have in turn generated more fundqmental problemso

The young of today have inherited the problems of overpopul­

ation, poverty, starvation, and poor housing; declining mental

and physical health; pollution and environmental destruction;

material greed and war. Imaginative solutions are required, not

merely technological fixes but rather a whole new way of looking

at life unfettered by traditional points of view.. A reversal

from quantity to quality as a devlce for measuring progress must

be made.. As an example of this as applied to the population

problem, this would mean a shift in emphasis from the number

of individuals to the uniqueness of each individual.. Applied

to eeonomie progress this would mean considering the quality

of individual products more important than the size of the Gross

National Producta

Since "engineering is the art of exploiting and applying

the fruits of science and technology for the benefit of mankind";

the need for creative engineers is even more pressingo Enginee~s

will have to become morally engaged as well as mentally active,

which in turn means asking fundamental questions rather than

relying on blind faith in the scientific methodo The need to

5 Education,

eduGate creative engineers :i.s also important for reasons uot

so J:eadily apparent. For one:~ there is an overabundance of

information available for the solution of man's problems. This

information lies in many fieldso It is increasingly impossible

for an engineer to learn in a formal education all he must

know to solve the problems he Will come across. T.he engineer

graduates today With relief that now he is finished with school

and does not have to learn anything more. He must realize the

need for self education on a continuing basis after the univers­

ityt and he must have the skills and motivation to be able to

do it. The interdependence of all knowledge must be appreciated,

and he must be able to apply the sum total of his experiences

to problem solving.

Another impetus to developing creative abilities is the

advent of the mechanical brain. Traditionally men have concent­

rated on that trpe of thought increasingly being taken over by

computers. Computers a1·e much more efficient at storing and

retrieving information than man, in addition, they perform

logical or algorithmic thinking with far greater speed and

efficiencyo These features should be taken advantage of to

Pree increasing numbers or engineers for more creative thinking~

Computers are not yet able and may never be able to take

over the generation of new ideaso The difference between these

t'lVo functions (generating ideas versus manipulating data) 'is

central to defining creativityo The logical or mathematical

development of systems of thought are what Dro deBono calls

vertical thinking6 ~ In the past the generation of new ideas or

fom1dations for vertical thi11king to build upon has been left

to the chance occurrence of a thinker of a different sort; the

lateral thinker. The lateral th~er looks at the world from

a totally different vie\vpoint; he rearranges information in

different ways and comes up with original conceptso The world

is at the position today requiring men doing more of this

second type of thinking.

What exactly is the oifferenee between vertical and

lateral thjnkjng? Vertical thinking is the sequential linking

of logical events. The conclusion is justified by what has

proceeded. According to logical rules the validity of these

conclusions can be verified. If these rules are violated the

answer is w-~ong. Lateral of divergent thinking of the other

hand jumps around follow-J.ng no rules, and develops many altar­

nate solutions. The conclusion is not justified by the steps

which have proceeded, but rather may well be justifiable in

retrospect. An analogy which bas been used to illustrate this

difference is the problem of climbing a mountain7o Vertical

thinking starts at the bottom, finds the most obvious starting

place and tediously works its ffilY up.. Lateral thinking flys

right to the top and looks around for the best wa:y upo

Another analogy is that of a suspension bridge which cannot

6 Dr. Edwal.'"d deBono s "Information Processing end New Ideas-­Lateral and Vertical Thinking", Jou,rnal of Creative Behaviox~, Summer 1969, p.160

7 Iill· t p.163

support itself until it is complete8. The use of analogies or

metaphors such as these is itself one form of lateral thought.

The connection between a suspension bridge and a style of think­

ing cannot be arrived at by a logical process, but once the

connection is make the human mind can perceive its validityo

Analogies of this sort are results of random associations made

in the brain where all past expe~iences are available for useo

Bill Gordon~s technique for developing lateral thinking,

Synectics, uses the idea of analogies as a deviceo

Schools presently concentrate on developing vertical

thinking because until recently it was felt that creativity

could not be toughto Unfortunately the exclusive concentration

on vertical thinking which still exists in schools does not

pl'Omote or reward those attitudes required for lateral thinkingo

In fact the opposite is true: the environment which nurtures

vertical thinking discourages creativityo A study made by

Torrance in 1965 found that in the United States and several

other countries there was a strong disapproval of question

as~~ng, preoccupation with tasks, having the courage of one's

convictions, independence in judgment and thinking, willingness

to take risks and unwillingness to accept authority's dictao

On the other hand, students (and members ot society) are

rewa?ded for being courteous, doing one's work on time, being

obedient and popular or well liked by one's peers and being

8 Ibid., p.164

willing to accept the judgments of authorities9o In such an

environment creativity is either squashed or carried by a

person bearing the wounds of his struggleo

An overwhelming curiosity is one of the hallmarks or the

creative person, and this is usually evidenced by the asking

of questions. Psychologists have documented a phenomena

known as the fourth grade slump. By the time a child has

reached his 9th or 10th year he has learned to be able to ask

better questions than the teacher can anawer10• Teachers,

rather than admitting they do not know the answer to the quest­

ion, or bothering neither to attempt to find the answer, nor

to encourage the child to find the answer himself, begin a

systematic program for discouraging the aslclng of questionso

The effectiveness of this campaign is evidenced ~hen, as adults,

the floor is thrown open to questions after a fascinating

speader, and ther are noneo Oh how long and painful the

silence! Dr o Buchman calls this pause the "moment of truth"

and states that in some graduate courses this moment lasts

several weeks11 ~ The device which has been used to quell these

questions is ridicule and social preas~eo Even if some one

does have a question he is afraid to ask it for fear of appearing

9 E. Paul Torrance, Rewarding Creative Behayior, 1965, in T~ Christie, "Environmental Factors in CreatiVity", Jogrnal of Creative Behavigr, Winter 19?0, p.28

1 OFrank Barron, 11The Psychology of Creativity", New Directions in Psycholo~II, (New York, 1966), po99

11~aivin W: ~or, "Questioning and Creating: A Model for Curriculum Reform", Journal of Creative Behavior, Winter 1967, po2l{.

8.

stupid, silly or socially uncouth. This fear of being wrong

stems from the fact that in vertical thinking to be shown wrong

is to be totally des·troyed.. If you are wrong you have nothingo

The results of your endeavor are zero. Winston Churchill once

said that the imaginative idea when originally stated usually

sounds foreign and rediculous when first stated, it is therefore

immediately suspected of being wrongo The fear of being wrong

or ridiculed is so great that in group meeting it is noted that

the really valuable ideas are almost always predeeded by "this

may sound dumbt but.oo"

So at an early age ehildren are taught not to ask questions,

but rather to conform, stand in neat rows with their desks

perfectly in line 1 or as one English professor puts it, set

their margins at 15 and 75, and in general avoid any spark of

individuality which may make them stand outo In college the

same trend is followedo In engineering courses science is

taught as if the basics were all known and beyond dispute-.,;

that all that is being done now merely consists of mopping upo

No mention is made of the shadow cast upon all of physics by

new discoveries in astronomy, or of quests for a uniform field

theory, etco It a student should ask a question to which there

is no answer he is not informed of that fact but rather is

told to wait for an advanced course in graduate schoolo The

instructor is often simply afraid of "losing face" if he admits

he does not know the answer. When at last the fringes of

knowledge are reached the student is infr'omed that it would be

a good place to researcho Most ¥asters and Doctoral Programs

are thus research orientedo The reason for this is largely

because the 'pure' sciences are thought to be superior to the

'applied 0 scienceso Math is held in higher esteem than physics,

which is more noble a persuit than electrical engineering,

which certainly cannot be compared to civil engineeringo

Subjects lower on the academic hlerarchy try and emulate those

above o In the ease of engineering this is unfortunate because

engineering is basically differento As Professor Cullwick

states, "The engineer's true role is that of creator, whereas

the role of the physicist is properly that of the investagatoro

The present tendency to confuse these roles is dangerous, for

its inevitable result is a weakness in engineering and a diver­

sion of sci.ence from i.ts true purpose"12o This is doubly tmfort­

unate because our whole society is influenced by the values

tought in our educational systemo John Gardner of the Urban

Coalition summed up the problem this way, "The society which

scorns excellence in plumbing, because plumbing is a humble

activity, and tolerates shoddiness in philosophyp because it

is an exalted activity, will have neither good plumbing nor

good philosophy. Neither its pipes nor its theories will

hold water.n13

12 E. G. Cullwick quoted by Peter A. Quartermain and J. Watson, "English, E11ginaering and Creativity", Joyrnal of Creati ve Behavior , Fall 1967, p.356

13 John Gardner, Excelle~, quoted in "Inefficiency in America"» lime Hagazin~: Mar. 23, 1970 . p .. 80

tOo

A whole new orientation in education is required, especially

engineering education., This change should not affect the

subject matter so much as the eonte;.:t in which it is taught.,

Means for acquiring information needed to achieve a goal wlll

have to be included with the subject mattero The idea of being

goal oriented is crucial. Much o£ what is taught now is

thought of as skills, but without a goal orientation skills

become information insteado That is, they become the end

rather than the means to an endp As such they are useless.,

Without a reason for learning something which is more fundamental

than getting a good grade in a class most learning is wasted"

Not only should goals be set bvt they should be seemingly

unattainable., }~satoshi Yoshimura, president of Sanyo Chemical

Industries in Tokyo says,

"How can we attain a greater realization of our talent and creative capacity? One way is for each indiVidual to set high goals and aspirations and to strive constantly and enthusiastic­ally toward them. Naturally, the higher one's goals and ideals, the greater the difficulties encountered. Sometimes a man faces a difficulty that he cannot overcome because of emotional­intellectual inadequacies. Nevertheless, his urge to forge ahead and his resultant untiring efforts to transcend failure are the keys to a continuing development, to an expansion of his powers. His creativity springs out endlessly like a fountain and v~ies him upward into the province of super­rationality .. " 4

In 1960 it seemed incredible to consider being on the moon

by 1970. Without that seemingly impessible goal it would not

have been realized (you cannot reach a goal you do not set)o

14 Masatoshi Yoshimurap "A Japanese Industrialist's Outlook on the Genuine Source of Wisdom"» Journal of Creative Behavior, Winter 1970P P• 49

11.

This goal opened up a whole ne\'1 spectrum of possibilitieso

The concept of rendezvousing in space was a lateral idea of

the first order necessitated by the very impossibility of

the goal: a booster powerful enough to accomplish the task

by brute force simply would not be available in timeo In retro­

spect the plan for different machines to perform different

tasks seems logical, however at the time this plan was originally

proposed Von Braun dismissed it as unworkableo It is interest­

ing to note that the Russians, who had the booster knowledge,

still are not on the moono Vertical thinking fixed them on

an adequate solution rather than allowing them to find a

better solution by considering alternativeso

Calvin Wo Taylor suggests that one of the reasons education

does not receive more moral and tangible support from our

society is that our graduates find that many abilities they

need tor occupational success were not developed by their

academic training. He sites creativity, foresight and planning,

decision making abilities, communication skills, and executive

and human relation abilities as examples15o What is needed are

skills of discovery, acquisition and organization of knowledge

rather than just its applicationo

\Vhat specifically are the attitudes which should be encour~

aged and nurtured?

As has been mentioned, curiosity is the starting POint

15 Taylor, po23

fJ:·om which significant learning takes place. The mind absorbs

information faster and in a more useable form while striving

to ~nswer questions posed by a genuine curiosity rather than

by an externally imposed authority.

Wben curiosity is welcome a second attribute will appear:

motivation. When a student r.as a personal goal he will be

self motivated--his reason for working will come from withino

Outside stimulation will be superfluous~ Until a private motiv­

ation appears engineers, for example, will continue to punch

time clocks and lament over their nonprofessional statuso

Confusion is a fact of everyday life which requires

acceptance. As Albert North Whitehead once commented, you

cannot wait to learn about life before starting to live it~

When a person is involved in making order out of chaos he will

often be over his head, a condition which must be tolerated,

and perhaps even enjoyed.

Similarly failures must be seen as an essential part of

the learning process. One can never lose a fear of making

mistakes but fear can be minimized, especially fear of incon­

sequential ridicule by members o£ societyo

The uniqueness of one's own individuality must be under­

stoodo Every person is a storehouse of unique experiences

which no one else can duplicateo It is from these experiences

that significant solutions are to be had. Conformity denies

the validity of one's own eXistence and does not permit the -self expression so vitally needed to be tru ly alive • ...

If these individual experiences are to be available when

facing new problems, their informational content must not be

cubbyholed. Whitehead calls information tied fiXedly to one

subject inert information16o Artists refer to an innocence of

vision, a way of looking at the world without tagging objects

with names. This is also what Guilford is talking about when

he mentions the need for transfer recall rather than replicative

recall as is taught in school. He asks, "How does one get at

one 0s stored information and use it in new connections and in

novel ways?"17

If transfer recall is practice ideas will come easier and

in greater quantities. As Hill said, the person capable of

producing large numbers of ideas per unit time has a greater

chance to produce a truly significant one18 o • The ability to

do tb:ls is referred to by psychologists as fluency, and is one

of the key devices used by them to measure creativity.

Rand in hand with the concept of fluency is fleXibility,

that is, the ability to come up with fundamentally different

kinds or ideas on any given subjacto When information is not

cubbyholed one's fle%ib1lity becomes greater and interdiscip­

linary solutions are encouraged. An appreciation of this

16 Alfred North Whitehead, The Ai[s of fiiJucation, quoted by Alex F. Osborn, Appliedlmasina(ion,ew 'fork, 1953), po 89

17 J. P. Gui.lf'ord, "Creativity: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow't, Joyz:nal of' Creative Behavior, Winter 1967, p. 11

18 Percy H .. Hill, The Science of Engineering Design, (New York, 19?0}, Po 2o3

14o

fact invites an openness to new experiences and eventso

Random stimulation becomes enjoyable and useful as a source

of usable data. Lateral thinking requires intrusions of this

sort whereas the irrelevant is dismissed in vertical thinking~

A final attitude needed to be creative is a good sense of

humor. As has been stated novel ideas sound strange when first

suggGsted. Realization of this fact encourages playing with

ideas and permits an atmosphere of relaxed spontaneityo It

is from such an attitude that significant ideas will spring forth~

These then are the attitudes which should be encouraged

both at home and in the schools and colleges. There should be

no need to have to teach these attitudes in a special course,

but rather they should develop naturally from the curriculumo

Present courses do not in fact encourage individualism but

rather are exceedingly authoritarian at all levels. For this

reason a course taught to encourage creativity may instead

discourage it by exposing students to the disallusioning

negative environment which now exists.

There are four types of conformity: true conformity where

one's action and opinion change to that of the group, expedient

conformity where one's action may go along with the group but

one's thoughts do not change, non conformity in which one's

thoughts are strong enough not to allow going along vuth the

groups action, and counter conformity where one's actions oppose

the group no matter what one's personal thoughtso Trying to

teach an attitude of individuality (true ~'n conformity) could

well be construed as encouragement for counter conformity , and

produce unthinking reflexive rebels rather than productive

individualso

It is with some hesitation therefore that I suggest the

need for teaching a course to release the creative energies of v

studentso However, the system willnot change overnight, and

something must be doneo At the present time I see no other way

to accomplish this task, and a start must be made somewhere to

produce the goal oriented leaders the future will requireo

There are numerous courses taught in industry to encourage

creativity. Most of these stress techniques such as brain­

storming, attribute listing, checklists, morphological matri­

cies and synectics!9 Such devices are aimed at finding creative

solutions, rather than attempting tomodify basic attitudeso

Techniques are veryuseful for achieving answers to specific

problems but tend to become formalized and gimmicky with timeo

Bill Gordon, previously mentioned originator of Synectics ,

himself stated that a person having a creative outlook on life

will naturally usa the mechanisms described in these techniques ~

ru1d will use them in all problems be runs across~ not just

those for which special sessions are scheduled at work~0

Vfuat is necessary then, is a course whose central hypo­

thesis is that creative attitudes can be taught, or perhaps

more correctly, revitalizedu nlis would be accomplished by

19 Mo 0. Edwards, "A Survey of Problem-Solving Cout'sea", Journal of Creative Behavj.or, Wj_nter 1968, pp .. 36-43

20 William J. J. Gordon, Interview, Fall 1969

16.

~exposing students to problems which lend themselves to

solution by creative approaches and by providing an encouraging

and protective environment in which to tryo Most of these

problems would be assigned in project form and of these many

would have an overnight nature. Projects would also benefit

from combining information from several sources and crossing

interdisciplinary boundaries while not favoring any one field~

The first stages of the design process would be stressed rather

than the later steps, i.e., speculation, ideation and concept­

uali~ation rather than analysis and solution execution. The

reason for this is not so much to minimize the need for

execution but rather to place the emphasis on idea generation

instead of on idea verification (which is what most courses

stress). Of course ideas 1nust be communicated in some fashion,

and a physical output will often be required to accomplish this.

One problem might be to rough out a list of preliminary

design considerations and possibilities for the construction of

a two mile high tower. A second might be to propose an econ­

omic system which would allow individual enterprise but would

also protect the welfare of the general populace. A "mind

loosening" overnight project might be to construct an object

which makes a noise opposite to what one would expect.

If many of these projects appear to be aesthetic in spirit

it would be no surprise. 80% of the information our brain

receives is visual in natureo How one receives this input is

central to how one can later put it to use. Innocence of vision

depends in a large part on a curiosity generated by a sense of

awe about the beauty and interrelatedness of nature~ Such

feelings are largely aesthetic. When a physics professor tells

a freshman class that Neuton's Law is beautiful, the average

student may well suspect him of being dafto But an idea c~,

be beautiful~ What this professor feels is a sense of the

interrelatedness of nature as expressed by the equation F=ma.

Gordon uses the term elegance to evaluate such situations.

Elegance is the ratio of complexity of the problem to the

simplicity of solution~1 A feeling for beauty and elegance is

vital for truly successful solutions and designs.

This viewpoint is further substantiated by the work of

Barron and Welch. These two psychologists spent many years

developing and testing their Barron-Welch Art Scale, one of

many tests available for determining personality traits.

They found the following personality correlates of this scale:

1. Artistic preference is related positively to rapid personal tempop verbal fluency, inpulsiveness, and expansiveness.

2. It is related negatively to rigidity, control of impulse by repression 9 social conformity, ethnocentrism, and political­economic conservatism.

3. It is related positively to independence of judgment, originality, and breadth of interest.22

Perhaps one more quotation on this subject would be

valuable. In his book Imagination Harold Rugg states "Per­

ception is more than imprinting, it is a creative process in

21 William J. J. Gordon, Synectics 9 (New Yorkp 1961)p po 12

22 Barron , ppo22-23

which the perceiver creates the field from which his percepts,

signs, and symbols eme:rgeou23

How exactly can these attitudes be fostered? Teachers

should provide a psychological environment which does the

following:

Promotes over-learning and therefore self discipline

Allows self evaluation

Encourages new associations and outside activities

Defers judgement of ideas

Stresses intellectual flexibility

Helps cope with frustration and failures

Avoids labeling information

Does not concern itself with artifical stimulations (grades) but seeks to generate self motivation instead

Has an open and loose organization

Sets reasonable deadlines

Capitalizes on the unexpected

Provides random stimuli

Promotes cross disciplinary fertilization

Reinforces a sense of humor

Does not shield the student from negative experiences

Encourages playing with ideas

Provides opportunities to manipulate materials freely

Considers problems as a whole

23 Harold Rugg, I.maginatiOJh quoted in "A Critical Analysis of Harold Rugg's Views on Cl"eativity and Knowledge"l) Jo·v.rnal o,.L Creative Behaviorz Spring 1969 1 po 123

19 ~

Encourages sensitivity

Discourages masculine-feminine stereotypes

Allows task or goal orientation

Describes the problems of having a creative outlook in todays society and outlines defensive measures

Inform the students of the mechanisms and techniques used in industry to arrive at specific problem solutionso

There is no easy way to implement such an environmento This

atmosphere can only be generated by a teacher who understands

the need for these attitudes and believes in them himselfo No

standardized course Will substitute for a teacher who is not

sympathetic with these basic ideaso

It is symptomatic of the present educational system's

problems that course evaluation is required more for its own

sake than for the sake of the student or teacher himself~

There are really only two valid reasons for evaluation: the

first is to inform the student whether or not his understanding

of the course material is correct (and if not to indicate to

the instructor where the student requires help), and the second

is to inform the instructor how effective,his teaching has beano

In a course transfering attitudes rather than information,

that is where there is no right or wrong, the first evaluation

is best left in the hands of the studento In fact, the ~eal­

ization that it is what the student thinks that matters rather

than what the teacher thinks is central to the attitude which

is trying to be communicated. The student will either under­

stand or he will not. If, in fact 9 the student must ask for

a grade at the end he is in effect indicating his failureo

It is no accident that this sounds like Zen trainingo It is

the same eonscio11sness which ts the desired result in Eastern

Religions.

Donald MacKinnon made a pertinant discovery while selecting

40 creative American Architects to be tested by the living in

assesment technique. 11 editors were asked to rank the

in-v.Lted architects from the most to least creativeo These

rankings correlated .88 with the ratings done by tbe architects

themselves. Barron states "It (this result) leaves little

doubt that the criterion of creativity is a highly accurate

oneon24 It also indicates that people are able to evaluate

themselves accurately if they desire to do so.

Industry can and does point to higher production, increased

patent applications and money saved as means for evaluating the

overall effectiveness of their creatiVity courseso Unfortun­

ately this is not possible in the university. There, feedback

may be obtained in two ways; directly from the students in

questionaires or from before and after testing. A few of the

tests available for these purposes are the Barron-Welch Figure

Preference Tests, Barron Complexity Seale, the Guilford Tests,

Mednick's Remote Associates Test (RAT), and the A.C. Test of

Creative Ability. Both techniques for aquiring feedback are

recomended; questionaires to encourage the teacher in his

efforts and perhaps to pick up some suggestions for improvement,

24 Barron, p. 51

and testa to provide a numerical basis for comparison over

several course sessions.

Where courses have been set up which created the learning

atmosphere described in this paper the results have been

spectaculara One such course in Butte, Montana for 4th through

6th grade slow learners (frequent truants, troublemakers and

discipline problems) reported increased social, emotional

and verbal development, high attendances eagerness to do

extra work and a healthy attitude towards athority figures

(helpers rather than wardens) 25, Such efforts have occured

mostly in the lower levels of public schools where other

approaches have tailed. The reasons for this are threefold.

first is the groWing realization that there is no fundamental

correlation between intelligence and creativity. Second,

teachers at the primary levels often are equally concerned wlth

the educational process itself as well as the subject matter

they teach. Third, the public schools are responsible for

children whether the children want to be there or nota These

cot~ses all made the assumption that avery child is creative

whether his mental make up is fast or slowo They then sough':

to generate a supportive environment which encouraged studen·;s

without traditional methods of enforcement.

If these approaches have favorable results with such

groups as non-readers and potential deliquents? one can on~r

25 Tim sullivan,nneveloping Problem-Solving Ability in Slow Learning Elementary Students", Journal of Creative Behavior , Fall 1969, p.288

22 ,

imagine the results possible when college students are also

treated like responsible individuals o The rewards should be

especially gratifYing with engineering students whose very

purpose is to be creativeo It is this authors Viewpoint that

instilling an attitude of curiosity and a self-motivated goal

orientation is more important than transmitting knowledgeo The

latter can onlY become obsolete with time, the former approach

regenerates itself and proVides for continual growtho