| Abstract: | The creativity of engineering students was assessed through divergent problems relevant to engineering content. These problems were constructed, administered and scored by faculty members from the mechanical (ME), civil (CE), and electrical (EE) engineering departments at a large university. The problems, administered to 60 MEs, 81 CEs, and 173 EEs, were scored on the basis of the number of solutions (fluency), the number of categories of solutions (flexibility), the originality of the solutions (novelty), and the appropriateness of the solutions (appropriateness). Interrater reliabilities indicated that the fluency and flexibility scores were sufficiently reliable; the novelty and appropriateness scores were less so. The adequacy of substituting the fluency score in lieu of the novelty score was discussed. No significant relationships were found between creativity and grade point average (GPA). |
