Development of the scale for “convergence thinking” in engineering

Abstract

Purpose This study defines the concept of ‘convergence thinking’ as a trading zone for knowledge fusion in the engineering field, and develops its measuring scale. Design/methodology/approach - Based on results from literature review, this study clarifies a theoretical ground for ‘convergence thinking’. Initial items to measure this concept were verified by content analysis and then finalized. After a pilot test done with 448 college students, gathered data were analysed by item selection and exploratory factor analysis to verify their validity. Next, the main test implemented with 568 college students was analysed with confirmatory factor analysis, for validating the final items to measure ‘convergence thinking’. Findings As a result, the scale for ‘convergence thinking’ consists of 52 items to measure the following five factors: synthetic thinking, objective utilization of information, logical thinking, intuitive thinking and subjective thinking. Construct validity and criterion-related validity were performed at last to check this scale’s theoretical construct. Research limitations/implications Previous studies have performed limited research methods such as literature reviews and case studies in order to introduce a theoretical paradigm for convergence, convergence education and knowledge fusion. However, this study provides scientific results based on quantitative methodology on convergence motive and convergence thinking. Practical implications This study collects data from sophomore through senior students in college for its research purpose. It is because we believe that college education has achieved a certain level of convergence capabilities by teaching a series of convergence related subjects. However, this study did not show difference by grades, so it should be careful to standardize research results without differentiating the grade. Thus, future study should reveal the difference of convergence thinking by grades. Originality/value In conclusion, the ‘convergence thinking’ scale developed in this study can be standardized and stable enough to apply to other cases.