Teaching and Learning of Divergent & Convergent Thinking Skills using DCT

Abstract

Enriching design and creative thinking skills is unaccountably vital in these times of rapid changes and highly competitive pressure for elevated innovation. Thus training engineering undergraduates in design thinking form a substantial role in their making. Divergent and Convergent thinking skills are one of the most predominant design thinking skills which are needed to tailor novel and innovative solutions to a given problem. In an earlier study steered by Reddy (2016) [1], an intervention was proposed and executed, which amalgamated developing both divergent and convergent thinking during the multiple phases of problem solution in engineering. The above mentioned intervention used open problem solving and the method of scaffolding as a means of integrating these thinking skills in student training. The Intervention was conceptualized and employed in natural settings in order to investigate the ecological validity of the proposed intervention. The first iteration of the Design Based Research (DBR) exhibited significant improvisation in students thinking skills in both divergence and convergence. The present study makes an effort towards realizing the need of a tool to accustom the intervention designed by Reddy. We propose a system which integrates open problem solving and the process of training students’ develop their divergent and convergent thinking skills. The various features of the tool are upheld in a way that can effectively result in high performance of the desired thinking skills. Through this study we explore the second cycle of DBR as an extension of study geared by Reddy, by effectively rendering a technology enhanced learning environment in the form of a Web Based learning Tool (WBLT). The sample comprised of a mixture of MSc/MCA/BE or equivalent students (n=15). The most significant finding was that the Divergence and Convergence Thinking Skills showed noteworthy upsurge when student performance was evaluated and compared against their pre-test. The role of the tool in increasing these design thinking skills is being studied in this paper and the usability reported.