Fostering creativity in the engineering lab: An essay on learning objectives and learning activities

Creativity involves coming up with something novel, something different. Up-to-date laboratory learning approaches in combination with inventive ICT can offer an immense variety of novel opportunities for experimentation and learning in the modes of creative inquiry. Fostering and encouraging creative laboratory learning in engineering education may not only animate what is learned but also includes the chance to tighten students´ understanding and creative self-efficacy. The presented conceptual framework proposes a learning space based on portable devices in combination with an e-portfolio system. The aligned teaching and learning approaches aim at facilitating and fostering creative laboratory learning in engineering education. To this end, this article features six different scaffolding tasks to design learning objectives and activities for fostering creativity in the lab. It illustrates how the proposed personal learning environments might enhance or substitute formal classroom activities and laboratory work in order to achieve sophisticated learning objectives.