• Journal of Engineering Education Research
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.68-75
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• 2021

ABEEK recommends convergent engineering projects to nurture creative problem-solving ability for 1st year engineering students through 'Creative Engineering Design' course. However, 1st year engineering students, who have not yet studied core subjects in engineering, have difficulties understanding and coping with the challenges posed by the engineering-related projects. For this reason, the educational objectives of this course are usually frustrating to achieve by the instructor. In this paper, by using the problem-solving process and skills of critico(-creative) thinking, we prepare guidelines for creative engineering design education that allow 1st-year students to effectively participate in engineering projects without a complete understanding of the design process which is to be studied. Also, we present a case study that applies the guidelines to an on-going creative engineering design course and discusses the outcomes by showing student-generated works. The results showed that the intuitive content and everyday expression of critico(-creative) thinking education enabled the instructor to effectively guide their students through the requirements of engineering projects without relying on advanced engineering design methods, and that the application of these guidelines also helped improve students' communication skills, including presentation. We show that the guidelines for creative engineering design education utilizing the problem-solving process and skills of critico(-creative) thinking is not only contributing to achieving the educational objectives of the creative engineering design course but can also be an educational paradigm that incorporates critico(-creative) thinking education into engineering education.