Teaching methods for systematic inventive problem-solving: Evaluation of a course for teachers

Systematic inventive problem-solving is an approach for finding original and useful ideas by systematically examining alterations in existing components within a system, their attributes, functions or internal relationships. This method, which aims at complementing divergent thinking in problem-solving and design, is gaining increased attention in industrial and academic frameworks. The current study examined how science and technology teachers learn, internalize and use the method within an academic course. Data were collected through pre-course and post-course quizzes and questionnaires, documentation of students’ activities, and interviews. The results showed that individuals can improve their problem-solving abilities by combining methods based on ‘ordered thinking’ and ‘disordered thinking,’ and that none of these approaches has preference over the other. Considerable additional work is required, however, to investigate how the proposed approach could be used to foster creative thinking in science and technology studies at school.