Creativity in STEM education: Exploring Teachers’ Perceptions of Creativity Outcomes in an Engineering Design Course

Although research on creativity in engineering has grown recently, few studies have explored creativity development through engineering curricula (Daly et al., 2014). Inspired by the potential of Rube Goldberg machine projects to teach engineering design (Jordan & Pereira, 2009), this study aimed to qualitatively explore teachers’ perceptions of creative behaviors in middle school students. The “Assessing Creativity” guide (Treffinger et al., 2002) was the framework for interview’s deductive analysis. Results indicate that teachers identify personality traits of creative behaviors more often than cognitive traits, and the process of building Rube Goldberg machines using engineering design can nurture students’ creative behaviors.