Creative component of engineering thinking: theoretical and experimental study

Engineers play strategic role in the enhancement of economic development of any country. Today it is necessary to keep and develop the specialty of an engineer in Russian tertiary education as competitiveness, independence, security of the state are provided by its people and by the products they design and produce. Some domestic technological developments do compete at the global market. In order for these developments to take place, new approaches and ways in the training of future engineers are needed. Scientists single out the concept of “engineering thinking”. This engineering thinking comprises a set of high-order thinking skills that help modern engineers solve professional problems effectively. One of these high-order thinking skills is creativity. The article gives a brief overview of the literature on the relevance of the development of “engineering thinking” in engineers and, in particular, creativity. The concept of engineering thinking and its structure were presented. The results of the analysis of its components were given. The analysis was carried out using a systematic approach. For an experimental study of creativity the E. Torrence’s creativity test was used. The respondents were 3rd year students of technical specialties of South Ural State University. The results showed that the majority of students had an average level of creativity.