Teaching for innovation competence in higher education Built Environment engineering classrooms: teachers’ beliefs and perceptions of the learning environment

Abstract

In this study we investigated teachers' beliefs about innovation competence relevance and their creative self-efficacy and compared teachers' and students' perceptions of the learning environment in the Built Environment engineering education domain. In total, 94 teachers participated in this study by completing a questionnaire. Teachers perceived their creative self-efficacy and the learning environment in their classrooms to be supportive of innovation competence. However, only a minority of the teachers considered teaching for innovation competence relevant; most teachers perceived a focus on innovation competence in the curriculum as neutral. Multiple regression analyses showed that teachers' creative self-efficacy beliefs significantly predicted their perception personal relevance. Similarly, perception of focus on innovation competence in the curriculum significantly predicted perceived uncertainty, while creative self-efficacy significantly predicted perceived knowledge-building through teacher-student and studentstudent negotiation. Findings of the study are discussed with respect to developing students' innovation competence in the Built Environment education domain.

Learning to innovate : How to foster innovation competence in students of Built Environment at universities of applied sciences

“…Unfortunately, research reports have shown that in general, teachers do little to foster innovation competence in students or do so in an implicit way (Beghetto & Kaufman, 2013;Ovbiagbonhia et al, 2019;Passig & Cohen, 2014;Root-Bernstein & Root-Bernstein, 2017). Ovbiagbonhia et al (2020) studied whether teachers in the domain of Built Environment engineering education considered teaching innovation competence to be relevant. The researchers found that only 15% of the teachers considered teaching for innovation competence relevant, while the majority had a more neutral or even negative opinion.…”

“…Although education plays a central role in the development of innovation skills, several studies have indicated that institutions of higher education are not yet meeting this demand (Badcock et al, 2010;Kasule et al, 2015;Tynjälä, 1999;Vila et al, 2012;Virtanen & Tynjälä, 2016). These studies have shown that innovation competence is not yet addressed in actual teaching (Beghetto & Kaufman, 2014;Choo, 2018;Edwards-Schacter et al, 2015;Ovbiagbonhia et al, 2019Ovbiagbonhia et al, , 2020 or assessment (Keinänen & Kairisto-Mertanen, 2019;Kivunja, 2014;Marin-Garcia et al, 2016;Passig & Cohen, 2014;Root-Bernstein & Root-Bernstein, 2017). This may be because educators in general do not have sufficient knowledge, experience or access to design principles or instructional strategies to enable them to foster innovation competence in their classrooms (Beghetto & Kaufman, 2014;Ovbiagbonhia et al, 2019Ovbiagbonhia et al, , 2020Passig & Cohen, 2014;Root-Bernstein & Root-Bernstein, 2017).…”

“…These studies have shown that innovation competence is not yet addressed in actual teaching (Beghetto & Kaufman, 2014;Choo, 2018;Edwards-Schacter et al, 2015;Ovbiagbonhia et al, 2019Ovbiagbonhia et al, , 2020 or assessment (Keinänen & Kairisto-Mertanen, 2019;Kivunja, 2014;Marin-Garcia et al, 2016;Passig & Cohen, 2014;Root-Bernstein & Root-Bernstein, 2017). This may be because educators in general do not have sufficient knowledge, experience or access to design principles or instructional strategies to enable them to foster innovation competence in their classrooms (Beghetto & Kaufman, 2014;Ovbiagbonhia et al, 2019Ovbiagbonhia et al, , 2020Passig & Cohen, 2014;Root-Bernstein & Root-Bernstein, 2017). Therefore, there is a need for instructional strategies and design principles to aid teachers in higher education in fostering innovation competence in their classrooms and assessing students' innovation competence (Choo, 2018;Edwards-Schacter et al, 2015;Kivunja, 2014;Ovbiagbonhia et al, 2020).…”

“…This may be because educators in general do not have sufficient knowledge, experience or access to design principles or instructional strategies to enable them to foster innovation competence in their classrooms (Beghetto & Kaufman, 2014;Ovbiagbonhia et al, 2019Ovbiagbonhia et al, , 2020Passig & Cohen, 2014;Root-Bernstein & Root-Bernstein, 2017). Therefore, there is a need for instructional strategies and design principles to aid teachers in higher education in fostering innovation competence in their classrooms and assessing students' innovation competence (Choo, 2018;Edwards-Schacter et al, 2015;Kivunja, 2014;Ovbiagbonhia et al, 2020). To address this problem, we have developed an innovation competence instruction intervention based on six theoretical design principles (see Chapter 4).…”

“…Few studies have investigated innovation competence development in higher education (e.g., Edwards-Schachter et al, 2015;Hu et al, 2016;Kasule et al, 2015;Ovbiagbonhia et al, 2019Ovbiagbonhia et al, , 2020. In those previous studies, the authors concluded that learning environments that support the development of innovation competence were either limited, inadequate or non-existent and that innovation competence is not yet a teaching focus in higher education.…”