Encouraging Creative Problem Solving for Aspiring Software Developers

Software development is a field riddled with complexity, constant change, and above all: technicality. Therefore, much research is devoted to these technical aspects (e.g. cognition), while non-technical skills (e.g. creativity) are given less attention. Our recent work has shown that expert software engineers in industry deem creativity as a crucially important problem solving skill. Yet, we also found that creativity is mentioned in less than 5% of the learning outcomes in computing-related courses across European universities. This denotes a clear gap in skill requirements between education and industry. Our aim is to explore the role of creativity in software engineering, investigating ways to assess and ultimately enhance the creative problem solving skills of computing students in higher education.

ISBN:978-1-4503-8376-9

Accessibility:Open