Fostering Creative Young Engineers in Chinese Universities

Recently, China has called for an economic shift from the concept of ''Made in China'' to ''Created in China'', which has driven growing attention on how to foster creative engineers in China. This paper will provide a literature review and analysis aiming to answer two research questions: (1) how can we combine the concepts of creativity, engineering work, engineering education, and their interactions into one theoretical framework? And (2) according to the proposed framework, what are the potential strategies we can suggest to foster creative engineers in Chinese universities? Accordingly, this paper firstly discusses a three-dimensional framework based on an analysis from a literature review involving knowledge, behavior, and culture. Secondly, we suggest a series of potential pedagogical strategies aiming to foster creative Chinese engineers by: (1) taking a social constructivist approach to creative learning; (2) developing the laboratory a place of creative work; and (3) making the university campus a creative culture. Therefore, this paper contributes to bridging creativity, engineering education, and Chinese learning culture from a systematic perspective, which also has implications for other contexts around the world, both theoretically and practically.