In Their Own Words: Student Perceptions of Technical Poetry Writing in Discipline-Specific Undergraduate Engineering Courses: Opportunities and Challenges

Abstract

Although some studies have incorporated poetry into engineering courses, no studies exist that explore the use of writing poetry about technical topics to develop creative thinking skills in undergraduate engineering education. This study explores engineering students’ perceptions of incorporating poetry writing within an upper-level discipline-specific engineering course. Two research questions are considered: (RQ1) Do students think that the poetry assignments will be beneficial to their careers? (RQ2) What beneficial gain, if any, do students report from the poetry assignments? Sixty-one students from an industrial and systems engineering course at the University of Florida completed a four-question, open-ended survey. Data were qualitatively coded and analyzed. For RQ1, 63.3% of participants considered the assignment beneficial to their future engineering careers, 13.3% did not see it as beneficial, and 23.3% were uncertain. For RQ2, 11 code categories and four themes emerged; three themes addressed benefits related to professional skills (creative thinking, problem-solving, communication) and one theme suggested the enhancement of technical skills via deepened conceptual knowledge acquisition. Poetry writing on technical topics has the potential to cultivate creative thinking skills in upper-level discipline-specific courses in undergraduate engineering education. Additional research is warranted. Funding: This work was supported by the University of Florida Creative Campus Program as well as The Cottmeyer Family Innovative Frontiers Faculty Fellowship awarded to E. Akçalı. Supplemental Material: The e-companion is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/ited.2023.0284 .