Effect of TRIZ on the creativity of engineering students

• TRIZ has a strongly positive effect on a student’s ability to analyze problems, and to generate, select, and execute a strategy.
• TRIZ increased the creativity with which students designed products, including their ability to develop and implement novel ideas.
• TRIZ has a positive effect on engineering students’ creative performance.

Using a nonequivalent pretest–posttest design to evaluate a 6-week educational program, we explored the effect of the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (Teoriya Resheniya Izobretatelskikh Zadatchin [Russian], TRIZ) on the creativity of 121 university freshmen studying engineering. Creative processes and creative products were the dependent variables in this study. Using scores of previous design works as covariates, this study used multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) to analyze the effects of TRIZ on students’ creative processes and creative products. We found that TRIZ has a strongly positive effect on a student’s ability to analyze problems, and to generate, select, and execute a strategy. TRIZ also increased the creativity with which students designed products, including their ability to develop and implement novel ideas. Based on these results, suggestions for teaching practices and future studies are proposed.