Yerbol Sandybayev's Portfolio Page

Navigation links: ETAP 623 Fall 2024 | Yerbol Sandybayev's mini-course: Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ)

About Me

My name is Yerbol Sandybayev, and I’m from Almaty, Kazakhstan. This is my first semester as a graduate student at UAlbany. I received my bachelor’s degree in technical physics in 2012 and my master’s in technical physics in 2014, from Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Kazakhstan.

Physics has been my passion since middle school, where I was in a specialized class for advanced physics. After graduating from university in 2014, I was offered a position as a teaching assistant at Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, which I happily accepted. In 2015, I transitioned to a full-time position at a school while continuing to work part-time at the university. Teaching at the school has been a rewarding experience, and I have become an integral part of my students' endeavors and achievements. Currently, I have 10 years of experience teaching physics in middle and high schools in my home country, as well as experience teaching general physics to undergraduate students in their first and second years.

While teaching at the school, I encountered many milestones in the existing curriculum, which led me to join a group of teachers reviewing the physics curriculum for middle and high schools. Since then, I have recognized the need to pursue further knowledge to gain expertise in this field, which is likely to lead me to pursue a PhD at UAlbany.

My Topic and Purpose

Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ) is a valuable framework that can be applied in various contexts, both in and out of the classroom. This mini-course will guide you through the principles of TRIZ and demonstrate how to utilize this methodology for solving technical problems, fostering creativity and problem solving skills.

Research by Yu-Shan Chang and colleagues (2016) highlights TRIZ's significant positive impact on students’ problem analysis skills, as well as their ability to generate, select, and implement effective strategies. Additionally, TRIZ enhances creativity in product design, enabling students to develop and execute novel ideas.

In this course, you will discover the importance of TRIZ in empowering creativity within engineering education. You'll also learn how to craft engaging lessons that incorporate TRIZ methodologies, equipping both educators and students with the tools to drive innovative thinking and problem-solving.

Scope of Learning Outcomes and Content

This course is designed to educate STEM instructors on effective strategies for integrating TRIZ into their curriculum. By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

Identify and define TRIZ and understand its significance in problem-solving and innovation.
Apply TRIZ to solve specific problems by following its structured approach.
Evaluate projects that utilize TRIZ methodology, assessing their effectiveness and creativity.
Analyze curriculum to determine how TRIZ can be incorporated across various STEM subjects.
Implement TRIZ into your curriculum, leveraging the knowledge gained throughout the course to enhance teaching and learning outcomes.

Needs Assessment

The educational problem: The competition for cutting-edge product and process functionality, reduced prices, better quality, and other issues such as energy and environmental problems is currently intensifying globally. Not only must everything be completed quickly, but also precisely, successfully, and efficiently. 21st-century society needs creativity and innovation to solve its challenges. Essential skills that engineers must master to remain competitive include creativity, innovativeness, and critical thinking. However, even with this need for creative and innovative minds, many schools and universities lack the inventive tools to equip their students. The intent of this course is to provide a readily available pool of knowledge for inspiring engineering students and to give teachers a better understanding of inventive problem solving and how to effectively implement it into their curriculum.

The learners/participants involved: This course is designed for engineering teachers who want to explore how to effectively implement inventive problem solving in their classrooms. Learners will gain a better understanding of inventive problem solving and why it is important in the engineering field, as well as how to effectively build an inventive environment among students. At the end of the course, learners should be able to take what they have learned and apply it to their own classrooms.

Analysis of gaps in term of know vs. need to know (reality vs. ideal): Kazerounian and Foley (2007) found that current engineering students experience almost none of the Ten Maxims of Creativity as part of their academic experiences. The Ten Maxims of Creativity in Education constitute a set of criteria that create an environment conducive to fostering creativity in students. Although Kazerounian's study was conducted in 2007, challenges in engineering education persist today. Many researchers emphasize the challenges of practically implementing the teaching of creativity in engineering education (Tekmen-Araci et al., 2019). Cropley (2015) argues that educational programs focus excessively on narrow and deep technical specifications, leaving little or no room in the curriculum for developing the ability to think and act creatively. He also emphasizes the need to address this disconnect by implementing changes to engineering education. Despite educators' awareness and positive attitudes toward enhancing creativity in engineering education, as well as a body of research indicating that TRIZ helps enhance students' creativity, only a few studies address the implementation of TRIZ in engineering education in the U.S.

Existing efforts to address this gap: The conventional techniques for fostering creativity, which include C-sketch, brainstorming, morphological maps, and scurrying, among others, require the designer to search within for ideas. In contrast, the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ) encourages the engineer/designer to draw inspiration from a readily accessible knowledge base. Despite being not a universal tool in teaching for creativity, TRIZ is proposed here as a convenient method to foster creativity as well as to seek for innovative solutions when they are needed in the engineering classroom.

Intent statement: This course is intended to comprehensively illustrate the rationale for introducing TRIZ into engineering curricula and to help teachers provide students with unique, hands-on lessons in engineering areas. In doing so it fosters creativity and innovation in students, better preparing them for success and helping them realize their creative abilities.

Analysis of the Learner and Context

Learners: Participants of this mini course will be pre-service or full-time teachers. While anyone can take this course, it is designed for engeenering teachers. Learners' experience of teaching may vary, but they should have some experience teaching engineering subjects in schools or universities.

Instructional Context: This course will be taken fully online through the KNILT platform. Learners will be required to have access to the internet. Learners will be able to go through the mini course at any time they wish, and they will be able to access whichever modules they wish to again after the course is completed. Ideally, the learners should be able to use the lessons from the mini course with students in a classroom setting. For pre-service teachers, the ideas in the mini-course will serve as inspiration for instructional strategies for future use.

Goals: After the completion of this course, it is the goal of the creator that participants will have a better understanding of how to implement inventive problem solving into their teaching of engineering subjects. The aim of this course is to provide teachers a renewed feeling of purpose, inspiration, and resolve to design engaging lessons for their students.

Performance-Based Objectives

After completing this mini-course, learners will be able to:

Understand the importance and purpose of core principles of TRIZ
Use TRIZ to analyze real-world problems and master the skills of "creative thinking according to TRIZ"
Identify technical and physical contradictions in given problems and suggest potential inventive principles to solve contradictions
Assess strengths and weaknesses of different solutions generated using TRIZ using criteria such as practicality and innovation
Design a unit for their own classroom that will implement TRIZ to enhance creative problem-solving skills

Task and Content Analysis

Prerequisites

Before taking this course, the learner:

Should have a basic knowledge of computer usage, including navigating websites, participating in discussions, and developing instructional materials.
Should have a foundational understanding of engineering concepts, along with analytical thinking skills.
Must be interested in exploring and implementing new teaching methods in engineering education.
An understanding of general problem-solving methodologies will be beneficial.

Unit 1: Introduction to TRIZ and its Importance

After this unit, the learners:

Will be able to define TRIZ and explain its significance in engineering education.
WIll be able to discuss the historical development of TRIZ and its applications for engineering experts
Will understand the importance of TRIZ in fostering innovative problem-solving skills.

Unit 2: Understanding TRIZ Principles

After this unit, the learners:

Will be able to identify and describe some of the 40 inventive principles of TRIZ and their relevance to problem-solving.
Will analyze and articulate TRIZ’s core principles and explain how it promotes creative thinking.
Will differentiate between technical and physical contradictions, recognizing their implications for engineering problems
Will be able to apply TRIZ principles to analyze a real-world engineering problem. Case study.

Unit 3: Applying TRIZ to Real-World Problems

After this unit, the learners:

Will be able to demonstrate proficiency in applying TRIZ methodologies to analyze and solve specific engineering problems.
Will create a mind map that visualizes the problem-solving process, effectively illustrating the application of TRIZ principles.

Unit 4: Designing Engaging Lessons with TRIZ

After this unit, the learners:

Will be able to assess and critique the strengths and weaknesses of various instructional strategies for teaching TRIZ concepts, identifying best practices.
Will have a comprehensive understanding of how to integrate TRIZ principles into their clasroom to enhance student learning.
Will develop a lesson plan that incorporates TRIZ principles into an engineering curriculum.
Will learn methods for evaluating and improving implementation of a TRIZ in the curriculum, such as the ADDIE model.

Curriculum Map

References and Resources

Chang, Y. S., Chien, Y. H., Yu, K. C., Chu, Y. H., & Chen, M. Y. C. (2016). Effect of TRIZ on the creativity of engineering students. Thinking skills and creativity, 19, 112-122.
Cropley, D. H. (2015). Promoting creativity and innovation in engineering education. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 9(2), 161.
Kazerounian, K., & Foley, S. (2007). Barriers to creativity in engineering education: A study of instructors and students perceptions.
Tekmen-Araci, Y., & Mann, L. (2019). Instructor approaches to creativity in engineering design education. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part C: Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science, 233(2), 395-402.