The Effects of Teaching Students How to Invent

Teachers encourage students to develop inventions, organizations sponsor invention contests, and publishers sell guidebooks on inventing. Only a few studies have examined the relationship between these materials or opportunities to invent and students' inventiveness. The purpose of this experimental study was to provide an instructional unit on the invention process and to investigate the degree to which training influenced students' inventiveness. Students in the experimental group received eight lessons that were designed to provide training in the invention process and encourage the development of inventions, and students in the control group received one introductory lesson and opportunity to develop inventions. Using the Invention Evaluation Scale, experts assessed three aspects of students' inventions: originality, technical goodness, and aesthetic appeal. Regression analyses indicated that group membership was a significant predictor of the quantity of inventions, but not a significant predictor of the quality of students' inventions.