Designing Under Constraints: Engineering Education in China

In today’s society, resources are increasingly scarce and misallocation of resources occurs frequently. As engineers and engineering educators working in China for the last several decades, thinking about how to maintain the stimulation of creativity within K-12 STEM education, to nurture and improve student creativity under challenging circumstances has been a major focus. In particular, we are interested in how the lack of educational technology resources can be approached from an asset-based approach emphasizing opportunities for creativity, rather than the more customary deficit-based approach which generally emphasizes a lack of opportunities for creativity. Using this approach, we address the challenge of creating the next generation of high-quality Chinese engineering students and practitioners. In this chapter, we discuss how less resources can, from a pedagogical perspective, actually be more resources when it comes time for STEM students to exercise and develop their capacity for innovation and creativity during STEM education that employs engineering tasks. The conclusion of this chapter makes recommendations for future development of innovative STEM pedagogy that highlights the advantages of design under constraints, and how specifically Chinese K-12 STEM education can be improved to encourage creativity within the future engineering workforce.