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Does Playing the Violin Help Science Students Become Better Scientists?

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Conference

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Location

Virtual On line

Publication Date

June 22, 2020

Start Date

June 22, 2020

End Date

June 26, 2021

Conference Session

Relationships Between Skills and Knowledge Domains

Tagged Division

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

Page Count

24

DOI

10.18260/1-2--34477

Permanent URL

https://strategy.asee.org/34477

Download Count

499

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Paper Authors

biography

Wei Yao Zhejiang University

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Yao Wei, Ph.D, Professor at Institute of China’s Science Technology and Education Policy, School of Public Affairs, Zhejiang University. He holds BE and BCom degree in from Zhejiang University, and Doctor’s degree in management science and engineering from Zhejiang University. He is currently interested in engineering education, and innovation management.

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biography

Bifeng Zhang Zhejiang University

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Bifeng ZHANG is a PhD student at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China. He received his BE degree from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications and MBA degree from Zhejiang University. His research focuses on engineering education and systematic innovation.

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Hu Shunshun Zhejiang University

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Hu Shunshun is a PhD student in the Institute of China’s Science, Technology and Education Policy at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, Zhejiang. He received a BA in Marketing from the Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine in 2015, and a MA in Educational Economic and Management from College of Public Administration, Nanjing agricultural University in 2018. He is currently interested in higher engineering education, engineering education policy, and emerging engineering education.

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Abstract

It is believed that art and scientific research are two of the most creativity-oriented areas. Will scientific research benefit from artistic creativity? The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between artistic creativity and scientific research performance of science and engineering students in universities. Due to the absence of related theoretical model, we design the measurement scales of artistic creativity and scientific research performance. We select acquisition of creative knowledge and skills in art field and creative personality as the two dimensions to measure artistic creativity, and we select scientific research output performance and scientific research work performance as the two dimensions to measure scientific research performance. Then we construct a theoretical model to describe the relationship of these four factors. Based on secondary research and interview method, we design questionnaires for science and engineering students both with and without artistic expertise to examine the extent to which participation in art learning has beneficial effects on scientific research performance. We distribute 302 questionnaires in universities in Zhejiang Province of China. 204 valid questionnaires are collected, most of which are completed by postgraduates. We analyze the valid questionnaires retrieved by performing an independent sample test on the two groups of samples to ensure that there is no significant difference in demographic variables between the two groups of data and to test whether there are significant differences in the scientific research performance variables of the two groups of samples. And in the group of students with artistic expertise, we investigate whether artistic creativity has a significant effect on scientific research performance. After the empirical analysis, we do not find that creative knowledge and skills in art field have significant effect on scientific research performance. However, we do find that creative knowledge and skills in art field influence creative personality and thus affect scientific research performance. Creative personality plays an intermediary role between artistic creativity and scientific research performance. Therefore, we suggest that we should attach importance to the cultivation of creative personality by art education. Adding art course and art practical activity to current science and engineering curriculum system should be taken into consideration, not to require student to acquire knowledge or skills, but to forester their creative personality.

Yao, W., & Zhang, B., & Shunshun, H. (2020, June), Does Playing the Violin Help Science Students Become Better Scientists? Paper presented at 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual On line . 10.18260/1-2--34477

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