New Perspectives in Science Education

Every innovation begins with an idea. But how do you come up with a good idea that can also be implemented economically and thus become a successful innovation? In our technical bachelor's program, the first semester students learn how to use creativity techniques to generate ideas for different use cases. But students should not only learn how to apply creativity techniques, they should also learn how to teach them. To this end, on the last day of the course, the students must teach their newly gained knowledge to 200 schoolchildren who are working on ideas for a so-called Junior Company. The former learners now become teachers. This real-life teaching situation in front of unfamiliar learners is initially a challenge for many students, but one that they must face, and which ultimately gives them enormous self-confidence for their further studies and professional competence. By teaching creativity techniques to the schoolchildren, students not only consolidate their new knowledge, but also learn important key skills, such as recognizing group dynamics and responding to them appropriately. According to the students, this teaching experience gives them more confidence to independently lead creativity workshops in their professional environment in the future. This paper describes the structure of this teaching day to illustrate how successfully the ‘learning by teaching’ approach works in this context.