Students' Perceptions of Humor and Creativity in Project-Organized Groups (POGs) in Engineering Design Education in China

This study explores engineering design students’ perceptions of humor in the experiences of creativity development in Project-Organized Groups (POGs). This study links theories including humor, learning, creativity, and engineering design in one framework. Empirically, this study carried out interviews with a total of 13 students in engineering design education at Northeastern University (NEU) in China. We found that students think all humorous people are creative, and they welcome humor in project groups; they also regard humor as not only a personality or communication tool, but also the outcome of applying creative ideas in design practice. The students additionally think that humor is mainly used to keep individuals’ harmonious relationship with the group and that humor is the immediate ability to create using language in ongoing communication contexts. These findings are helpful to unpack the black box of humor from a learner’s perspective and contribute to future joint efforts of studies on humor and creativity in engineering design education.