Teaching for innovation competence in higher education Built Environment engineering classrooms: teachers’ beliefs and perceptions of the learning environment

In this study we investigated teachers’ beliefs about innovation competence relevance and their creative self-efficacy and compared teachers’ and students’ perceptions of the learning environment in the Built Environment engineering education domain. In total, 94 teachers participated in this study by completing a questionnaire. Teachers perceived their creative self-efficacy and the learning environment in their classrooms to be supportive of innovation competence. However, only a minority of the teachers considered teaching for innovation competence relevant; most teachers perceived a focus on innovation competence in the curriculum as neutral. Multiple regression analyses showed that teachers’ creative self-efficacy beliefs significantly predicted their perception personal relevance. Similarly, perception of focus on innovation competence in the curriculum significantly predicted perceived uncertainty, while creative self-efficacy significantly predicted perceived knowledge-building through teacher–student and student–student negotiation. Findings of the study are discussed with respect to developing students’ innovation competence in the Built Environment education domain.