I think that is pretty much what happens as a teacher develops a style.  There is a "do" for sure.  But how the teacher relates to the subject, concept or whatever is "the way you do it."  Some are wonderful lecturers, some use the fire of experiments to get things across, some encourage a lot of writing (like me).  The link of way to do is how we imagine the student and how to encourage the independence of that student.  In my mostly engineering and sciences university,I teach "general education."  My social sciences department has some wonderful majors.  But 40 or 50 students compared to the 4000 in engineering isn't much. I take ours very seriously and talk to them separately. 

The bulk of my teaching is, thus, not to majors. I'm teaching public international law and have students from all the schools and colleges at my U (Engineering, Sciences and Arts- including a major, Forestry, Technology, and Business.  Some are 2nd years, some will graduate this May.  It's true the course will broaden their understanding (the aim of the American "general education."  But, it helps them think, too. I've been told by engineering students that their job interviews are often more about courses like mine than their technical skill.  My engineering students say the course is scary/refreshing because there is no clearly right answer and there are good arguments for at least two sides.  Now, as real engineers...there will rarely be clear right answers and there had better be some diversity of ideas on what to do and why.  One told me how different and hard it was to be an engineer in reality: "In school they provide the data, here I have to figure out where to get them."

Dear Mary,

This is my understanding of your post. Engineering educators impress on their student that there is only one correct answer to every problem. Those who teach social science, psychology, design, architecture and art and so on know that there is no right or wrong answer.  I think engineering educators take such stand to cut through the heavily loaded curricula and not be burdened by one on one interaction. Real life is messy and students by experience find out there are more than one answer, hence they can connect with your style of teaching. You reinforce what they experience.  It is not the conclusion which important but the way we get there.

You also mentioned that the educator job is to encourage independent thinking and nature student’s individuality.  I am with you again.

These conclusions seem to be obvious; one wonders why not every educator subscribes to it.

If you disagree with me, then give me enough time to dock please.

I do think engineering faculty complicate things more than the students suggest.  But, as you suggest, some problems early in their studies would require far more math of engineering-related other knowledge for them to be able to do.

What Michigan Tech does is provide contexts for long-term, meaningful problem solving on teams through our Enterprise program.  That's a way to get there.

In my field there are some right and wrong answers, but they aren't interesting.  There are a great many more situations of better and worse answers.

Dear Colleagues,

Good Day,

"How Can We Teach and Assess Creativity and Innovation in PBL(Project Based Learning)?

......

Can creativity and innovation be taught?

It’s true that some people are just naturally more creative than others. But creativity can be nurtured in everyone (see the research by Donald Treffinger of the Center for Creative Learning among others) and all students can learn to use a process for effective innovation. In PBL, teachers can teach creativity and innovation in three ways:

1. Design Projects to Bring Out Creativity

Planning a project that integrates the arts is an obvious example of how you can bring out students’ creativity. Also think about how your students might create an original product or come up with solutions to a problem – the more authentic, the better, since an important part of the innovation process involves understanding your audience or end-user.

When planning a project, don't forget to consider constraints, which is another real-world factor in creative problem-solving and design thinking. Think about time, costs, materials, and of course which content standards you need to address. Decide whether the project will ask all student teams to create the same product, or different products. And finally, will the products be specified in advance or left open for students to determine?

2. Create a Culture that Promotes Creativity and Innovation

A workplace that encourages creativity has certain features, and a PBL classroom too can be a place where it’s OK to offer divergent ideas, ask new questions, and try, fail, and try again. Students should feel that it’s safe to take risks and not be penalized (like, say, being given a low grade for an early draft or prototype). They should be in the habit of giving and receiving critical feedback among peers.

3. Scaffold for Creativity and Innovation

Teachers can build student competency by teaching them to use a process for innovation. Such processes typically include steps such as understanding the purpose and audience/user; generating ideas; evaluating and selecting ideas; testing and refining ideas through a cycle of feedback and revision; developing and presenting a final product or solution. For each of these steps, students can be asked to regularly employ a variety of protocols and tools to help make them more effective.".....

Please, see the link of the original article for more information...

http://bie.org/blog/how_can_we_teach_and_assess_creativity_and_innovation_in_pbl

Dear Hazim

Another gem. We do well to listen and take note. 

Dear Colleagues,

Good Day,

"Educating the Next Steve Jobs

How can schools teach students to be more innovative? Offer hands-on classes and don't penalize failure, By TONY WAGNER

Most of our high schools and colleges are not preparing students to become innovators. To succeed in the 21st-century economy, students must learn to analyze and solve problems, collaborate, persevere, take calculated risks and learn from failure. To find out how to encourage these skills, I interviewed scores of innovators and their parents, teachers and employers. What I learned is that young Americans learn how to innovate most often despite their schooling—not because of it.

Though few young people will become brilliant innovators like Steve Jobs, most can be taught the skills needed to become more innovative in whatever they do. A handful of high schools, colleges and graduate schools are teaching young people these skills—places like High Tech High in San Diego, the New Tech high schools (a network of 86 schools in 16 states), Olin College in Massachusetts, the Institute of Design (d.school) at Stanford and the MIT Media Lab. The culture of learning in these programs is radically at odds with the culture of schooling in most classrooms.

In most high-school and college classes, failure is penalized. But without trial and error, there is no innovation. Amanda Alonzo, a 32-year-old teacher at Lynbrook High School in San Jose, Calif., who has mentored two Intel Science Prize finalists and 10 semifinalists in the last two years—more than any other public school science teacher in the U.S.—told me, "One of the most important things I have to teach my students is that when you fail, you are learning." Students gain lasting self-confidence not by being protected from failure but by learning that they can survive it.

The university system today demands and rewards specialization. Professors earn tenure based on research in narrow academic fields, and students are required to declare a major in a subject area. Though expertise is important, Google's director of talent, Judy Gilbert, told me that the most important thing educators can do to prepare students for work in companies like hers is to teach them that problems can never be understood or solved in the context of a single academic discipline. At Stanford's d.school and MIT's Media Lab, all courses are interdisciplinary and based on the exploration of a problem or new opportunity. At Olin College, half the students create interdisciplinary majors like "Design for Sustainable Development" or "Mathematical Biology.""....

Please, see the link for rest of the article, hope you find it useful .....

http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304444604577337790086673050