Abstract
Innovativeness is already highlighted in many engineering subjects, and some recent studies aimed at investigating whether handedness differences are reflected in the learning-style and the creativity of individuals. This paper presents a study administered among a sample of 508 university students (59 out of 508 are left-handers and 389 out of 508 are engineering students). The results show that left-handed students have a higher level of innovativeness, while non-engineering students have higher levels of self-efficacy and motivation. Innovativeness has an indirect positive effect on motivation among engineering students, which implies that innovativeness training for engineering students is critical for enhancing their learning motivation, and among these, left-handers may need different facilitative approaches that inspire their self-efficacy and motivation to actualize their innovativeness potential. This study thus brings this issue to light in order that the educators and course designers should pay due attention. The learning setting can be developed with better accommodation for these ‘specific’ groups to achieve the expected learning outcomes.
Similar content being viewed by others
Change history
26 November 2018
In the original publication of the article, the affiliations of the authors have been missed to update. Now the affiliations have been provided in this correction.
References
Anwar, M. N., & Aness, M. (2012). An examination of the relationship between creative thinking and academic achievements of secondary school students. International Interdisciplinary Journal of Education, 1(3), 44–47.
Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Psychological Review, 84(2), 191.
Barnett, K. J., & Corballis, M. C. (2002). Ambidexterity and magical ideation. Laterality: Asymmetries of Body Brain, and Cognition, 7, 75–84.
Bentler, P. M., & Bonett, D. G. (1980). Significance tests and goodness of fit in the analysis of covariance structures. Psychological Bulletin, 88(3), 588–606.
Bishop, D. V., Watt, H., & Papadatou-Pastou, M. (2009). An efficient and reliable method for measuring cerebral lateralization during speech with functional transcranial Doppler ultrasound. Neuropsychologia, 47(2), 587–590.
Cai, Q., Van der Haegen, L., & Brysbaert, M. (2013). Complementary hemispheric specialization for language production and visuospatial attention. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(4), E322–E330.
Che-Ha, N., Mavondo, F. T., & Mohd-Said, S. (2014). Performance or learning goal orientation: implications for business performance. Journal of Business Research, 67(1), 2811–2820.
Chin, W. W. (1998). The partial least squares approach to structural equation modeling. Modern Methods for Business Research, 295(2), 295–336.
Christman, S. D. (1995). Independence versus integration of right and left hemispheric processing: Effects of handedness. In F. L. Kitterle (Ed.), Hemispheric communication: Mechanisms and models (pp. 231–253). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Damanpour, F. (1996). Organizational complexity and innovation: Developing and testing multiple contingency models. Management Science, 42(5), 693–716.
Dunn, R. S., & Dunn, K. J. (1978). Teaching students through their individual learning styles: A practical approach. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall.
Dunn, K., & Dunn, R. (1987). Dispelling outmoded beliefs about student learning. Educational Leadership, 44(6), 55–63.
Ferrari, M. (2007). Cognitive performance and left-handedness: Comparative analyses in adults with seizures, physical, psychological and learning disorders in a rehabilitation setting. Journal of Rehabilitation, 73(1), 47.
Fornell, C., & Bookstein, F. L. (1982). Two structural equation models: LISREL and PLS applied to consumer exit-voice theory. Journal of Marketing Research, 19(4), 440–452.
Fornell, C., & Larcker, D. F. (1981). Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable and measurement error. Journal of Marketing Research, 34(2), 161–188.
Gefen, D., Straub, D., & Boudreau, M. C. (2000). Structural equation modeling and regression: Guidelines for research practice. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 4(1), 7.q.
Grabner, R. H., Fink, A., & Neubauer, A. (2007). Brain correlates of self-rated originality ideas: Evidence from event-related power and phase-locking changes in the EEG. Behavioral Neuroscience, 121, 224–230.
Hardyck, C., & Petrinovich, L. F. (1977). Left-handedness. Psychological Bulletin, 84(3), 385.
Hardyck, C., Petrinovich, L. F., & Goldman, R. D. (1976). Left-handedness and cognitive deficit. Cortex, 12(3), 266–279.
Hellige, J. B. (1993). Hemispheric asymmetry. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Hsiao, H. C., Chang, J. C., Tu, Y. L., & Chen, S. C. (2011). The impact of self-efficacy on innovative work behavior for teachers. International Journal of Social Science and Humanity, 1(1), 31.
Hu, L. T., & Bentler, P. M. (1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 6(1), 1–55.
Jung-Beeman, M. J., Bowden, E. M., Haberman, J., Frymiare, J. L., Arambel-Liu, S., Greenblatt, R. E., et al. (2004). Neural activity when people solve verbal problems with insight. PLoS Biology, 2(4), 500–510.
Kamaei, A., & Weisani, M. (2013). The relationship between achievement motivation, critical thinking and creative thinking with academic performance. Indian Journal of Fundamental and Applied Life Sciences, 3(4), 121–127.
Kencht, S., Drager, B., Deppe, M., Bobe, L., Lohmann, H., Floel, A., et al. (2000). Handedness and hemispheric language dominance in healthy humans. Brain, 123(12), 2512–2518.
Kumar, R., & Uzkurt, C. (2010). Investigating the effects of self efficacy on innovativeness and the moderating impact of cultural dimensions. Journal of International Business and Cultural Studies, 4, 1–5.
Kwiatkowski, J. (2002). Individual differences in the neurophysiology of creativity. Dissertation Abstracts International: Section B: The Sciences and Engineering, 63, 3050.
Law, K. M. Y. & Breznik, K. (2017). Impacts of innovativeness and attitude on entrepreneurial intention: Among engineering and non-engineering students. International Journal of Technology and Design Education, 27, 1–18.
Law, K. M. Y., Lee, V. S. C., & Yu, Y. T. (2010). Learning motivation in e-learning facilitated computer programming courses. Computers and Education, 55(1), 218–228.
Lukas, B. A., & Ferrell, O. C. (2000). The effect of market orientation on product innovation. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 28(2), 239–247.
MacCallum, R. C., Browne, M. W., & Sugawara, H. M. (1996). Power analysis and determination of sample size for covariance structure modeling. Psychological Methods, 1(2), 130.
Maruyama, G. (1997). Basics of structural equation modeling. Oaks: Sage.
Mehrdad, A. G., & Ahghar, M. (2012). Learning styles and learning strategies of left-handed EFL students. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 31, 536–545.
Newland, G. A. (1981). Differences between left-and right-handers on a measure of creativity. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 53(3), 787–792.
Ngan, S. C., & Law, K. M. (2015). Exploratory network analysis of learning motivation factors in e-learning facilitated computer programming courses. The Asia-Pacific Education Researcher, 24(4), 705–717.
Nunnally, J. C., & Bernstein, I. H. (1994). Psychological theory. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Propper, R. E., Christman, S. D., & Phaneuf, K. A. (2005). A mixed-handed advantage in episodic memory: A possible role of interhemispheric interaction. Memory and Cognition, 33(4), 751–757.
Saeed, S., & Zyngier, D. (2012). How motivation influences student engagement: A qualitative case study. Journal of Education and Learning, 1(2), 252.
Somers, M., Shields, L. S., Boks, M. P., Kahn, R. S., & Sommer, I. E. (2015). Cognitive benefits of right-handedness: a meta-analysis. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 51, 48–63.
Subramanian, A., & Nilakanta, S. (1996). Organizational innovativeness: Exploring the relationship between organizational determinants of innovation, types of innovations, and measures of organizational performance. Omega, 24(6), 631–647.
Tabachnick, B. G., & Fidell, L. S. (2006). Using multivariate statistics, 5th edn. Allyn & Bacon, Inc.
Tierney, P., & Farmer, S. M. (2011). Creative self-efficacy development and creative performance over time. Journal of Applied Psychology, 96(2), 277.
Tuan, H. L., Chin, C. C., & Shieh, S. H. (2005). The development of a questionnaire to measure students’ motivation towards science learning. International Journal of Science Education, 27(6), 639–654.
Ullman, J. B., & Bentler, P. M. (2003). Structural equation modeling. Hoboken: Wiley.
Vallerand, R. J. (1997). Toward a hierarchical model of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 29, 271–360.
Vermetten, Y. J., Lodewijks, H. G., & Vermunt, J. D. (2001). The role of personality traits and goal orientations in strategy use. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 26(2), 149–170.
Willems, R. M., Peelen, M. V., & Hagoort, P. (2009). Cerebral lateralization of face-selective and body-selective visual areas depends on handedness. Cerebral Cortex, 20(7), 1719–1725.
Wright, S. (1921). Correlation and causation. Journal of agricultural research, 20(7), 557–585.
Yusuf, M. (2011). The impact of self-efficacy, achievement motivation, and self-regulated learning strategies on students’ academic achievement. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 15, 2623–2626.
Zimmerman, B. J. (2000). Self-efficacy: An essential motive to learn. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 25(1), 82–91.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Law, K.M.Y., Geng, S. How innovativeness and handedness affect learning performance of engineering students?. Int J Technol Des Educ 29, 897–914 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10798-018-9462-3
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10798-018-9462-3