Abstract
Design Thinking describes a human-centred methodology for innovation, which has evolved from the study of the unique ways in which designers 'think', and 'practice'. There is growing evidence of the increased uptake of Design Thinking in design, business and other disciplines, and there is an emerging body of research. There is a need to develop sound University curricula that are founded in relevant theory and research findings, however, there appears to be a relatively small amount of rigorous research on the learning and teaching of Design Thinking. This paper presents the initial stages of a PhD research project that explores how Design Thinking can be best developed, delivered and evaluated in higher education to both product design and business students. The evaluation focuses on the students' learning and teaching experiences, and the impact of the curriculum on the development of their Design Thinking expertise. The research uses Action Research, Design, and embedded Case Studies. A number of key theories inform the curriculum including Design Thinking, Constructivism, Experiential Learning, Bloom's Learning Domains and Constructive Alignment. The paper presents initial research findings from the first iteration of the curriculum.
Keywords
Design Thinking, Curriculum Development, Learning and Teaching
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/learnxdesign.2013.160
Citation
Withell, A.,and Haigh, N.(2013) Developing Design Thinking Expertise in Higher Education, in Reitan, J.B., Lloyd, P., Bohemia, E., Nielsen, L.M., Digranes, I., & Lutnæs, E. (eds.), DRS // Cumulus: Design Learning for Tomorrow, 14-17 May, Oslo, Norway. https://doi.org/10.21606/learnxdesign.2013.160
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Included in
Developing Design Thinking Expertise in Higher Education
Design Thinking describes a human-centred methodology for innovation, which has evolved from the study of the unique ways in which designers 'think', and 'practice'. There is growing evidence of the increased uptake of Design Thinking in design, business and other disciplines, and there is an emerging body of research. There is a need to develop sound University curricula that are founded in relevant theory and research findings, however, there appears to be a relatively small amount of rigorous research on the learning and teaching of Design Thinking. This paper presents the initial stages of a PhD research project that explores how Design Thinking can be best developed, delivered and evaluated in higher education to both product design and business students. The evaluation focuses on the students' learning and teaching experiences, and the impact of the curriculum on the development of their Design Thinking expertise. The research uses Action Research, Design, and embedded Case Studies. A number of key theories inform the curriculum including Design Thinking, Constructivism, Experiential Learning, Bloom's Learning Domains and Constructive Alignment. The paper presents initial research findings from the first iteration of the curriculum.