Challenges in teaching design thinking skills to novice design students

    Research output: A Conference proceeding or a Chapter in BookConference contributionpeer-review

    3 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    There is a general assumption that teaching prescriptive "design methods" to novice design students will result in effective analysis of a problem that will result in an innovative solution. However, in reality, most students use "design methods" as a tool to present their resolved solution rather than use it to arrive at that solution. In other words, students mostly use traditional design methods taught as an effective persuasion tool to secure better grade. For this reason, we argue that we should encourage students to pick up appropriate design behaviour early in their course. By stressing practicing designers seldom apply design methods as described in the textbooks. In this paper we share our action research over a period of two semesters to investigate effective approaches to achieve this goal. Overall, initially students found it difficult to move away from traditional prescriptive design methods they were exposed to in their high school studies. Students' feedback showed that they preferred a more structured and incremental treatment of the subject. Based on this feedback and students' assessments outcome we have developed a pedagogical framework based on nudge theory to address their expectations and learning objectives.

    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationDesign Education: Collaboration and Cross-Disciplinarity
    Subtitle of host publicationProceedings of the 18th International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education
    EditorsErik Bohemia, Lyndon Buck, Kaare Eriksen, Ahmed Kovacevic, Nis Ovesen, Christian Tollestrup
    Place of PublicationWiltshire, United Kingdom
    PublisherInstitution of Engineering Designers, The Design Society
    Pages140-145
    Number of pages6
    ISBN (Print)9781904670780
    Publication statusPublished - 2016
    Event18th International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education - Aalborg, Denmark
    Duration: 8 Sept 20169 Sept 2016

    Conference

    Conference18th International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education
    Abbreviated titleE&PDE 2016
    Country/TerritoryDenmark
    CityAalborg
    Period8/09/169/09/16

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