Educational Horizons
Effect of Targeted Design-Thinking Training to Enhance Creative Capacity and Mindset
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Lin Sun
Design thinking is an approach, a methodology, a culture, and a philosophy that leads to creative problem solving, widely recognised as a valuable route to human-centred innovation. While design thinking education endows students with methodologies for creative work, a primary goal is to elicit mindset changes that aid creativity. Using Curriculum Innovation Canvas, under the influence of Creative Capacity Building Program (CCBP), our study examines the efficacy of design thinking to promote creativity among two groups of students (1) undergraduate art & design students, and (2) middle- and high-school students who take weekly design courses, by examining seven factors targeted in Arnold’s theory of the creative mindset, which include four Guilford factors of (1) problem sensitivity, (2) fluency, (3) flexibility, and (4) originality, and Arnold’s variables of daringness, drive, and confidence to to describe creative mindsets. The training combines two types of creativity approaches, Organised and Inspired: organised creativity approaches follow a step-by-step rational and brings about incremental change; inspired creativity approaches build on intuition or other loosely and relaxed controlled psychological processes.
Re-contextualizing Design and Applied Arts : The Case of Greece View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Zoe Georgiadou, Ifigeneia Ilia Georgiadou
Cultural diversity is a dominant feature in postmodern societies, reinforced by the use of digital technologies and based on compulsory or voluntary movement of large groups of people. Worldwide there is an expeditious development, as far as technology is concerned, and countries are obliged to confront situations that belong to history. This process embeds in many challenges and creates new conditions of rapid growth of multicultural societies establishing circumstances of co-habitation with collective or ephemeral characteristics. This intercultural interaction and the relationships between different groups of people give new meanings to spaces and art expression, introducing new interpretations, re-defining their forms or imposing places that may exclude large groups of people. Immigration, financial crisis, unemployment are happening and Greece is one of the countries who have to redefine spaces and design, so created needs can be covered. This paper is focused on the discussion about learning from social design and group activities in design education. It is based on research work that is developed through teaching activities in University of West Attica, Interior Architecture Department. More specifically the paper is based on teaching methods and student feedback and projects within two courses conducted and coordinated by the author in master’s level ‘Interior Architecture: social and sustainable design’. The findings are presented by using case studies and the conclusions are related with design thinking connected with revealing situations that stimulate new approaches.
Learning Designers’ Professional Identity: An Autoethnography
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Valentina Cattane
Within Higher Education, learning designers often do not have a defined professional identity, a specific desired background and career path. The dissonance creates frustration among subject matter experts (SMEs) and other professionals involved in the design of courses and limits the impact of designers’ work. This study shares my experiences as a learning designer and critical reflections on my design philosophy and compares and contrasts them with those of a small group of three designers and the literature using an emerging model of change agency in instructional design (Schwier, Campbell & Kenny, 2007). At a smaller scale, the study would allow my team to think about our role and its impact. At a larger scale, it represent a step towards an authentic vision of this emerging role; one that has its foundation in the experiences of learning designers and that management could take into consideration to ensure designers act as agents of change at intentional and operational levels.
