Abstract
This paper introduces a university led research study that is currently investigating whether aspects of Design Thinking can be successfully integrated into middle school art classes, and if exposure to these ideas and processes improve student learning performance. Design Thinking is being framed as a loosely linked group of concepts and practices that foster and harness curiosity, critical-thinking, and collaboration—a practical yet boundless toolkit for fueling active learning. Moreover, its core attributes integrate comfortably with project-based and constructive learning pedagogies and provide an antidote to curriculum narrowing, test centric, ‘skill-and-drill’ approaches. The study is being conducted in two middle schools located in a large suburban school district. Investigators are working collaboratively with school arts faculty to develop Design Thinking centric learning units and co-teaching these units with them. This shared dynamic ensures a high level of engagement by participating faculty and as importantly allows investigators to directly observe content delivery, student behavior, and learning outcomes. For the purposes of this study, the learning units are a controlled variable, the faculty are independent variables (remain the same at each school and for each class), and the students and their outcomes the dependent variable. Generally, units are structured to determine whether: 1.) the units are efficacious in fostering student engagement, and 2.) students produce artifacts and/or exhibit behavior that indicate whether a particular targeted Design Thinking attribute manifests, e.g., more versus fewer ideation sketches when discussing iterative thinking. This is a three-year research study in its first year.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Design Thinking, Design, Pedagogy, K-12 Education, Design Innovation
