Sixteenth International Conference on Design Principles & Practices

Abstract

National Education Policy 2020 outlines the vision of India’s new education system to reconfigure its structure towards achieving 21st Century Skills. One of the recommendations in the policy include introduction of Design Thinking as a skills course across classes VI-XII. Therefore, this paper investigates the scope of Design Education towards meeting the requirements of 21st Century Skills. This investigation in conducted in the form of a detailed narrative literature review with the purpose to determine the relation between the two variables of 21st Century Skills and Design Education. The findings from the review clearly indicate the relevance and impact of Design Education in meeting the demands of 21st Century, by extending design learning to school education. Pioneering studies on 21st Century Skills (P21, ATCS) and recent studies on Design education and international initiatives (Finland, Singapore, USA, China) towards 21st century education, are thoroughly reviewed for this purpose. The study illustrates these findings by way of a flowchart that consolidates the prominent readings. This theoretical analysis aims to direct the attention of Indian education stakeholders towards the importance of design education in providing students with 21st Century Skills. Practical implementation to assess the impact of design education in learning of 21st Century Skills can be further undertaken to strengthen this fact with figures. In absence of any published evidence of design education (curriculum, pedagogy, operation, impact, etc.) in Indian schools, this study provides a theoretical base for conducting such investigations in the future.