Abstract:

"Design Thinking is a design methodology that provides a solution-based approach to solving problems. It’s extremely useful in tackling complex problems that are ill-defined or unknown, by understanding the human needs involved, by re-framing the problem in human-centric ways, by creating many ideas in brainstorming sessions, and by adopting a hands-on approach in prototyping and testing". (Dam,2019) This paper is exploring the effect of the course redesign based on Design Thinking on student engagement. The author teaches an Active Engagement course for teachers who teach early years. In one of the semesters the course was structured between giving students lectures through regular discussion and some activities in class where the students are asked to try and apply some of the strategies they are taking in class. However, the author started to redesign the course by integrating design thinking as a mindset and way of thinking, where the curriculum focuses on receiving insights from students and generating different ideas that would help enhance the learning experience. The data collection is from the two classes in the Professional Educators Diploma at the American University in Cairo through interviews where the author uses the data collected from the interviews, observation notes and data analysis to better interpret the impact of the course redesign on student performance and engagement with the content and in class. The ideas is to train teachers to put themselves in student place in order to be able to give their students the best learning experience. A set of recommendation based on the comparison between before and after integrating design thinking.

References:
[1] Dam, R. (2019). 5 Stages in the Design Thinking Process. Interaction Design Foundation. Retrieved from <<https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/5-stages-in-the-design-thinking-process>>

Keywords:

Course Redesign, Active Engagement, Design Thinking.