Abstract:

Design thinking is acknowledged as a thriving innovation practice plus something in the line of a deep understanding of innovation processes.Design thinking is an approach to creative problem solving that is widely recognized as a valuable route to human-centred innovation (Plattner et al. 2009; d.school 2010a; Kelley and Kelley 2013). University education must equip students with the kind of adaptability that will prepare them to handle changes in judgment and changes in how people view teamwork, creativity and leadership. Our goal is to explore and develop the soft skills of students who have participated in the New Generation of Founders/GrowWithGoogle workshops focused on implementing Design Thinking tools. During the workshops, a survey was administered using a pre-test and a post-test to measure the impact of the modern methods used on the development of students' soft skills. A total of 188 survey responses were assessed from students of two faculties of the University of Economics in Bratislava and students of one faculty of the Slovak University of Technology. The interdisciplinary combination of the two universities was deliberate, with the aim of encouraging better teamwork and creative thinking among students. We decided to measure the impact of the workshop on the students' soft skill levels using pre-test and post-test online questionnaires in electronic forms that were sent to the students via emails. Currently, the job market focuses mainly on soft skills such as communication, teamwork, problem solving, creativity and more. In our survey, we focused on evaluating the skills of students at two universities in the areas of teamwork and creativity. The Article is the part of the National project KEGA n. 022EU-4/2021. Support of high quality education in an interdisciplinary environment by using modern didactic methodology and techniques, in the range of 100%.

References:
[1] Plattner, H. (2011). Foreword. In H. Plattner, C. Meinel, & L. Leifer (Eds.), Design thinking. Understand – improve – apply (pp. v–vi). Heidelberg: Springer.
[2] d.school. (2010a). An introduction to design thinking. Process guide. Retrieved October, 2016, from https://dschool.stanford.edu/sandbox/groups/designresources/wiki/36873/ attachments/74b3d/ModeGuideBOOTCAMP2010L.pdf?sessionID=e62aa8294d323f1b1540d3 ee21e961cf7d1bce38
[3] Kelley, T., & Kelley, D. (2013). Creative confidence. New York: Crown Publishing.

Keywords:

Design thinking, creative thinking, team work, problem solving.