Revisiting Design Thinking: A review of Definitions and Implications

Year 2017, Volume: 1 Issue: 1, 92 - 102, 30.06.2017

Yeliz Tunga Soner Yıldırım

Abstract

Design thinking is a rising term in educational
literature and role of design thinking in classrooms is one of current research
subjects in these days. Design thinking a general approach that utilize the
designer’s methods and sensibility to overcome problems in efficient and
effective way in terms of technological and commercial aspects. In educational
context, it is seen as a learning approach that mainly focuses on developing
creative confidence of students. Before the emergence of design thinking, in educational
literature design as a keyword has been one of the most used term in
educational researches, as well. Design based learning, learning by design,
reflective design based learning, learning technology by design are several
examples. Therefore, it is necessary to recognize that whether design thinking
is entirely new phenomena for educators or it is just the replication of
previous design related learning approaches. In this paper, definition and
current position of design thinking in the literature and relationship between
design thinking and previous design related learning approaches has
discussed.  It is obtained that design
thinking is sparkling phenomena yet it doesn’t completely new approach for
educators and it has several similarities in both practice and theoretical
perspective with earlier design-related educational studies.

Keywords

Design thinking, wicked problems, design-based learning

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