Making Pedagogic Sense of Design Thinking in the Higher Education Context

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Open Education Studies, 2019; 1: 91–105
Research Article
Gnanaharsha Beligatamulla*, Janice Rieger, Jill Franz, Megan Strickfaden
Making Pedagogic Sense of Design Thinking
in the Higher Education Context 
https://doi.org/10.1515/edu-2019-0006
received March 1, 2019; accepted July 12, 2019.
Abstract: This paper explores the educator experience 
and sense-making of design thinking pedagogy in the 
higher education context. Design thinking has become 
a pedagogical phenomenon in higher education due 
to its widespread relevance across many disciplines. 
Some studies discuss design thinking as a pedagogy 
in the educational context; however, there is a lack of 
empirical research to understand the educator perspective 
on design thinking pedagogy. Three design thinking 
educators who have had more than fifteen years of 
teaching experience were interviewed to explore their 
experiences. The data from these individual in-depth, 
semi-structured interviews were analysed employing 
Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). One 
super-ordinate theme; capability building for everyone, 
and four subordinate themes; developing a participatory 
approach towards world issues; developing an open, 
explorative attitude; developing creative ability; and 
developing an ethical mindset were identified. From these 
findings, the paper argues that design thinking educators 
have the basis for a pedagogical rationale that transcends 
disciplinary boundaries and provides common ground 
for collaboration and on-going development of design 
thinking pedagogy as an emerging field in education.
Keywords: Creative problem-solving, Design Thinking 
Pedagogy, teaching-learning-assessing, university 
education.