Teaching Beyond the Curriculum

Abstract

The built environment is a multidisciplinary field requiring a mindset with various characteristics, skills and cognitive mechanisms. An architect is responsible for solving ‘wicked’ problems in various contexts that speak to the needs of people. Successful architects have the ability to solve these complex problems through innovative combinations of actions, activities and thinking skills to turn design challenges into opportunities. This ability is often referred to as design thinking and has become a common term used in practice and education to describe this creative process. Design thinking has increasingly been recognised as a valuable competitive asset in building the economy. As a result, a variety of problem-solving methods and design-thinking models have emerged and gained prominence. As educators, we have to approach design thinking critically and reflectively to continue expanding its understanding and value. A sample of 80 interior design students from first to fourth year of study at the Greenside Design Centre in South Africa were given the Design Thinking Mindset metacognitive self-awareness questionnaire, which was originally developed as a self-reported measure to assess the design thinking mindset in professionals. The students’ Design, Construction and Critical Theory marks were correlated with the 71- instrument to understand if any significant relationship existed. This study aimed to understand if this questionnaire could be used as an accurate measure for design thinking in interior design students. The findings suggest a number of intriguing possibilities for further research, despite the fact that the analyses only showed a small number of meaningful connections.