Thinking : Nurturing Independent Design Thinking and Decision-Making

To design is to think. Thinking plays a crucial role in designing. Thinking accrues knowledge during design processes. Yet, the articulation of modes of design thinking in curriculum and guiding documents remains limited (Lewis, 2005, 2009). For instance, the cavalier way that creative and critical thinking are often expressed in curriculum rationale statements, as a keystone of design and technologies education—and yet, following documents including guides for teachers tend to lack full expressions of what is meant or expected in learning and teaching contexts in design and technologies education by creative thinking, assuming it will be spontaneously interpreted and applied by educators. Often, creative and critical thinking are casually linked, the two terms strung together in this way without thoughtful articulation of either of their use or their perceived role in design education contexts. Of the two thinking modes creativity is less clearly defined, as it is perceived to occur organically as opposed to critical thinking in which skills and dispositions are articulated, taught, and practiced in many domains. Yet, according to Wells, “creativity isn’t necessarily something that comes naturally. In schools it is something that may be considered serendipitous, but it must be nurtured, developed, inspired and inherent in pedagogical approach” (2013, p. 634). McGlashan observes that “the selection of strategies and implementation methods that engender creative responses in students, is usually left to an individual teacher’s interpretation” (2018, p. 377). Kimbell concluded “that there is no single definition for or description of design or design thinking” (Kimbell, 2009, p. 5) in the research on design thinking, and Lewis reflects that creative performance is not readily or completely captured by content standards (2005, p. 35). In this chapter, we will consider how thinking and ideation occur in design—through specific thinking processes, including creative, critical, and lateral thinking, ideation, and reflection.

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