Curriculum Design: Using the Five Discourses of Design Thinking

Javeed Kittur; George K. Karway; Mohammad Zaid Alrajhi; Brian Carl Nelson; Seungki Shin

Download Paper | Permalink

Conference: 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access
Location: Virtual Conference
Publication Date: July 26, 2021
Start Date: July 26, 2021
End Date: July 19, 2022
Conference Session: Research Methods and Studies on Engineering Education Research
Tagged Division: Educational Research and Methods
Page Count: 18
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--36890
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/36890
Download Count: 716

Paper Authors

biography

Javeed Kittur Arizona State University orcid.org/0000-0001-6132-7304

visit author page

Javeed Kittur is currently a doctoral student (Engineering Education Systems and Design) at Arizona State University, USA. He received a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering and a Master's degree in Power Systems from India in 2011 and 2014 respectively. He has worked with Tata Consultancy Services as Assistant Systems Engineer from 2011-2012, India. He has worked as an Assistant Professor (2014 to 2018) in the department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, KLE Technological University, India. He is a certified IUCEE International Engineering Educator. He was awarded the ‘Ing.Paed.IGIP’ title at ICTIEE, 2018.

visit author page

biography

George K. Karway Arizona State University

visit author page

George is a graduate research associate at Arizona State University, where he is pursuing a PhD in Biomedical Informatics. His research focuses on using machine learning techniques to understand patients' perceptions on granular data sharing.

visit author page

biography

Mohammad Zaid Alrajhi Arizona State University; King Saud University

visit author page

Mohammad Z. Alrajhi is currently a doctoral student in Design, Environment, and the Arts studying the interrelationship between learning and space in the context of architectural education at the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University. Alrajhi also serves as a teaching assistant in the College of Architecture and Planning at King Saud University, Saudi Arabia. In 2015, he received a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture (BArch) from Qassim University, Saudi Arabia. Pursuing his long-term goals, Alrajhi obtained a full scholarship to continue graduate studies in the United States. He earned a Master’s degree in Architecture (MArch) from Arizona State University in 2020. Generally, Alrajhi’s areas of interest are architectural education, learning environments, design thinking, and curriculum design.

visit author page

biography

Brian Carl Nelson Arizona State University

visit author page

Brian C. Nelson is a professor of educational technology with the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University. Dr. Nelson’s research focuses on the theory, design, and implementation of immersive learning environments. An instructional designer and learning theorist, he has published and presented extensively on the viability of educational virtual environments and digital games for situated learning and assessment. He earned his doctorate in Education from Harvard University in 2005.

visit author page

biography

Seungki Shin Seoul National University of Education

visit author page

Seungki Shin is an assistant professor in the department of Computer Education at Seoul National University of Education, South Korea. Dr. Shin’s research focuses on computer science education, computational thinking, educational programming language, physical computing education, and artificial intelligence education. He has published articles on curriculum development for computer science education and studies on instructional design and model development for computational thinking. He earned his Ph.D. degree from the University of Georgia in 2017.

visit author page

Download Paper | Permalink

Abstract

Unlike in the past, the curriculum is currently dynamic and demands continuous improvisations at different levels such as classroom, teacher expertise, and standards within a curriculum, among others. The dynamism in education is due to various factors such as students’ requirements, industry requirements, changes in the needs of the society, etc. There is a need to better understand which factors must be strategically considered when designing a curriculum such that the curriculum meets the needs of all the stakeholders. This study investigates how elements of design thinking can be integrated into a curriculum to provide appropriate skills that support interdisciplinary and integrative efforts to meet the needs of the 21st century. The five discourses of design thinking model was used as a framework to guide this study. The components of the five discourses of design thinking model include artifacts, processes, experiences, systems, and cultures. Qualitative research methods were used to understand the approaches used to incorporate the five discourses of design thinking when designing a new curriculum or improvising an existing curriculum. To understand from the experiences of the research participants and to get more insights on the research question ‘How can the elements of design thinking be integrated into the curriculum to provide appropriate skills that support interdisciplinary and integrative efforts to meet the needs of 21st-century life?’, three semi-structured interviews were conducted. The interviews were conducted using an online platform (Zoom). Each interview lasted for about 45 to 60 minutes. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, and coded and used in the analysis. The data collected from the interviews focus mainly on the perceptions of the usage of the five discourses of design in designing the curriculum. The collected data also provides information about how each participant defines education by design, whether education and design are integrated, and what is design thinking. The three participants recruited in this study were from a large public southwestern university in the united states. The participants have an adequate amount of experience in designing curriculum and all three participants are full-time professors. All three participants are Ph.D. holders and two of them are females. The deductive coding approach was used in the qualitative analysis and the themes developed were the integration of education and design, five discourses, and advice for novices. The beliefs and opinions of participants on integrating the discourses of design in curriculum design are presented in the paper along with the limitations and future research directions. More details on each of the themes, similarities, and differences among the participants' opinions about the integration of five discourses of design will be included in the full paper.

Citation
Format

Kittur, J., & Karway, G. K., & Alrajhi, M. Z., & Nelson, B. C., & Shin, S. (2021, July), Curriculum Design: Using the Five Discourses of Design Thinking Paper presented at 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual Conference. 10.18260/1-2--36890

TY - CPAPER
AB - Unlike in the past, the curriculum is currently dynamic and demands continuous improvisations at different levels such as classroom, teacher expertise, and standards within a curriculum, among others. The dynamism in education is due to various factors such as students’ requirements, industry requirements, changes in the needs of the society, etc. There is a need to better understand which factors must be strategically considered when designing a curriculum such that the curriculum meets the needs of all the stakeholders. This study investigates how elements of design thinking can be integrated into a curriculum to provide appropriate skills that support interdisciplinary and integrative efforts to meet the needs of the 21st century. The five discourses of design thinking model was used as a framework to guide this study. The components of the five discourses of design thinking model include artifacts, processes, experiences, systems, and cultures.
Qualitative research methods were used to understand the approaches used to incorporate the five discourses of design thinking when designing a new curriculum or improvising an existing curriculum. To understand from the experiences of the research participants and to get more insights on the research question ‘How can the elements of design thinking be integrated into the curriculum to provide appropriate skills that support interdisciplinary and integrative efforts to meet the needs of 21st-century life?’, three semi-structured interviews were conducted. The interviews were conducted using an online platform (Zoom). Each interview lasted for about 45 to 60 minutes. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, and coded and used in the analysis. The data collected from the interviews focus mainly on the perceptions of the usage of the five discourses of design in designing the curriculum. The collected data also provides information about how each participant defines education by design, whether education and design are integrated, and what is design thinking. The three participants recruited in this study were from a large public southwestern university in the united states. The participants have an adequate amount of experience in designing curriculum and all three participants are full-time professors. All three participants are Ph.D. holders and two of them are females. The deductive coding approach was used in the qualitative analysis and the themes developed were the integration of education and design, five discourses, and advice for novices. The beliefs and opinions of participants on integrating the discourses of design in curriculum design are presented in the paper along with the limitations and future research directions. More details on each of the themes, similarities, and differences among the participants&#39; opinions about the integration of five discourses of design will be included in the full paper.

AU - Javeed Kittur
AU - George K. Karway
AU - Mohammad Zaid Alrajhi
AU - Brian Carl Nelson
AU - Seungki Shin
CY - Virtual Conference
DA - 2021/07/26
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Curriculum Design: Using the Five Discourses of Design Thinking
UR - https://peer.asee.org/36890
DO - 10.18260/1-2--36890
ER -