Design thinking, broadly understood as an organizational and entrepreneurial process aimed at innovative problem solving, has been productively incorporated by scholar-teachers in rhetoric, writing studies, and technical communication. Business communication offers similar opportunities. After briefly explaining design thinking and reviewing…

Sustainability transitions need professionals with specific skills and attitudes that students often do not develop in their regular chemistry education. To foster sustainability change-maker competencies, we suggest augmenting higher education curricula, e.g., chemical degree programs, with transdisciplinary challenge-based learning combined with…

The aim of this study is to showcase the use of incorporating problem-solving in a multifaceted, long-term investigation. New York Harbor and its estuaries are undergoing a major revitalization due to the efforts of the Curriculum and Community Enterprise for Environmental Restoration Project. Comprised of a network of local educational and…

Transforming curriculum by implementing Problem-Based Learning (PBL) in the college-level classroom helps students internalize the concepts of a course, improve their critical and reflective thinking skills, learn to problem-solve using questioning, and ultimately construct a better understanding of course concepts in a personally relevant way.…

Teaching data analysis by providing students with real-world problems and datasets allows students to integrate a variety of skills in a situation that mirrors how data analysis actually works. However, whole data analyses may obscure the individual skills of data analytic practice that are generalizable across data analyses. One such skill is the…

Can you think of a research-supported strategy that simultaneously encourages critical and creative thinking; develops knowledge, skills, and affect; promotes meaningful connection with music; and creates lifelong learners? Problem-based learning (PBL) effectively meets and exceeds these criteria by providing an engaging opportunity for students…

The history of innovation is constructed by solo thinkers and collaborative makers. The word innovation here comprises changes on technology, art and science. This article aims to reflect the way successful inventors, artists and scientists followed to do whatever they succeeded so that the coming generations can learn from predecessors' positive…

Interior design education aims to provide students with real learning experiences. The authors, hence, combined problem-based learning (PBL) and design thinking to design a seven-week studio project in the Interior design program at a land-grant Midwest university. Thirty-two sophomores were engaged in different stages of the design process for…

Problem-based learning (PBL) fosters both content knowledge and content understanding, improves critical and process thinking skills, and promotes peer-to-peer learning, leadership, and teamwork (Hmelo-Silver 2004). Instructors support the PBL process by guiding students through activities that challenge their current knowledge and understanding…

There are increasing pressures within the higher education sector to incorporate digital pedagogies into teaching and learning, a trend amplified by recent extensive recourse to online delivery within the sector. This trend carries with it both opportunities and challenges in effectively fostering those graduate competences that a converging…

Knowing the facts is not enough. If we want students to develop intellectually, creatively problem-solve, and grapple with complexity, the key is in "conceptual understanding." A Concept-Based curriculum recaptures students' innate curiosity about the world and provides the thrilling feeling of engaging one's mind. This updated edition…

Design thinking is a methodology that emphasizes reasoning and decision-making as part of the problem-solving process. It is a structured framework for identifying challenges, gathering information, generating potential solutions, refining ideas, and testing solutions. Design thinking offers valuable skills that will serve students well as they…

Computer science (CS) and computational thinking (a problem-solving process used by computer scientists) teach students design, logical reasoning, and problem solving--skills that are valuable in life and in any career. Computational thinking (CT) concepts such as decomposition teach students how to break down and tackle a large complex problem.…

This article presents the structure of the organic chemistry laboratory Course "Synthesis and Extraction of Drugs" that is included in Modena University (Italy) in the third year of the five-year "Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Technologies" degree program. This course is unique in its kind, and it aims to provide students with…

Elementary students at the Milton Hershey School in Hershey, Pennsylvania, don't just learn knowledge and skills; they put it to work. The school's Innovation Lab for grades K-4 offers students hands-on opportunities to use design thinking to solve problems. In this article, two of the school's educators describe how 2nd graders used design…