Views of Academicians on Design Thinking Skills in Different Disciplines in Higher Education

Design thinking is a human-oriented and creative problem-solving skill that can empathize with the user's emotions. Today, traditional problem-solving approaches are replaced by design thinking practices that include multidimensional thinking skills. The mission of higher education curricula is to enable students to use their design thinking skills effectively in higher education. In this study, the views of academicians on design thinking skills in different disciplines in higher education were consulted. A qualitative research method was used in the study and data were collected by interview technique. The research was carried out in İstanbul in the fall semester of the 2021-2022 academic year, with the participation of academic staff from two state universities (n=15). In this context, a six-question semi-structured interview form developed by the researchers was used as a data collection tool. The data were analyzed with thematic coding and content analysis techniques, which are among the qualitative analysis methods. According to the research findings, academics think that there is a "high, versatile and complementary relationship" between design and thinking skills. They express the concept of design thinking as "people-based, user-need-based, solution-oriented and creativity-based". They express the concept of design thinking as "human-based, user-need-based, solution-oriented and creativity-based". It is stated that design thinking individuals should have characteristics such as "empathy, analysis, openness to innovations, high imagination, attention to details and creative thinking". It is seen that academicians use design thinking in their courses in practices such as "problem solving method, design project, searching real-life problems, developing thinking skills". In addition, the academicians stated that "they do not have knowledge about design thinking skills, some of them have theoretical knowledge, but those who have knowledge have weak practice levels". Finally, it is seen that they make suggestions that "design thinking practices should be added to the course content, applied training should be increased, thinking skills should be developed and innovative thoughts should be included".