ABSTRACT
This chapter explores what design thinking is and how it is taught in design and other undergraduate degree programs within universities internationally. The chapter looks at design thinking contextually within intra-, multi-, inter-, and transdisciplinarity at an undergraduate level, borrowing from epistemic fluency and the educational field of the learning sciences. It also introduces the concept of the “T-shaped designer” and discusses the concept’s impact on design thinking pedagogy and education. This chapter presents a global snapshot of design thinking undergraduate programs and investigates what can be learned from best practice. At an undergraduate level, there is much variability in the way these programs are taught, from university-wide majors to combined bachelor’s degrees, to cross-faculty labs and multidisciplinary design degrees. Not only are their structures diverse but so too are their faculty locations. This variation in undergraduate programs impacts both facilitators and students and crafts a variety of T-shaped designers, which is what we explore in this chapter. Finally, the expert sidebar in this chapter from Dr Karla Straker, documents undergraduate design thinking pedagogy through reflections on interdisciplinary teamwork and the use of industry partnerships to enable real work environments and hands-on learning.
