Design Thinking Frameworks as Transformative Cross-Disciplinary Pedagogy

Generic graduate attributes associated with innovation, creativity and problem solving are considered to be among the most important of all targeted attributes (Bradley Review of Higher Education, 2009). James Cook University places a high level of importance on achieving an explicit set of graduate attributes. Higher education research has shown that achieving graduate attributes is very challenging within disciplines and often little attention is given to achieving generic attributes at the subject level. Design thinking principles and frameworks are considered to be excellent scaffolds for supporting the development of creative and innovative mindsets but little empirical research is available to support this approach. This is the final report from a project that tested these principles and frameworks through case studies and national workshops: Design thinking frameworks can be implemented at the university subject level or subject planning level to successfully scaffold students' ability to solve problems and approach problems with an innovative and creative mindset.