Growing critical minds and cultivating solutions: Design Thinking as a useful toolkit and mindset for a project-based learning environment

Abstract

In the face of contemporary global challenges such as food security, climate change, and socio-economic inequalities, fostering critical and creative thinking skills in higher education is paramount. Besides domain-specific expert knowledge, transferable competencies of graduates have become increasingly important in addressing current challenges by embracing complexity and integrating diverse backgrounds. This study explores the integration of Design Thinking within a project-based learning framework to enhance these competencies among agroecology students. The course ‘Agroecologist Without Borders’, offered at ETH Zurich, serves as a case study. Students engage with stakeholders and specialists, fostering a rich exchange of knowledge that directly impacts their learning outcomes. The course employs a transdisciplinary approach, integrating diverse disciplines and environments, with Design Thinking guiding students through understanding, empathizing, defining, ideating, prototyping, and testing solutions to real-world challenges. This approach serves as a model for future educational initiatives, highlighting the importance of fostering both critical and creative thinking in higher education.