Pair or Group-Design Activities: The Effect of Design Activities on Problem-Solving, Design Thinking Disposition, and Design Thinking Traits

Design thinking has become an important process in many fields to encourage innovation toward problem solving skills in various fields. In the field of education, design thinking has been incorporated into curriculums as it contributes both to higher order thinking skills and to the learning process with its flexible and dynamic nature. However, there is a growing need and interest in exploring how design thinking affects students' learning experiences and its potential in group work (collaborative or pair). The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of design thinking activities carried out as a pair or group in a design-based learning process on problem-solving, design thinking disposition, and design thinking traits. Sixty-seven students (64.2% male and 35.8% female) who took the graphic design course participated in this study. The average age of the students participating in the study was 21.85 years. The study was designed with the mixed method. Studies enriched with design thinking activities were conducted with participants in pairs or groups. A demographic information form, three scales and a semi-structured interview form were used. The data were analyzed with Mann-Whitney U tests and qualitative data analysis methods. According to the results of the study, students who participated in pair-design activities emphasized the contributions of the process in defining the problem and visualizing solutions, while students who participated in group-design activities reported that the design thinking approach facilitated their problem solving processes. These findings suggest that design thinking can be an important tool in developing students' problem solving skills. According to the results regarding its contribution to design thinking disposition, it was found that there was a significant difference between the post-test scores of the experimental groups in the relationship dimension. It was also concluded that the experimental study had a significant effect on the collaboration dimension of design thinking characteristics. This study can provide students with tips on how to manage group work and how to share tasks correctly to improve their problem solving and design thinking processes.