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Colleagues The conversation over the last couple of months related to ‘Design Thinking’ has been intriguing – not least because this is an area of interest of mine - albeit in an education context. However given that ‘Design Thinking’ has been given a lot of air time recently and there is some agreement that it exists as a particular form of thinking - I am left wondering how unique is ‘Design Thinking’ to the field of design? My point is that many of the claims about Design Thinking (as opposed to process) are vague and abstract and could easily be claimed in other fields. Therefore what do those involved in design (e.g. business and education) do to develop Design Thinking and how do they know when someone does/doesn’t have this particular form of thinking? Is this a purely innate and intuitive capacity that you have or don’t have or is this something that can be taught, developed and even assessed? Is it a particular form of intelligence (whilst acknowledging the pitfalls with this line of reasoning)? My question also links to recent posts about the Design field and the research and academic rigour associated with it. Therefore my second point would be if laying claim to Design Thinking (of which there are some benefits to do so) then can we legitimately say it is unique to the field and can we prove it by being able to specify and isolate what it is as well as being able to articulate a specific pedagogical approach for its development? Regards David __________________________________________________ Dr David Spendlove Programme Director Manchester Institute of Education University of Manchester B4.6 Ellen Wilkinson Building Oxford Road Manchester M13 9PL http://davidspendlove.wordpress.com/ ____________________________________________________ This e-mail is intended solely for the addressee. If you are not the addressee please do not read, print, re-transmit, store or act in reliance on it or any attachments. Unless otherwise expressly agreed by the sender of this email, this communication may contain privileged or confidential information which may not be used or disclosed except for the purpose for which it has been sent. This email should not be forwarded or copied to others not originally in the distribution list without my permission ----------------------------------------------------------------- PhD-Design mailing list <[log in to unmask]> Discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design Subscribe or Unsubscribe at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/phd-design -----------------------------------------------------------------