Biology Activity Cards for Design Thinking: Effects on Student Creativity and Self-directedness

Abstract

With the increasing sophistication of everyday life, globalization, advancement of technology and tightening economic competition, innovative capacities comprised in the 21st century skills have become crucial for individuals to survive in an ever changing society. It is, nevertheless, essential to prepare learners who are not only equipped with academics, but also with the capacity to adapt well with the needs of the community. Content learning is important, but in order to effectively internalize knowledge, metacognitive competencies, attitudes, values, and action skills are crucial. With the beginning of the 21st century, many teaching practices developed in schools, such as student-centred and independent learning, project-based and cooperative learning, as well as authentic assessment seem to have gone main stream. Along with this list of main stream practices, some practices that cater specially to the growing interests of society are already being boarded across disciplines, one of which is Design Thinking. The approach has received attention in business, engineering, architecture, and design majors in universities because the process can change how students learn and solve problems (Dym, Agogino, Eris, Frey, & Leifer, 2005; Fricke, 1999; Nagai & Noguchi, 2003). Design thinking is generally defined as an analytical and creative process engaging a person in opportunities to experiment, create and prototype models, gather feedback, and redesign (Razzouk & Shute, 2012). Design thinking has been a millennium rave in revolutionizing the teaching of both chemistry and physics in both the secondary and undergraduate levels of instruction as it changes the dynamics of model creation and assimilation of interdisciplinary concepts and skills. Aside from this the educational system is into developing learners who are self-directed and goal efficient to create a more meaningful learning. In lieu of the absence of research literature that tackles Design Thinking as used in Biology. Biology is known as more abstract among the Science disciplines. Even so, Biology is one of the more engrossing, in terms of scientific development, environmental awareness, health and fitness awareness, and even into looking at the lucrative careers that are expected to boom in the next years. The study addresses the challenge of creating a meaningful science learning that caters to developing creativity and self-directedness. The study also takes the challenge in implementing Design thinking principles through the use of biology activity cards to build a student-centred, collaborative, and holistic platform that supports innovation.