Collaborative Design Learning and Thinking Style Awareness

This paper reports on a concerted attempt to develop the design ability and creativity of students from different engineeringdisciplines through a Project-Based Learning (PBL) approach in a collaborative educational environment. A heavyreliance was placed on teaching the students six styles of thinking, especially in the beginning and final phases of projectdesign. Different collaborative learning experiences in product design were conducted, which required students to practisesix styles of thinking. Using a thinking style inventory, pre- and post-survey, data were collected and successively analysedthroughANOVAtechniques. Statistically significant results showed that students successfully developed empathy and anopenness to multiple perspectives. Furthermore, data analysis confirmed that the proposed collaborative learningexperience positively contributed to increased awareness in students’ thinking styles.