Design Feedback that Stimulates Children’s Creative Thinking: A Feedback Intervention

TY - GEN

T1 - Design Feedback that Stimulates Children’s Creative Thinking: A Feedback Intervention

AU - Schut, Alice

AU - Van Mechelen, Maarten

AU - Klapwijk, Remke M.

AU - Gielen, Mathieu

AU - de Vries, Marc J.

PY - 2021

Y1 - 2021

N2 - Designing is an inherently creative process in which divergent (generative) and convergent (evaluative) thinking drive the creation and development of a design. Nevertheless, navigating these creative thinking processes is not an easy endeavour, especially for young novice designers. In Design & Technology education, design feedback is often seen as an essential pedagogical tool to help guide novice designers' divergent and convergent paths while designing. Although design feedback can help the creative design process greatly, this does not happen by default. This paper reports on the construction and utilization of a design feedback intervention during a real-life design project with two groups of primary school children (aged 7-12). The goal of the intervention was to stimulate the young novice designers' creative thinking by guiding the design feedback dialogues with their peers and clients. It guides convergent and divergent design feedback to minimize the resistance towards the feedback and creates openness for new processes of reflection, evaluation, and generation. Our main contribution entails a detailed understanding of the successes and obstacles within the feedback dialogues, as guided by the new feedback intervention, and possible future improvements. Overall, the results show that the intervention can support young novice designers, their peers, and clients in engaging in constructive feedback dialogues, thereby stimulating their creative thinking.

AB - Designing is an inherently creative process in which divergent (generative) and convergent (evaluative) thinking drive the creation and development of a design. Nevertheless, navigating these creative thinking processes is not an easy endeavour, especially for young novice designers. In Design & Technology education, design feedback is often seen as an essential pedagogical tool to help guide novice designers' divergent and convergent paths while designing. Although design feedback can help the creative design process greatly, this does not happen by default. This paper reports on the construction and utilization of a design feedback intervention during a real-life design project with two groups of primary school children (aged 7-12). The goal of the intervention was to stimulate the young novice designers' creative thinking by guiding the design feedback dialogues with their peers and clients. It guides convergent and divergent design feedback to minimize the resistance towards the feedback and creates openness for new processes of reflection, evaluation, and generation. Our main contribution entails a detailed understanding of the successes and obstacles within the feedback dialogues, as guided by the new feedback intervention, and possible future improvements. Overall, the results show that the intervention can support young novice designers, their peers, and clients in engaging in constructive feedback dialogues, thereby stimulating their creative thinking.

KW - Design feedback

KW - Divergent thinking

KW - Convergent thinking

KW - Design fixation

KW - Creative thinking

KW - Design Research

KW - Creativity research

KW - Maker education

KW - K-12 education

KW - Participatory design

KW - CCTD

KW - #CCTD

M3 - Conference article

SN - 1238-9501

VL - 28

SP - 128

EP - 139

JO - Techne Series - Research in Sloyd Education and Craft Science A

JF - Techne Series - Research in Sloyd Education and Craft Science A

IS - 2

T2 - Technology in our Hands

Y2 - 27 April 2021 through 30 April 2021

ER -