Design Thinking in STEM Education: A Review
Open accessAbstract
Design thinking plays an important role in grooming creative and innovative ideas. Design and design thinking are attributed as vital traits in STEM education. Design ability is important in shaping students’ mindsets for future challenges and advancements in technology. STEM education will strengthen learning and will help to foster creativity, critical thinking, design thinking ability, problem solving and innovative skills. In this research, we try to focus on different factors and theories regarding design thinking and role of STEM education in inducing design thinking and innovative ideas. Design is not confined to just few academic and professional subjects. Design thinking ability helps in about each and every discipline of life. In this review, different research studies and their findings regarding importance of design thinking in STEM education have been explained.
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Alashwal (2020) highlighted the growing significance of DT models in STEM education and underscored the need for more comprehensive research on moderator variables.
“Additionally, Alashwal (2020) highlighted the growing significance of DT models in STEM education and also underscored the need for more comprehensive research, particularly on the role of different moderator variables in determining their effectiveness (Alashwal, 2020).”
From A meta-analysis to explore the role of design thinking in enhancing creativity as learning outcomes in STEM education (2026) · cites this paper as Alashwal, 2020
Section 2, “Design Thinking Models,” says design thinking is gaining recognition in education and calls for more research into factors contributing to students’ design-thinking ability. The Conclusion also calls for more work. Neither passage specifically calls for research on moderator variables that determine the effectiveness of DT models. (LLM, conf=0.87)
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Research works printed but not linked: 31
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
Muneer, S., Santhosh, M., Parangusan, H., & Bhadra, J. (2026) · International Journal of Technology and Design Education · doi:10.1007/s10798-025-10005-2 · Cited by 14 · see citing works
- Authors
- Alashwal, M.
- Affiliations
- University of Central Florida (US)
- Corresponding author
- Alashwal, May
- ORCID
- Alashwal, May
- Venue
- International Research in Higher Education
- Publisher
- Sciedu Press
- Published
- 2020-02-09
- Volume
- 5
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 18
- ISSN
- 2380-9183 (ISSN-L)
- 2380-9205
- OpenAlex
- W3012005149
- Cited by
- 21
- References
- 3
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 4 · 2022: 4
- FWCI
- 0.49
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- diamond
- doi.org
- Locations
- International Research in Higher Education (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Mechanical Engineering › Design Education and Practice
- Social Sciences › Education › STEM Education
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Creativity in Education and Neuroscience
- Keywords
- design thinking, STEM education, creativity, innovation, critical thinking, problem solving, design capability, innovation ability
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