Implementing a design-thinking curriculum in pedagogy courses to nurture creative teachers

The effect of pedagogy courses is always uncertain as prospective teachers are using conventional methods in their block practice even after studying the courses. This paper presents a teaching development initiative of redesigining the curriculum of pedagogy courses based on a ‘design-thinking’ approach. This new curriculum design enables prospective teachers to master pedagogical knowledge effectively with a creative mind, supporting future teachers to become capable of teaching in an innovative way. The project runs in two simultaneous phases that mark with five design-thinking skills. In the problem phase, students are guided to ‘empathise’ and ‘define’ how a certain strategy is planned by exercising pedagogical judgement. In the production phase, students are involved in a full design thinking process for completing an innovative lesson plan, practicing three other design-thinking skills, i.e. ‘ideate’, ‘prototype’ and ‘test’. This presentation shares the tentative outcomes of the first cycle project implementation based on data collected from interviews from students who studied the courses on trial, student co-developers, and professors who initiated the project. The findings suggest positive outcomes on students’ belief about their capacity to perform creative work effectively (creative self-efficacy), ability of designing innovative lessons (teaching innovation) and engagement. Evaluation of students’ final project is reported and the challenges that facing students and teachers through learning and teaching in an innovative curriculum will also be discussed. Copyright © 2021 International Conference on Learning and Teaching.