Developing the foundations of a critical and creative mind to drive future innovations through pre-tertiary design education

Critical thinking and creativity are two of the four skills generally regarded as 21st century skills and are important aspects of innovation. Using the secondary two Design and Technology (D&T) coursework in Singapore as an example, the current study aims to identify and highlight learning experiences in D&T that may develop critical thinking and creativity. A qualitative approach is adopted in this study to identify key learning experiences that will contribute to the development of critical thinking and creativity. Design journals done by the students were analysed and supplemented by hearing survey with the teacher in-charge. From the findings, students were engaged in real life authentic problem solving and were constantly engaged into using higher order thinking skills, divergent and convergent thinking to explore, analyse and evaluate their options towards the final solution. These activities are critical to the development of critical thinking and creativity. As a form of human resource development, it is believed that subjects such as D&T has an important role to play to develop the foundations of an innovative mind that is important to confront and navigate the problems and complexities in the current time and beyond.