Exploring design based wilderness education : a pedagogy to develop design thinking, an engineering science worldview, and leadership capacity

Abstract

This study explores the experience of students during the implementation of a design-based wilderness education curricula. I introduce the concept of a curriculum that combines the pedagogies of design-based learning and wilderness education to encourage the development of design thinking, an engineering science worldview, and leadership ability. This project bridges the gap between the wilderness education and engineering education literature as this is a novel approach to engineering education. In bridging the two literatures, we find that the outcomes of wilderness education align well with the contemporary demands of engineering education. The initial implementation of the design-based wilderness education curriculum took place in the Summer of 2014. Thirty students from the Singapore University of Technology and Design and six students from MIT participated in the program. A mixed-methods study was performed, relying on surveys, exit interviews, and instructor observations. The findings from the research illustrate that design-based wilderness education holds the potential to serve as an exciting novel avenue to encourage design thinking, the development of an engineering science worldview, and leadership ability. While further research is necessary, this initial exploration finds that wilderness education is a promising vector for supporting effective design thinking practices and the development of an engineering science worldview, alongside leadership ability.