Manuscript received July 1, 2022; revised October 6, 2022; accepted October 28, 2022.
Abstract—The purpose of this study was to investigate the
effects of a design-thinking-based teaching method on
optimizing students’ motivation and understanding of cell
biology. This method is based on creativity and creating
solutions and is primarily human focused. It involves a five-step
process: discovery, explanation, thinking, experimenting, and
developing. In this study, the researchers employed empathy in
redesigning the content after each class based on student
feedback and reflections. The sample included 92 female
students: 50 in a design-thinking classroom and 42 in a
conventional classroom. Three instruments were developed: a
teachers’ guide, an achievement test, and a questionnaire on
students’ motivation toward learning biology. Data were
analyzed using the mean, standard deviation, an ANCOVA test,
and size effect. The results showed that there were statistically
significant differences in students’ increased motivation and
achievement of biology in favor of the design-thinking classes.
Although the results indicated that there was a statistically
significant difference for teaching by the design-thinking
method in improving students’ achievement according to
students’ GPA, the results did not indicate a statistically
significant difference in enhancing students’ motivation toward
learning biology according to GPA. Therefore, instructors and
curriculum developers should restructure the contents of their
courses according to the design-thinking model to optimize
students’ motivation and understanding of cell biology.
Index Terms—Design thinking in education, cell biology,
optimizing motivation, learning biology, science education
Ali Khaled Bawaneh is with Math, Science, and ICT Department,
Bahrain Teachers Collage, University of Bahrain, Bahrain.
Mashael M. Alnamshan is with the Department of Biology, College of
Science, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Bahrain.
*Correspondence: abawaneh@uob.edu.bh (A.K.B.)
Cite: Ali Khaled Bawaneh* and Mashael M. Alnamshan, "Design Thinking in Science Education: Enhancing Undergraduate Students' Motivation and Achievement in Learning Biology," International Journal of Information and Education Technology vol. 13, no. 4, pp. 621-633, 2023.
Copyright © 2023 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).