What is it about?
The article examines long-term economic and political trends and their implications for instruction in Master of Public Administration (MPA) programs. Due to the unprecedented challenges emanating from the trends, creativity and critical thinking skills, which are essential for effectively addressing the challenges, are cultivated by instruction that relies on ill-defined problems and design thinking.
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Why is it important?
The probability of developing innovative solutions to the challenges confronting public administrators is enhanced when traditional instructional techniques are replaced by the combination of ill-defined problems and design thinking that creates a learning environment conducive to creativity and critical thinking
Perspectives
Student comments clearly indicate a preference for the combination of ill-defined problems and design thinking because it (1) encourages them to integrate course material and creatively solve an ill-defined problem rather than memorizing course content for an exam and (2) enhances their capacity to effectively function in a group. The instructional approach also yields a significant increase in course evaluation scores.
Robert Peters
Western Michigan University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Long-term trends accentuate the import of creative and critical thinking skills developed by design thinking and ill-defined questions, Teaching Public Administration, February 2017, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/0144739416680850.
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