This study examines the effects of a design thinking intervention on first-year students' teamwork skills from a multi-actor perspective. A design thinking course was evaluated during a semester. Six hundred forty university students participated and were guided by twenty-six facilitators. The students received in-class training and worked in multi-disciplinary teams to develop a solution for a real-life problem. In this quasi-experimental study, data were collected twice: in the middle (t1), and at the end (t2) of the course. Each time, students were rated by their teammates, themselves, and the course facilitator, using a rubric to map teamwork skills. Results show a significant improvement in teamwork skills, as consistently observed in the three ratings. The results also show a significant effect of sex on the improvement over time. Female students reflect more considerable progress than male students. This study addresses researchers' demands on the lack of robust evidence to assess the impact of design thinking in higher education settings. Furthermore, building on data from a large sample size and an intervention designed in a replicable way, this study contributes to the available empirical evidence that helps adopt and implement design thinking in universities to develop essential skills, such as teamwork.

Guaman Sharon, Everaert Patricia, Chiluiza Katherine, Valcke Martin, 2022, Fostering Teamwork through Design Thinking: Evidence from a multi-actor perspective, Education Sciences, https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci12040279