Design Thinking and Learning Material Utilisation Creativity in Early Childhood Teacher Education: A Case of Kyambogo University, Uganda
![Thumbnail](/bitstream/handle/20.500.12504/1776/Katungi%20Juma%202023_Page_01.png.jpg?sequence=4&isAllowed=y)
View/ Open
Date
2023-04Author
Katungi, Juma
Godfrey, Ejuu
Grace, Lubaale
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
In the recent past, we have seen a lot of innovations in children’s learning materials,
equipment and spaces design due to the work of famous educators like Montessori, 1912 and
Froebel, 1837. This has led to the development of a new landscape of how children’s
learning spaces look like. Many children’s learning centers have heavily invested in spaces
design and space equipment but despite all these developments, teachers in Uganda have
registered limited success in the utilization of these facilities to enrich children’s learning
experiences. This study was carried out to investigate how design thinking can be used to
impact teaching spaces utilization creativity (Pacini-Ketchabaw, 2016; Hakim, 2017 &
Masoumi, 2020). A Quasi-experimental with a mixed design approach was used with an
embedded Pretest Post-test Design (Bhattacherjee, 2012). Quantitative and qualitative data
was collected from a sample of a cohort of 64 in-service teachers studying a diploma in
early childhood teacher education. Data was collected using observations, focused group
interviews, and entries from the field notes. Using the Art world design thinking process, an
experiment was developed to induce material utilization creativity. Alongside was a
creativity observation to measure creativity indicators. This was used to measure creativity
exhibited at pretest and posttest in both the control and experimental group. Data analysis
used descriptive statistics for preliminary analysis and an independent group’s t-test for
analyzing the difference between the control and experimental group. Findings showed that
there was a statistically significant difference between the control and experimental group
at post-test; this was attributed to the art world design thinking process.