Abstract
Action Research provides a system of reflective practices that yield answers to inquiry based questions within teaching. It gives a new way of looking at teaching art for novice and experienced teachers alike (Klein, 2014). In this action research study, changes to the structure of delivering information to students were integrated in a high school visual arts course. The inquiry questions that guided this study were “What is the impact Design Thinking and the Design Process have on the way students approach solving complex artistic and design problems?” Secondly, “how if at all, does implementing Design Thinking affect student confidence, motivation, engagement and perseverance efforts in the art curricula?”. Data collection occurred over the period of 8 weeks and included student participant pre-,mid-, and post- questionnaires and surveys, journal responses, artwork, and observations, as well as teacher/researcher memos. Results showed a positive impact on student learning by engaging with the Design Thinking Process. Impacts included, an increase in student engagement rates, and increased student intrinsic motivation, and student to student collaboration. Cross-analysis of teacher/researcher and student participant data revealed commonalities among Design Thinking experiences during this study. Three major themes discovered through analysis across all datasets were Collaboration, Inquiry Process, and Resiliency. Conclusions showed that both students and teacher benefitted from the structure, empathy infused, reflective process and cyclical nature of Design Thinking laced into the curricula. Additionally, Design Thinking and inquiry-based learning methods are highly applicable to high school art classrooms.