Towards a Problem-Solving Education
The Project
Academic : Paris-Dauphine University ⎮ Dec - May 2018
In this project supervised by my former business school, I worked on understanding how problem solving as a skill can be cultivated through education. The outcome of this project is a research report, few visuals notes and a set of recommendations suggesting an alternative format for business education.
This project was initially carried out in French.
The Process
To produce the report and recommendations, my work was based on the synthesis of elements of theory, ranging from academic articles in the field of design theory and management theory to recent academic research in the realm of neuroscience, psychology and psychiatry.
This theoretical foundation was enriched by site visits, access to schools’
pedagogical specifications and a two sample hypothesis testing. The latter aimed at identifying significant differences in the ways of thinking, the relational competences and the type of training between students from two samples, one of design students and one of management students.
The Outcome
My report establishes three types of elements that makes good designers fundamentally different from managers when it comes to problem solving. These are attitudes, cognitive qualities and interpersonal qualities. I find that the way design education and business education are designed lays the foundation, or not, for the development of these key attitudes, cognitives qualities and interpersonal qualities.
In that respect, the curriculum, methods of teaching and the selection criterion of the schools are what stimulate and support the development of students as problem solvers or not. My recommendations reflect on these insights to encourage a change in management education. They present the business school with measures to inspire a new degree programme aiming at training innovative managers.
The visuals presented here reflect on the traditional profiles encouraged by a business education on one side and a design education on the other side.