Utilizing Design Thinking as a Compass to Develop a Personalized Flipped Learning Curriculum

Abstract

This chapter illustrates the process of reforming the curriculum of a Japanese language course in a university through the process of design thinking and addresses its benefits and problems. Design thinking is a human-centered approach to problem-solving that involves processes of discovery, interpretation, ideation, experimentation, and evolution. By applying these processes, a curriculum reform led to the development of a prototype of a personalized flipped learning curriculum that addresses the diverse needs of students. The results of a survey conducted after implementing the new curriculum revealed areas that had improved and needed improvement, indicating that design thinking is an excellent guide for curriculum development. However, they also revealed limitations of applying design thinking, such as the difficulty of addressing the needs of students whose opinions were not able to be obtained.