Background and Aim: Based on relevant policies and literature, such as higher education planning at home and abroad, policies of the Chinese Ministry of Education, educational concepts, cognitive learning theories, project-based learning methods, teaching strategies, and teaching evaluations, researchers interviewed teachers and students on the current Landscape Planning and Design course. This research and development aimed 1 to study the background information focusing on course components of the landscape planning and design course to enhance students’ learning achievement and the innovative ability of landscape planning and design. 2) To develop a Landscape planning and design course based on the design thinking process, combined with the applications. 3) To determine the effectiveness of implementing the landscape planning course based on the Design thinking process, combined with the applications. Materials and Methods: This research aimed to develop a landscape planning and design course based on the design thinking process integrated with applications, to enhance students' learning achievement and innovative ability. A sample of 30 junior students in environmental design was studied using a one-group post-test-only design. They are derived from using a cluster random sampling method. The experimental design adopted in this research was a one-group post-test only design. The research instruments for each Phase of the study were as follows: Phase I: Interview forms for teachers and students on course-related questions. Phase II: 1) Landscape planning and design course based on the Design thinking process, combined with the applications. 2) 8 lesson plans of the Landscape planning and design course. 3) An evaluation of innovative ability. 4) A learning achievement test. 5)Satisfaction questionnaire. The data were analyzed by using mean, standard deviation, and the one-sample t-test. Results: The results of this research were as follows: 1) The researcher reviewed the related documents about the Landscape planning and design course and interviewed the 7 teachers and 15 students for problems of the landscape planning and design course, and the information gathered was used to develop the course. 2) The researcher invited 5 experts to evaluate the Landscape Planning and Design course development in five aspects: Course objectives, Course content, Course instructional strategies, Course media and resources, and Course evaluation to test the quality of the course developed. 3) After implementing through landscape planning and design course based on design thinking process combined with the applications, students’ the innovative ability (Knowledge) was higher than the determined criterion of 70% at a significance level of .05 (M = 24.17 out of 30, SD = 5.35, t = 3.242, p = 0.003); students’ the innovative ability (Skills) was higher than the determined criterion of 70% at a significance level of .05 (M = 80.60 out of 100, SD = 7.89, t = 7.363, p = 0.000). 4) The mean scores of students’ satisfaction after implementing through the landscape planning and design course based on the design thinking process combined with the applications were 47.43 from a possible full mark of 50 and the standard deviation was 3.16 which was statistically higher than the criterion of 70% at the .05 level of statistical significance (t = 21.559, p = .000). Conclusion: This research confirms the effectiveness of the teaching model based on the Design thinking process combined with the applications to enhance students’ learning achievement and the innovative ability of landscape planning and design.
Huangfu et al. (Mon,) studied this question.