An empathy-integrated teaching intervention for design thinking in higher education: A mixed-methods study in an interior design course

Although design thinking is increasingly used in higher education, limited research has examined how structured, empathy-oriented pedagogy supports empathy, design thinking, and creative performance in interior design education. This study examined an empathy-integrated teaching intervention grounded in the Stanford Design Thinking Model in an undergraduate interior design course. Using a quasi-experimental mixed-methods design, 74 third-year students were assigned to an experimental or control group. The intervention integrated empathy-oriented brainstorming, structured discussion, and SCAMPER across the stages of empathising, defining, ideating, prototyping, and testing. Quantitative data included pre- and post-tests of empathy and design thinking, as well as end-of-course creativity assessments; semi-structured interviews explored students’ learning experiences. The experimental group showed stronger outcomes across all three areas. Interview findings further indicated improvements in human-centred awareness, iterative thinking, and engagement in idea development.