gms | German Medical Science

The literature on inquiry-based learning usually assumes an understanding of inquiry based on ideal-typical cycles of empirical educational and social research [5]. However, more recent research has suggested a greater openness of inquiry-based learning regarding the “factual variety” of research approaches [4], which should thus be taken into account when conceptualizing concrete seminars of inquiry-based learning.

Among other examples of alternative scientific accesses, Owen [2] proposed that "Design" differs from conventional science both in terms of its procedure and its outcomes. As design also differs from “normal” social scientific research, the question arises of whether design competencies from the side of the students need to be encouraged by alternative forms of instruction. At a theoretical level, there have been thoughts on the development of a both scientific and creative capacity of problem-solving [1].

This presentation complements these theoretical efforts by an applied perspective and presents a case study from a university seminar on health design [3]. More specifically, the students had the opportunity to learn inquiry-based by tackling distinct social challenges of the German healthcare system with the method of design thinking. While instructing the course for more than three years and based on the careful analysis of the students’ feedback at the end of each course, the author strived for a continuous improvement of the seminar’s individual sessions in order to achieve the systematic training of the necessary design competencies. The presentation describes the didactic measures which lead to a high degree of student satisfaction and also to the enhancement of the author’s own (doctoral) studies.