Development and Implementation of a Design Thinking-Based Curriculum for Fostering Glocal Competence in Asian Graduate Students

Abstract

This study developed and implemented a design thinking-based glocal curriculum within an international joint short-term intensive learning environment for Asian graduate students, with the aim of empirically exploring how glocal competence is formed in international joint graduate education. The curriculum was systematically developed based on the ADDIE instructional design model and organized into five modules — covering global education and ODA, empathy-based problem definition, case and field exploration, and community-based problem solving — informed by analyses of international joint curriculum cases and learner needs. The curriculum was implemented over three days with 40 graduate students from five universities across four Asian countries. Its effectiveness was examined through pre- and postsurveys measuring glocal and design thinking competence, supplemented by reflective journal analysis. The results revealed significant improvements in community understanding, problem definition, idea generation, and testing competence, while perspective-taking and problem reframing through multinational collaboration were observed on an exploratory basis. These findings suggest that glocal competence may be cultivated through the structural interpretation of community-based educational issues and the exploration of actionable solutions, and that design thinking may function as an effective instructional design principle for organizing the collision and negotiation of perspectives among multinational learners in international higher education contexts.