Abstract
This chapter explores the intricate socio-political-cultural factors affecting Thai design students' learning and examines the potential of games and gamification in sustainability learning as an unconventional design pedagogical approach in Thai higher education. This chapter's heart is an extensive participatory action research case study from the sustainable design course of two universities in Bangkok. The project allows students to learn from game design to raise awareness of sustainability-related issues and use the games to enhance their sustainability learning through peer interactions. Games and gamification can assist Thai design students in obtaining skills essential to education for sustainable development while reducing power distance and uncertainty avoidance among classroom members. Research findings also reveal the complex relationships between game-based pedagogical practice and cultural characteristics, such as fun-pleasure orientation and interdependence orientation.
TopBackground
This section examines the Thai education culture through two prominent theoretical frames and an analysis of the recent student-led, pro-democracy protest which gives a complete, up-to-date picture of the changes in students' value orientations. It lays out a foundation before moving onto the more context-specific discussion around the use of games and gamification for sustainable design education in Thailand.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Pedagogy: The approach to teaching, focusing on how the process influences and is influenced by the social, political, and psychological development of learners.
Thailand: A country formerly known as Siam, located in Southeast Asia, and with a constitutional monarchy. Throughout its modern history, the form of government has ranged from military dictatorship to electoral democracy.
Sustainable Development: A principle for meeting human development goals while concurrently sustaining the ability of ecological systems to provide the natural resources and ecosystem services on which the economy and society depend.
Participatory Action Research (PAR): A research approach in which stakeholders are involved in the entire process as co-researchers and knowledge collectively generated in the process is used for the development of strategies for social change.
Sustainability: An interdisciplinary subject which pertains to all living systems on earth. It spans from environmental studies to social sciences and requires efforts and expertise from a variety of backgrounds.
Education for Sustainable Development (ESD): Education that encourages changes in knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes to enable a more sustainable and just society for all.
Product Design: A discipline and professional practice that involves the innovation process of tangible products.
Industrial Design: A discipline and professional practice that involves the design of products, services, and systems through a strategic problem-solving process.
Thai Design Education: The formal teaching of design theory and application, beginning at the higher education level, wherein students are predominantly offered practical, skill-based training.