THE SCHOOL OF INDUSTRIAL DESIGN 

GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY 

Under the provisions of the regulations for the degree 

MASTER OF INDUSTRIAL DESIGN 

on

Monday, April 6, 2026

12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. EST 

West Architecture 155

Teams Link:  https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/232623630363897?p=jWWL3W9QBDugRBrus7

Meeting ID: 232 623 630 363 897

Passcode: 3DD7VS7J

Christopher Tangka

will present a thesis defense entitled, 

"Developing Critical Thinking through Design Centered Pedagogy at the Secondary School Level"

 Advisor: 

Dr. Eunsook Kwon, Georgia Tech School of Industrial Design 

Committee:  

Dr. Stephen Harmon, Georgia Tech School of Industrial Design
Christopher Michaud, Marist High School

Faculty and students are invited to attend this presentation. 

Abstract  

n this research, a workshop for secondary school students was designed and tested to help develop critical thinking skills through a design challenge. Using project-based learning in the format of design education, a design challenge was created to give students the opportunity to learn and use a critical thinking process developed for this workshop. By developing critical thinking skills, this research aims to better prepare students to be effective in a changing workplace and to understand the world around them.

To develop this workshop, literature was reviewed across the disciplines of Engineering, Social Studies, Art and Industrial Design education to best understand the current landscape of critical thinking development in education as well as benefits and pitfalls of common educational structures. Following this and interviews with secondary school educators, a series of three workshop modules tasking students to address a given design challenge were developed and presented to a class of 9th grade students.

From analysis of participant materials and assessments, evidence was found that showed use of the critical thinking process introduced in the workshop as participants were able to gather information from given literature and observations, transform that information into actionable insights, and use those insights to shape their design work. In conjunction with noting an increased specificity in their descriptions of critical thinking and its use when comparing pre-workshop and post-workshop assessments, these results suggest that curriculum presented has a positive impact on participants’ critical thinking development.