Outcomes of a Design Thinking Program on Social Workers: An Evaluation Study

Abstract

<p><strong>Purpose:</strong> This study explored the outcomes of a youth empowerment program guided by design thinking on social workers’ innovations in youth service. <strong>Method:</strong> Forty-seven practitioners joined this program with two stages: the capacity-building stage and the implementation stage. A pretest-intermediate test-posttest design survey was used to explore practitioners’ changes. <strong>Results:</strong> Significant differences were found in creative self-efficacy and innovative behavior, with the posttest mean scores of these indicators being higher than those of the pretest. Additionally, the results indicated significant differences in youth-practitioner partnerships and inter-professional learning. The posttest mean score of youth-practitioner partnerships was higher than those of the pretest and intermediate test, while the posttest and intermediate test mean scores of interprofessional learning were higher than that of the pretest. <strong>Conclusion:</strong> The findings suggest that participants need both opportunities to learn about design thinking through capacity-building and to integrate what they have learned during project implementation.<br></p>