Art and design education hold a unique role in preparing the kinds of innovative, balanced, synthetic creators and thinkers needed in the 21st century. This paper sheds shed light on how learner-centered art classrooms, that incorporate design thinking as a balanced process, can better develop the overall learning capacity of students. In a mash-up between mixed model research involving the impact of learner-centered pedagogies on visual art students’ balanced intelligence and reviews of literature surrounding the promotion of depth and complexity of knowledge, new conceptual frameworks and assessments are offered. Towards a vision of fostering deep, connected, and independent thinkers, the author—as designer, artist, and art educator-- explores design thinking as an aesthetic, inquiry based process that integrates complex intelligence theories.

Keywords: Design thinking, critical, creative, practical thinking, learner-centered, learner-centered
pedagogy