Paradigm Transformation of Integrating Design Thinking into Curriculum Teaching - Reconstruction of Teaching Model Based on Cognitive Science

With the continuous improvement of higher education's requirements for students' comprehensive innovation ability, traditional curriculum teaching has problems such as fragmented design process, single evaluation method and insufficient student participation. To this end, this paper introduces the design thinking paradigm and integrates artificial intelligence and Internet of Things technologies to reconstruct the course teaching process from the six stages of "understanding-observation-definition-concept-prototype-testing". Artificial intelligence is used to assist in creative generation, sentiment analysis and user portrait modeling, while the Internet of Things supports real-time collection and feedback tracking of user behavior data during prototype testing, thereby achieving full-process, visual learning evaluation and teaching regulation. Through comparative analysis, the experiment found that the teaching model after integrating technology significantly improved students' performance in key ability dimensions such as creative expression, problem solving, interdisciplinary integration and collaborative communication. The experimental group was slightly better than the control group in most dimensions, especially in ability improvement and collaborative experience, reflecting the positive role of design thinking-oriented teaching in promoting students' emotional investment and cognitive acquisition. First, in terms of course participation, the experimental group scored an average of 4.6 points, while the control group scored 3.55 points. The experimental group had a slightly higher proportion of "high score frequency" (5 points), indicating that its teaching activities were more attractive and participation-driven.