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Abstract
Magic as a performing art entertains the audience with unexpected and seemingly impossible illusions. Magicians who invented magic tricks have developed techniques and principles over many years to transform their innovative magic ideas into carefully scripted magical performances. This dissertation introduces a teaching strategy that is based on magic performance and these magic-related principles to facilitate students’ flexible thinking in design. A manuscript format has been chosen for the dissertation consisting of four manuscripts. The first manuscript (Chapter 2) is a literature review that provides a theoretical foundation for the design of this method. The second manuscript (Chapter 3) is a design case that introduces the iterative design and development process of this method. The third manuscript (Chapter 4) is a qualitative study that investigates the influence of this method on students’ flexible thinking with the purpose of revealing the underlying cognitive mechanism. The last manuscript (Chapter 5) is a mixed-methods study investigating the potential factors that influence the effectiveness of this strategy and how this strategy influences these factors.