In the era of pronounced educational reforms and a strong focus on sustainable development, the role of aesthetic education in augmenting educational quality has become pivotal. This study utilizes the CiteSpace knowledge mapping tool for an in-depth literature review and analysis on integrating aesthetic and quality education within the sustainable development ambit. Through bibliometric analysis of 824 articles from the Web of Science database covering 2015–2023, the evolving research trends, core themes, and future directions in this arena are investigated. This study uncovers a paradigm shift from traditional pedagogical approaches and art appreciation to broader areas like technology integration, educational innovation, and themes of social justice and empathy. The increasing prominence of digital arts and design thinking in educational methodologies underscores a commitment to fostering student creativity and addressing personalized learning needs. This research predominantly focuses on the intrinsic value of aesthetic education in enhancing quality education, emphasizing its comprehensive integration across educational, aesthetic, societal, and emotional dimensions. This paper highlights four principal research themes: the transformation of arts education, the interplay between educational policy and social responsibility, the nuances of educational assessment and student development, and the impact of technological advancements in educational practices. Additionally, it outlines five prospective research areas: the fusion of aesthetic education with cutting-edge technology; the cross-cultural implications in a globalized context; promoting inclusive aesthetic education; the potential of aesthetic education in nurturing social responsibility; and developing robust assessment metrics for the integration of aesthetic and quality education. These directions are aimed at enriching the theoretical and practical discourse, shaping the future trajectory of aesthetic education’s role in quality education.

The rapid expansion of the cultural industry and the escalating demand for innovation have led to a growing attention on the sustainable development of cultural and creative parks. This study aims to provide a comprehensive review and prospectus of the literature on the sustainable development of these parks using CiteSpace knowledge mapping. We analyzed 662 publications from 2012 to 2023 in the Web of Science database using bibliometric methods, such as descriptive statistical analysis, network analysis, and co-citation analysis. Our findings indicate that research hotspots in the sustainable development of cultural and creative parks focus on cultural ecosystems, environmental conservation, cultural landscapes, creative tourism, park management, and urban renewal. Three primary research themes emerged: ecological service systems, assessment models, and multidimensional value. We propose five future prospects: (1) diversifying sustainable development strategies; (2) coordinating development with urban, regional, and global sustainable development goals; (3) enhancing interdisciplinary research; (4) deepening stakeholder participation; and (5) improving the evaluation index system for sustainable development. This study offers a systematic guiding framework for constructing multidimensional value for the sustainable development of cultural and creative parks, providing valuable insights for future theoretical and practical research.

With significance in improving and developing local design culture as well as in supplementing global design history, this essay describes a study on the past and a clear prediction of the future by exploring Taiwan’s design history from approximately the 1960s to 2020 based on the evolution of theme, diversity, and sustainability. In this research, the Python programming language is used to apply three algorithms of term frequency–inverse document frequency (TF-IDF), Simpson’s diversity index (SDI), and latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) to conduct a text exploration of design journals. The results show the following: in the 1960s–1980s, the evolution of theme focused on evaluation strategies, technical practices, and foreign cultures, on digital design, multiculturalism, and design aesthetics in the 1990s, and on emotional human factors, intelligent technology, and local culture since the beginning of the 21st century. Local culture and intelligent technology are the main driving forces of the current design industry. Regarding diversity, after a period of rapid change and stable rising, it has shown a downward trend in recent years. This indicates that current design needs to be stimulated by external environmental variations. Sustainability was focused on technology, the market, and education during the 1960s–1980s; on consumers, design education, and eco-design during the 1990s; and on integration across fields during the 2000s–2020. In order to gain a wider perspective of the complete design context of Chinese culture, the results show the current and future trends of the academic community, in addition to a reference for the study of the design histories of other areas in the world.

With the widespread application of AI image generation technology in higher education design fields, traditional design education models face the necessity of reevaluation. This study aims to explore how design aesthetic features (as objective product attributes) influence designers’ creative thinking and design expression (as subjective capabilities), and accordingly reassess the educational value of foundational design courses in the AI era. Using a comparative experimental method, the research recruited 25 first-year and 25 third-year industrial design students to create product designs using Midjourney, with 36 industrial design experts systematically evaluating the works. Results indicate that design aesthetic features significantly impact design expression more than design thinking, and the two student groups demonstrate notable differences in design element application: novice design students primarily express creativity through intuitive visual elements such as product patterns and product appearance, while advanced students more effectively utilize professional design elements like form contours and material textures, reflecting how design education facilitates students' transition from perceptual cognition to rational analysis. Additionally, the positive correlation between creative thinking and design expression strengthens with deepening design education, indicating a mutually reinforcing relationship. Based on these findings, the paper suggests that foundational design courses in the AI-generated imagery era need repositioning: color and expression courses should shift from basic skill training to high-level theoretical education, creative thinking courses significantly increase in importance, form and material courses maintain core value but need content updates aligned with AI characteristics, while human-computer collaborative design should become a new curricular direction. This study provides an empirical foundation for design education reform in the AI era, emphasizing the importance of understanding design essentials and cultivating innovative thinking.