Design Thinking
From Learning and training wiki
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Design thinking is a style of thinking. It is generally considered the ability to combine empathy, creativity, and rationality. While design thinking has become part of the popular lexicon in contemporary design and engineering practice, as well as business and management, its broader use in describing a particular style of creative thinking-in-action is having an increasing influence on twenty-first century education across disciplines. [1]
Therefore, as approach to learning it consists in a creative process based around the "building up" of ideas. There are no judgments early on in design thinking. This eliminates the fear of failure and encourages maximum input and participation in the ideation and prototype phases. Outside the box thinking is encouraged in these earlier processes since this can often lead to creative solutions. This differs from the scientific method, which starts with defining all the parameters of the problem in order to define the solution. Rather, the design way of problem solving starts with a solution in order to start to define enough of the parameters to optimize the path to the goal. The solution, then, is actually the starting point. This methodology includes considering real-world problems, research, analysis, conceiving original ideas, lots of experimentation, and sometimes building things by hand. It’s not part of traditional teacher training programs and has only recently entered the teachers’ vernacular [2] . Design thinking is a way to make people more effective and to increase their innate capabilities. Teachers have to foster each student’s individual creativity, helping them think critically about how and where they get their best ideas. For examples, one student discovers his best ideas come after he has played sports; while another student finds that shutting herself in a closet where she is not affected by anyone else is the most productive. Teaching and training with design thinking takes some specific qualities: a fair amount of flexibility and resourcefulness, open mindedness, curiosity, the ability to question beyond the facts, a positive attitude, high energy levels, and excitement about interdisciplinary approaches. More than anything, some testimonials say that the educator should “firmly believe that if you tell an answer to a child you’ve deprived them of a great learning opportunity.” [3] |
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Step by Step1. UNDERSTAND
2. OBSERVE
3. DEFINE
This statement ends with a suggestion about how to make changes that will have an impact on peoples’ experiences. 4. IDEATE
5. PROTOTYPE
6. TEST
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Find below additional information and resources. |
Link | Content | |
---|---|---|
Design Thinking Movie (video,2:28 minutes) | The trailer of a documentary exploring the idea of Design Thinking. | |
Design Thinking: Lessons for the Classroom | An article analyzing Design Thinking features for educators. | |
Design Thinking for Educators | An online platform for and about teachers using Design Thinking. Video testimonials available. You can download the "Design Thinking Toolkit for Educators". |
References
- ↑ www.wikipedia.org (13 March 2013)
- ↑ www.blogs.kqed.org (4 March 2013)
- ↑ www.blogs.kqed.org (4 March 2013)
- ↑ www.dschool.stanford.edu (13 March 2013)