Design Thinking: Improving Schools, Empowering Students

What is Design Thinking? Design Thinking for educators is a creative process that helps students and teachers design meaningful solutions in the classroom, at your school, and in your community. According to Thomas Riddle, Assistant Director of Roper Mtn. Science Center, “design thinking is a human-centered approach to problem solving that begins with developing empathy for those facing a particular challenge.” In a nutshell, design thinking is a problem solving framework that allows students and teachers to take action, make mistakes, and learn from those mistakes.

In his article, Improving Schools Through Design Thinking, Riddle describes five main stages of Design Thinking that have been used in the business community, but can also be easily transferred to the education world:

1. Empathize - This is the foundation of design thinking. Empathy allows us to see and understand the needs of others. It forces us to look away from ourselves - seeing other viewpoints and demonstrating understanding towards those often differing views.
2. Define - Listen carefully to the problem at hand. Get input from those directly affected. Riddle explains, “Clearly defining the problem gives you a better chance at creating a clear solution.”
3. Ideate - This means to form an idea; to imagine or conceive. Oftentimes we call this the “brainstorming” phase. Students can be particularly innovative and excel at “thinking outside the box”.
4. Prototype - Putting the idea into a preliminary model - knowing that it may go through several changes and adaptations.
5. Test - Test the prototype and make adjustments. Be flexible and open to change.

Design Thinking can be a powerful tool for both students and schools overall. As educators and administrators, we too can use the design thinking process for learning and making improvements within our schools and communities. Riddle has an excellent follow up article on Edutopia titled Empowering Students with Design Thinking. Here he gives concrete examples of how he’s using design thinking with students.
Susie Wise, Director of the K12 Lab Network at the Stanford d.school, also notes that the last few years have shown an “explosion of interest in design thinking”. The spread of design thinking is showing up in both professional development opportunities for teachers and as challenges for students. Design Thinking in Schools provides a directory of schools and programs that use design thinking in the curriculum for K12 students.
Design thinking is a mindset. Your Pepper Professional Development Courses and Workshops can help you create a more engaged and active classroom that includes Design Thinking strategies and processes. We’re adding new courses and workshops regularly, so be sure to check them out.