Topic 3 - Design Thinking

Edited on the 11th of April. Added more references, fixed grammar mistakes and linked content to the syllabus.

Design thinking is a relatively recent concept that permeates nearly every discipline (Koh et al., 2015). This form of thinking also influences education and is used in the construction of schools and the crafting of lesson plans, syllabus content or assessment outcomes (Koh et al., 2015). It is essential, therefore, to integrate design thinking into the classroom (Wright & Jones, 2018).

This integration, however, requires design thinking itself. As Laurillard (2012) claims, teaching is both an art and a ‘design science’. Educators must be prepared to teach content in a way that is engaging, informative, and efficient. Koh et al. (2015) voiced their support for this, highlighting how education has gradually moved away from traditional styles of teaching such as strict behaviourism or instrumentalism to more student-focused strategies. Design thinking allows students to construct their own knowledge in ways that align with constructivist and constructionist approaches to learning.

Design thinking involves five stages; Empathise, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test (Dam & Siang, 2023). The following video outlines these in more detail.

In week 3 of EDUC3620, university students had the opportunity to engage with common games found in schools that help children practise design thinking. One of these games incorporated six equally sized blocks. The game was played in stages, and each stage had guidelines for how to organise the six blocks. For example, the first stage of the game required students to place the blocks so that every block touched exactly one other block. This encouraged students to work collaboratively to find solutions to problems.

CC by Lachlan Shanks

Another example of design thinking in the classroom would be to present a problem such as recycling wastage to the class. Their task is to sustainably create something using recycled materials that will help scare birds away from the vegetable garden. An activity like this would align with Science and Technology outcomes such as ST2-2DP-T and ST2-7MW-T, where students learn to use a variety of resources to achieve a range of purposes (NESA, 2017). As well as this, students would be engaging with the Cross-Curriculum Priority ‘Sustainability’. This activity allows for the five stages of design thinking. Students learn to use creativity in how they empathise with and define problems, before creating ideas for solutions. They can then use design thinking to create prototypes to assess whether their solution will work (Dam & Siang, 2023). All of this incorporates design thinking into the classroom, fostering creativity.

References:

Dam, R. F., & Siang, T. Y. (2023). What is Design Thinking and Why Is It So Popular? The Interaction Design Foundation. https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/what-is-design-thinking-and-why-is-it-so-popular

Koh, J. H. L., Chai, C. S., Wong, B., & Hong, H. (2015). Design Thinking for Education: Conceptions and Applications in Teaching and Learning. Springer. (pp. 1–15) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-444-3_1

Laurillard, D. (2012). Teaching as a Design Science: Building Pedagogical Patterns for Learning and Technology.

NSW Education Standards Authority [NESA] (2017). Science and Technology K-6 Syllabus.

https://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/portal/nesa/k-10/learning-areas/science/science-and-technology-k-6-new-syllabus

Sprouts. (2017, October 23). The Design Thinking Process [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_r0VX-aU_T8

Wright, G. W., & Jones, M. D. (2018). Innovation in the Elementary Classroom. Technology and Engineering Teacher, 77(5), 8–13. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1169364