Design Thinking

ORTAL GREEN

Design Thinking

Create Great Thinkers in Your Classroom

If I tell you there is a framework for teaching and learning that drives the following excellent outcomes, would you believe it?

• Enhance academic results • Create an innovative learning environment • Drive better engagement • Create great thinkers • Create a better culture • Provide your students with a voice and agency over their learning • Increase students’ wellbeing • Make your job as a teacher easier I bet you think it sounds too good to be true. I promise you, it’s not.

First, I want to share with you a story.

Around the world, about 2.5 million babies die every year. The majority of these deaths happen in developing countries. Using a baby incubator could save many of them. But developing countries don’t have the funds to buy such expensive lifesaving equipment. Even if Elon Musk would buy incubators for them, they wouldn’t be able to maintain them due to a lack of skills and money.

Since computers take over the mundane and repetitive work we used to do, we are left with interesting types of jobs.

ORTAL GREEN

NeoNurture takes advantage of an abundant local resource in developing countries: car parts.

So how might we solve this problem?

A group of Design Thinkers took up this challenge. They travelled to a developing country and explored this problem. They looked at commonly available products and explored what skills local people have.

The team discovered that many local people have cars and know how to fix them. So they designed a cheap incubator made out of car parts. By repurposing cars, they ensured the ability of local people to maintain the incubators, and therefore, to save babies’ lives.

This is the power of Design Thinking! It enables you to come up with innovative solutions to problems. Design Thinking is about immersing yourself in the world of the people who face the problem and designing WITH them, and not FOR them.

So, what does Design Thinking have to do with our school system?

As you are probably aware, our world is moving forward at an increasing rate. This trend is fueled by the pace of advancements in technology, machine learning, Artificial Intelligent and automation. Computers now perform many jobs that people used to do. These jobs include trading in the stock market, operating a warehouse to medical image analysis. Jobs that have been there forever are disappearing and new job types are popping up every day. (Who thought an e-sport coach or a drone pilot would be professions?)

Some people buy into the doom and gloom of machines taking over the world and humans being left without jobs. I see it differently. I think it’s great news. Since computers take over the mundane and repetitive work we used to do, we are left with interesting types of jobs. Those that require us to use our superhuman skills - the kind of skills computers can’t replace.

You might have guessed that these are the famous 21st century skills everyone is talking about, such as creative thinking, problem-solving, empathy, collaboration and critical thinking, to name just a few.

But still, what is the connection between Design Thinking and our education system?

ORTAL GREEN

Design Thinkers are excellent problem solvers. This means they are innovative and inventive in their thinking. And this, in turn, means they have developed their beautiful 21st century skills.

Therefore, when you use Design Thinking as the framework for teaching and learning, your students develop their superhuman skills and become great thinkers.

Introducing the Double Diamond

The double diamond is the Design Thinking’s framework. This is the process we follow to develop new ideas for solving different problems or creating preferable futures.

As an educator, you can use the Double Diamond process to work on questions that would make school life much better for everyone. For example:

• How might we create a stronger community at our school? • How might we help our students develop their creative writing skills? • How might we increase students’ wellbeing at our school? • How might we design a learning environment where learning math is fun? • How might we create a more collaborative and supportive work environment? You can use Design Thinking to facilitate deep and meaningful learning for your students. Here are a few examples for questions to explore with your students -

• How can we design a classroom experience that optimises learning? • How might we design a happy city? • How might we design a more sustainable school?

To be continued…

In the coming articles, I will walk you through the Double Diamond process and show you how to use it within a school setting. So stay tuned! The fun is about to start!

Ortal Green

Ortal is a passionate educator with a mission to empower teachers and parents to create tomorrow’s innovators. She started her career as a computer scientist. She co-founded “Glittering Minds” and created a programme for schools, “PBL and Beyond”. She is also a an author and speaker. She can be contacted at admin@glitteringminds.com.au