Design Thinking – Creating Great Thinkers in Your Classroom, Part 2

Amplify Your Impact

In my previous article, I shared there is a framework called Design Thinking that you can use to amplify your impact and achieve these desirable outcomes:

• 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

Now, we will continue the journey of exploring how to use this powerful approach to problem-solving and what it looks like in a classroom setting. But first things first…

You have more autonomy than you think.

If you’re thinking, “Well, this sounds great. But I have…”

• a curriculum to follow…

• many policies to adhere to…

• a senior leader to answer to…

The list of constraints can go on and on. You are right to think so. Yes, teachers have many constraints. You operate within a system the provides many boundaries, red tape and bureaucracy. However, you have more freedom than you might believe. Although you need to deliver a particular curriculum and follow the requirements for standardised testing, you have the freedom to choose how to facilitate this learning. You can choose Design Thinking as the framework to facilitate any topic within your set curriculum. So, where do you start? You start by coming up with the right question.

How to Choose the Right Question

This first step is a crucial one on your journey. Deciding on the question you pose for your students will impact many areas, including:

• Level of engagement

• Ability to develop critical skills

• Enjoyment

• Creative confidence

• Belief in themselves

• Positive impact on their environment

• Behaviour in the classroom

Therefore, there are a few questions you need to think about when you are coming up with such a question:

1. Is this question relevant to my students’ life?

2. Is it a meaningful, real-life problem?

3. Is this question the right size? (not too broad and not too narrow)

4. Will this question give my students a voice and empower them to drive a change within their communities?

5. Is this question involving our broader community?

Examples:

• “How might we reduce waste generation?”

- This is a real-world problem, but it is too broad. Where do you even start with such a broad question?

• “How might we reduce waste generation at our school?”

- This real-world problem is relevant to the students, provides them with a voice and empowers them to drive change in their environment. It is not too big for the students to answer and not too narrow that students don’t have the space to come up with their ideas for a solution.

• “How might we reduce the paper waste generation in our classroom?”

- This is a too narrow question as there is not much room for research and for coming up with creative ideas for solutions. This question refers to a very specific type of waste – paper, which most of us already know how to reduce.

Unpacking the Project Question

In the following few articles, I will share with you a stepby- for a project question. For this example, I will use this question:

How might we connect different generations within our community?

This project aims to develop students’ personal and social capabilities. (Any teaching that uses Design Thinking as a framework covers the development of critical and creative thinking, perspective taking, working as part of a team, communication and presentation skills, life skills, resilience and mindset for success.)

The first step would be to introduce this question to your students and unpack it together. When unpacking a question, paying attention to subjective words and words that might be new to your students is essential. In our question, the words to pay attention to are:

• Connect – What does connect mean in this context?

• Generations – What is a generation? What are different generations?

• Community – What is a community? What does it mean to be part of a community? Can you belong to more than one community? What communities do you belong to? What do we mean by our community? In the next part of this series, I will show you how you and your students can plan your project’s research.

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