#7 Understanding Design Thinking
Seven stories to know about the k-12 lab
(because Edison would say that you won't remember more)
As school leaders, researchers, and teachers have become increasingly interested in the potential of design thinking in K-12 education, the K-12 Lab and Stanford's School of Education have begun to document its impact. The following abstract, taken from a larger article, describes one such research project.
Destination, Imagination & The Fires Within: Design Thinking in a Middle School Classroom
Authors: Shelley Goldman, Maureen Carroll & Adam Royalty
The purpose of the Taking Design Thinking to Schools Research Project was to extend the knowledge base that contributes to an improved understanding of the role of design thinking in K-12 classrooms. The qualitative study focused on the implementation of a design curriculum by a team of university instructors and graduate students during a middle school geography class in a public charter school serving grades K-3 and 7-8. Three key questions framed the study:
How did students express their understanding of design thinking classroom activities?
How did affective elements impact design thinking in the classroom environment?
How is design thinking connected to academic standards and content learning in the classroom?
Three key themes emerged from the research:
1) Design as Exploring: Understanding Design
2) Design as Connecting: Affect & Design
3) Design as Intersecting: Design Thinking & Content Learning
The first theme, Design as Exploring, highlighted the ways in which students participated in the classroom design activities. Students embraced diverse aspects of the design thinking process, adopted the discourse of design in varied ways, and were able to reflect on the nature of the process as they created a series of prototype-driven projects. Giving students the opportunity to explore as they problem solve is an essential component of learning. Design thinking does not encourage students to jump to immediate solutions; instead, the focus is on exploring all aspects of problems through multiple sources and iterations.
The second theme, Design as Connecting, forefronted the powerful role that design thinking plays in developing students’ creative confidence. Students were engaged in personally meaningful work, had opportunities to express their voices, and saw the power of risk-taking as they engaged design challenges. Collaboration experiences are a key foundation of design thinking and students had many opportunities to problem solve with each other. They became more empathetic, learned how to work in a group setting with a focused goal, and struggled to figure out how to participate as a seventh-grade student in a collaborative task. Design thinking activities provided tools that helped illuminate the complex nature of collaborative efforts, and the multiple ways to develop as a successful collaborator.
The third theme, Design as Intersecting, highlighted the relationship between design thinking and academic content learning. The integration of design thinking into the classroom learning environment was both challenging and problematic. Instructors, classroom teachers, and students faced many obstacles. The instructors struggled to find an effective means to teach design thinking within the constraints of academic content standards in geography. The teacher struggled with integrating new knowledge about design thinking with her instructional goals, as she questioned the value of this new way of thinking and its place in her classroom culture. The students had to learn both design thinking concepts and geography content, both of which were new to them, and they also had to make connections between them. This struggle highlights the constant tension between new learning approaches and established classroom practices.
