D-Think Toolkit - Design Thinking Applied to Education and Training

Many academic organisations are calling attention to the need for urgent changes in curricula and learning methods demanded by the continual social transformation of an increasingly technological world. Transversal skills such as the ability to think creatively and critically, take initiative, and work collaboratively for common goals, are essential to guarantee a qualified and entrepreneurial workforce in Europe. The D-Think research project emerged in this educational context during September 2014. It is an initiative of 7 partners from 6 different European countries, supported by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Commission. The project aims to promote a wider use of Design Thinking as a transversal learning tool by developing and making available a toolkit and an innovative digital course for educators and professional trainers. The result of the first year of the D-Think project is a Research Report about Design Thinking and its application in Education and Training, providing a spring board for the next stages of the project: the creation of the D-Think toolkit and the D-Think m-learning course, both in development and testing until August 2017. The main objective of the Research Report is the clarification of the role of Design Thinking in HEI (Higher Education Institutions) and VET (Vocational Training) Education, and the identification of new approaches to teaching/learning. The target group of the D-Think project are educators/trainers who want to rethink the education system and the current teaching/learning methodologies. As a result, the partnership expects HEI´s and VET providers to prepare people to respond better to the challenges of the labour market, and so be able to stimulate the growth of flexible and innovative businesses in the future.

Education Applications & Developments IV. Advances in Education and Educational Trends Series, 2019

As a response to continual social and technological transformations, many academic, governmental and private organisations call attention to the need for urgent changes to educational systems. Because of its collaborative and creative approach, its cross-disciplinary and human-centeredness, Design Thinking is seen as a useful mindset and method to face the challenge of a new learning paradigm. Between 2014 and 2017, seven institutional partners from six different European countries developed the Research Project D-Think, supported by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Commission. The goal of the D-Think project is the promotion of the application of Design Thinking as an innovation method to rethink not only learning/teaching methods but also pedagogical approaches, learning spaces or the role of educators. In this wider context an open access training course for Higher Education Institutions (HEI) educators and Vocational Education Training (VET) professionals was developed, through which they can learn how to apply Design Thinking tools and how to get into the de􏰀ig􏰁e􏰂􏰃􏰀 mindset.

Proceedings of the 20th Congress of the International Ergonomics Association (IEA 2018), 2019

Based on continual social and technological transformations, many academics and governmental organisations call attention to the need for urgent changes in Education. Design Thinking (DT), an innovation method derived from design methodology connected to business innovation, has shown itself also as an useful method to be applied in the innovation of educational systems. This paper provides an introductional approach to Design Thinking and its possible role in educational contexts as a method to rethink learning/teaching experiences. For this purpose we present the conceptual background of Design and Design Thinking, introduce Design Thinking in Education, and present the D-Think Toolkit, a new framework which aims to support the understanding of the designer's mindset and culture, and the application of its methods and tools in the redesign of education. The toolkit is the main result of the European research project D-Think, developed between 2014 and 2017 with the support of the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Commission. The conclusion of our paper highlights that DT offers a complementary framework for the innovation work of educators, so transforming them into change-makers. The designers' creative and empathic mindset and collaborative working approach can enrich the reflection on the educators new role as 'learning facilitators'.

Design Thinking is an innovative, creative and human-centered process and mindset that employs collaborative multidisciplinary teams in order to generate user-focused products, services or experiences. It has been applied beyond the original sphere of design work to business, engineering, technology, and more recently, education, because of its ability of advancing creativity and innovation by applying an empathetic, flexible and iterative approach. With the quest for a teaching methodology for 21st century skills, work habits and character traits, there has been, in the past five years, keen and wide interest towards Design Thinking as applied in education. This paper therefore provides a systematic, comprehensive and analytical methodology in mapping out and offering a critical review and analysis of over 68 journal articles, books and reports on design thinking in education. Overall, this paper recognizes the gains that can be made from utilizing Design Thinking as a methodology in education especially in the global quest of teaching 21st century skills. This paper also suggests a need to pursue further studies on the development of a Design Thinking framework for teaching.

9th International Conference on Higher Education Advances (HEAd'23)

The dynamic changes currently caused by various megatrends challenge the educational sector. Prospective strategies are required to cope with these issues. This is where the innovation methodology of Design Thinking comes in: it can be described as creative thinking in heterogeneous teams to develop creative solution ideas for complex challenges. This approach helps to initiate new or adjusted strategies for special target groups in the context of education. In this article, essential aspects of Design Thinking are introduced, and references to innovations in the field of education are presented. Two examples from the higher education sector are then used to illustrate the practical implementation.

Design Thinking is an innovative, creative and human-centered process and mindset that employs collaborative multidisciplinary teams in order to generate user-focused products, services or experiences. It has been applied beyond the original sphere of design work to business, engineering, technology, and more recently, education, because of its ability of advancing creativity and innovation by applying an empathetic, flexible and iterative approach. With the quest for a teaching strategy for 21st century skills, work habits and character traits, there has been, in the past five years, keen and wide interest towards Design Thinking as applied in education. This paper therefore provides a systematic, comprehensive and analytical strategy in mapping out and offering a critical review and analysis of over 68 journal articles, books and reports on design thinking in education. Overall, this paper recognizes the gains that can be made from utilizing Design Thinking in education especially in the global quest of teaching 21st century skills. This paper also suggests a need to pursue further studies on the development of a Design Thinking framework for teaching, learning, curriculum design & teacher training.

MATEC Web of Conferences, 2021

In a world that is ever changing and full of uncertainties, there is an undeniable need to equip students with competencies that exceed cognitive knowledge, thus enabling them to develop their individual potentials. Using case study methodology, Design Thinking and ProblemBased Learning, this paper presents a program that brought together students and teachers from different faculties with the purpose of developing innovative solutions to important and pressing societal challenges. Given the unprecedented context generated by the worldwide spread of SARS–COV2 Virus, the program challenged students to find solutions to redesign the educational process. The aim was to equip them with the skills and competencies necessary to adapt in a globalized world, where remote work with team members from different backgrounds is the norm. The Problem-Based Learning approach and the visually attractive collaborative online platform used to implement the Design Thinking methodology generated an ove...

Design Research Society/CUMULUS, 2nd International Conference for Design Education Researchers, 2013

Design Thinking is a human-centred methodology for innovation, which has evolved from the study of the unique ways in which designers 'think', and 'practice' (Bauer & Eagen, 2008). While there is emerging research into the learning and teaching of Design Thinking, it is often anecdotal, i.e. reflection rather than research-based, and there is general lack of rigorous evaluation of curricula. This paper presents a PhD research project that explores how Design Thinking expertise can be best introduced, developed, and nurtured within Product Design and Business higher education programmes. The project involves the development, evaluation and refinement of a Design Thinking curriculum, including the design of learning outcomes, content, learning activities, assessment, and resources. The evaluation focuses on the students' learning experience, and their development of Design Thinking expertise. Participants also contribute to the further development of the curriculum. The research uses Action Research, Design and Co-Design methodologies, with embedded Case Studies, and draws upon both qualitative and quantitative methods. A number of key theories and constructs inform the curriculum design, in particular Design Thinking (Brown, 2008), Constructivism (Cross, 2011), Experiential Learning (Kolb, 1984), and Bloom's Learning Domains (Bloom, 1965).

The article discusses design thinking as a process and mindset for collaboratively finding solutions for wicked problems in a variety of educational settings. Through a systematic literature review the article organizes case studies, reports, theoretical reflections, and other scholarly work to enhance our understanding of the purposes, contexts, benefits, limitations, affordances, constraints, effects and outcomes of design thinking in education. Specifically, the review pursues four questions: (1) What are the characteristics of design thinking that make it particularly fruitful for education? (2) How is design thinking applied in different educational settings? (3) What tools, techniques and methods are characteristic for design thinking? (4) What are the limitations or negative effects of design thinking? The goal of the article is to describe the current knowledge base to gain an improved understanding of the role of design thinking in education, to enhance research communication and discussion of best practice approaches and to chart immediate avenues for research and practice.

This paper's aim is to describe the collaborative efforts of two designers/educators who have been teaching the application of mindsets and methodologies associated with design thinking during the last eleven years. This journey started with a request to one of the authors to co-teach a course in the engineering training program at NASA in 2004 and has taken both authors through multiple iterations of courses in academic and professional environments. Several dimensions of the design-thinking curriculum are then detailed, explaining the evolution of the courses as the processes, methodologies and tools become increasingly recognized as useful tools to address complex challenges in which analytical approaches offer limited results. Participation of multiple disciplines, contexts and delivery methods are also discussed.