Kidding Around with Design Thinking

Summary

The article describes how design thinking can be introduced to young learners in elementary schools to facilitate their effective thinking and learning as they grow up. According to the author, humans who include young children are naturally born as problem solvers. However, the young ones do not necessarily have to wait until they transit to adulthood so they can be given the responsibility of solving problems. They can be nurtured when still in their childhood and develop their problem-solving skills through design thinking. It defines design thinking as the platform used for creative problem solving and also an authentic way that teachers can engage their students in the application of content knowledge and skills to the issues that are relevant and rigorous. The case study of the children engaging in a course to prevent baby goats from escaping from their pens through small gaps prove that children can engage design thinking and are creative enough to find problems where a problem exists. In this case, the young learners excitedly made nets and paper made walls to cover the gaps that the goats would possibly escape from (Fouche and Crowley, 2017). The teaching strategy was exciting to them and also harnessed their thinking and doing something of what they thought.

Application

As a student, I find the design thinking strategy an effective way that transforms the teaching experience. First, the method actively engages the students in their learning more than just sitting down and listening to the teacher in a classroom and answering tests that have their choices provided for them to pick an answer. The open-ended nature of this method is an appropriate way of keeping the young learners thinking beyond what they can just see. Going by the pictures of the students with the fences they created to contain small goats from escaping, the students seem excited. It is only obvious that an exciting out of the classroom lesson would stick longer in their minds than what is learnt in class without a single physical activity. It also acts as a challenge to the students. This makes them learn the art of solving simple issues on their own thus harness creativity and innovation at such as early age. I would ensure that I incorporate several design thinking lessons in the class timetable and offer the students with more opportunities to enhance their problem-solving skills.

With the application of design thinking in teaching, I feel I would also have the opportunity to identify the different talents that the students have. This again would serve better than having to wait until they are grown to identify what they like doing and how well they can do it. For instance, in the given case study, as a teacher, I would have identified the child who would be the most active and creative the fences while some other children may have been creative in finding what materials could possible make a better fence. Some are creative while others are active in the physical roles. Identifying such strengths would help in developing the young learners and identifying their interests at the best point in time. In my classroom, I would create for such lessons often and give the students a chance to think of a problem they know and then come up with ways we can solve that problem and in some lessons come up with problems and then give them the opportunity to find solutions they would find most suitable to solve it and accord them the necessary assistance. The article states humans as natural problem solvers (Fouché and Crowley, 2017). I find design thinking an effective method of learning that we should all adopt.

Reference

Fouche, J., & Crowley, J. (2017). Kidding Around with Design Thinking: A residential school in Pennsylvania puts an emphasis on applied learning for elementary students--and that includes keeping the baby goats safe. Educational leadership, 75 (2), 65-69