Design Thinking in Education: Empathy, Challenge,

Discovery, and Sharing

As a model for reframing methods and outcomes,
design thinking reconnects educators to their
creativity and aspirations for helping students
develop as deep thinkers and doers.
By Susie Wise
February 8, 2016

Photo credit: Scott McLeod via flickr (CC BY 2.0)

"Design thinking gave me a process to weave through all of

the project–based learning experiences I create with my
kiddos."

"As a leader of a #NextGen school, design thinking is our

continuous innovation process."

"Design thinking reminds me all the time why I became an

educator; it all starts with empathy."

An Oasis for Educators

The quotes above -- full of insight and affirmation -- are just
some of the many that I've heard from educators taken by
the power of design thinking and moved to bring it into their
practice. When we started the @K12lab at Stanford's
d.school back in 2007 we began with a hunch that design
thinking would be a great tool for educators to deploy in their
classrooms and schools, and that ultimately, it would be a
useful process for kids working through interdisciplinary
challenges. What we found in our initial prototypes --
launching an innovation lab space, creating a design thinking
professional development experience, and running student-
facing design challenges for middle- and high-school classes
-- was that the design thinking process functioned as a kind
of oasis for educators, reconnecting them to their creativity
and aspirations for helping students develop as deep
thinkers and doers, not just as test takers.

In the last few years, the field has witnessed an explosion of

interest in design thinking, nationally and internationally. You
can literally see its growth mapped on the Design Thinking in
Schools map  and in the internationally booming Design for
Change  student challenge platform. The spread of design
thinking also shows up in new national efforts like
IDEO’s Teacher’s Guild  platform and the very active Twitter
chat community built around #DTK12chat . Educators are
also supporting each other as design thinkers in regional
collaborations like Atlanta’s #AK12DC, a collection of 30
public and independent schools working to accelerate design
challenges, and Henry Ford Learning Institute 's work in
Michigan to gather regional enthusiasts and design thinking
leaders.

As the movement for design thinking in education broadens

and deepens, many practitioners are flexibly customizing the
design thinking process in their own contexts. Coming from
the d.school, I particularly love seeing the teachers and
leaders with whom we work sharing how they moved from
the process we taught them (empathize, define, ideate,
prototype, and test) to language that works in their own
context. For example, check out Mary Cantwell’s DEEPdt  or
Urban Montessori's incorporation of design thinking in
their core values .

4 Modes for Developing Your Practice

If you're considering how to embrace design thinking in your
school culture, I believe you should focus on four critical
modes underlying the process:

1. Lead with empathy.

Empathy is, of course, the root of human-centered design.

Leading with empathy builds on the classic definition of
"walking in someone else's shoes" to get us out of our own
heads and into the lived reality of others so that we can
understand the implicit needs and root causes of the
situations in which we work. Leading with empathy means
pushing yourself to get closer to people, and to do so
consistently, publicly, and with conviction.

How do you do it? Listen more; talk less. Immerse yourself in

how others experience your school or program. Adopt a
beginner's mind and use all of your senses to notice what's
happening around you. At the d.school, we believe in these
practices so much that we're issuing a Shadow a Student
challenge  from our School Retool  project to illuminate the
power of leading with empathy. If you want to step into
empathy, it will be a great way to get started.

2. Challenge assumptions.

This is the opposite of "keep calm and carry on." Challenging

assumptions means that when confronted with a problem,
you seize the opportunity to do better than you've done
before. Useful phrases to build into your lexicon are "What if.
. . ?" and "How might we. . . ?" Just the simple act of
introducing the language of possibility can start the shift from
how we've always done things to the potential for a reframe.
Reframing is critical for innovation, but it's also a way of
moving from a deficit point of view to an asset focus.
Challenging assumptions lets us see what both children and
adults are truly capable of doing. Harnessed for good,
challenging assumptions steers you in the direction of more
effective policies and practices because you're willing to see
things differently.

3. Make experiments happen.

Here's the rub. "Just do it" is more than a pitch for selling
sports gear. It means try something and learn from it. We
can tangle ourselves in all kinds of knots about "embracing
failure," but what really matters is trying something, letting
people know that you're trying it, and generating
opportunities for feedback. You'll learn the most from what
doesn't work.

When you find yourself sitting in one more meeting to make

a plan for a plan, just stop and say, "What could we try in
order to figure this out?" This sets you on the path to
experiment with quick hacks and low-resolution prototypes.
Whatever you try will point you in the direction of what's
next. At the d.school, we call it a bias toward action: Don't
talk -- do. And when you do, then you observe, reflect, and
try again to get it right.

4. Share your process.

Design cannot thrive in isolation. As you share your empathy
work or your experiments, share what's hard, not just what's
shiny and new. You can share those things as well, but we'll
all learn more when you share your process, warts and all.

I invite you to investigate how leading with empathy,

challenging assumptions, and making experiments happen
can deepen your teaching or leadership practices. And as
you do, please share what you've learned -- you may have
discovered what we've yet to imagine.
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FILED UNDER

 Design Thinking
 Education Trends
 Administration & Leadership
 School Culture
 Professional Learning

TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATION

10 Teacher Picks for Best Tech Tools

Teachers and administrators from pre-K through
12th grade named these tools their top picks for this
year and beyond.
By Jonathan Eckert
February 5, 2021

If there was ever a year for teachers to beg, borrow, and

steal good ideas, this is it. All good teachers know this is
how we get better, and this is a curated list of tech tools that
I have begged and borrowed from others—and I didn’t have
to steal any of these as there has never been a year when
teachers were more generous.

Based on my own teaching of college students as well as the

responses of 1,461 virtual learning academy participants—
pre-K to 12 teachers and administrators—to survey
questions on impactful tools that I conducted from May to
December 2020, and over 70 webinars and virtual learning
sessions I’ve conducted in that time, these are the top
teacher-tested tech tools I have identified. My learning has
happened with my own students and through my own
mistakes, and I received great ideas from educators across
the U.S. and around the world.
Read Full Story

FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT

8 Quick Checks for Understanding

Formative assessment is a proven technique for
improving student learning, and the strategies
shared here by Jay McTighe work both in the
classroom and remotely.
By Jay McTighe
January 28, 2021
Using formative assessments designed to check for
understanding and provide students with feedback and
support is one of the most effective ways to improve and
enhance student learning . Yet because of the need to cover
large amounts of information and develop many skills,
teachers may not take time checking to make sure students
understand a concept or can effectively apply a skill, and, if
they don’t, figuring out ways to improve their learning.

Thankfully, there are practical, proven formative assessment

techniques that teachers can use as a quick “pulse check” to
gauge students’ understanding. The eight techniques here
can be applied across grades and subject areas in virtual,
hybrid, and in-person learning environments.
Read Full Story

STEM

Are We Teaching the Math Kids Need?

Every child possesses vast mathematics potential,
says Jo Boaler, Stanford University mathematics
professor and best-selling author—but for them to
access it, we need to rethink how we teach math.
By Sarah Gonser
January 29, 2021

Jo Boaler has spent a lot of time thinking and writing about

anxiety—math anxiety, in particular—and its impact on kids’
learning trajectories.
Mathematics, she writes in her 2019 book, Limitless
Mind: Learn, Lead, and Live Without Barriers, is the subject
“with the most damaging ideas held by teachers, students,
and parents.” It’s one of the few academic subjects in which
multitudes of students, early on, decide they’re not cut out
for it: We’re either a “math person” or we’re not. That notion
tends to stick well into adulthood. “It is difficult to know how
many people walk around in society harboring damaging
ideas about their math ability, but I estimate it to be at least
half of the population,” she writes.
Read Full Story

ONLINE LEARNING

Takeaways From Distance Learning

An instructional coach makes the case that
“business as usual” will not be the right path once
students return to traditional classrooms.
By Christopher Klein
February 10, 2021

The Covid-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc: tragic loss of

life, economic disruption, and educational turmoil. In the
wake of such chaos, many of us are searching for fragments
that suggest something—anything!—good will come out of
this chapter in world history.

Those anxious to boost learning through edtech met recent

disappointment reading Dr. Arran Hamilton and Professor
John Hattie’s recent report “Not All That Glitters Is Gold "; it
suggests that the overall impact of digital technology on
learning has not fundamentally changed  since the 1970s.
Quality of teaching, they suggest, remains the single most
important component to successful education, no matter
what the context and no matter what the tools.
Read Full Story

TEACHING STRATEGIES

A Sense of Security Is Key for Students

A warm smile can go a long way toward helping a
middle or high school student who is struggling
academically.
By Becca Smith
February 26, 2021

I’ve heard it said that rules without relationships lead to

rebellion. This sentiment has rung true many times in my
classroom, and I always remind myself that even though I’m
an adult, just like an adolescent, I can find it difficult to heed
the direction and instruction of someone with whom I have
no relationship.

We’ve trained children to be skeptical of strangers, but I’ve

found that if we want them to be successful in our
classrooms, we need to counter that with relational equity—
building the value of the relationship between teacher and
student over time. Students must know that their teachers
are on their team and want the best for them, rather than
think of them as authority figures waiting for them to make
mistakes. When teachers show genuine interest in their
students’ well-being, kids are quick to listen, trust, and learn.
Read Full Story

TRAUMA-INFORMED PRACTICES

The Reparative Power of Relationships

Many schools around the country strive to support
students who have experienced trauma—and that
work is always rooted in strong relationships.
By Elizabeth Wilcox
February 26, 2021

If there’s one common thread to be found woven throughout

trauma-informed schools, it’s the awareness of the power of
relationship to help students heal.

“Kids who grow up in trauma need to start the process of

healing by being able to build healthy, trusting relationships
with adults,” said Melissa Cole, guidance counselor at the K–
8 Weathersfield School in Vermont.
Read Full Story

PROJECT-BASED LEARNING

Using Driving Questions to Propel Literacy Skills

When projects begin with a compelling question
that students investigate over time, curiosity can
spark the drive to read.
February 26, 2021

Read Full Story

STUDENT ENGAGEMENT

A Hip-Hop Song Inspires a New Path to

Engagement
A middle school teacher explains how she gamified
assignments and saw a dramatic increase in
student motivation.
By Toni Harrison-Kelly
February 26, 2021

For most of my career, I was considered the cool teacher

because my technology classroom featured shiny objects,
like robots and 3D printers, that earned me cool points.
Teaching was fun because my students were always
engaged.

But then six years ago, when I joined a team of “turnaround

teachers” at a middle school in Dallas to help improve its
historically low standardized test scores, my cool factor
plummeted, no matter how many robots I had.
Read Full Story