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What is Design Thinking?
As a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts I have recently been engaged in an initiative to promote the use of design thinking in schools, and I wanted to share some thoughts and reflections which may be of benefit to us in NAE.
Design thinking is a practical tool for integrating 21st Century skills and an innovator’s mindset into the classroom, school and workplace. In the pursuit of defining and designing appropriate 21st Century skill-based offerings in our NAE schools we have to fully realize the duty we have to our students to model what it is we are expecting from them. In my last article, I wrote about the “A” in STEAM. This prompted many stimulating conversations between colleagues on the campus here at Windermere Prep and on the music and visual arts areas on NAU. Design thinking and the “A” in STEAM are both being perceived by many of us with an air of mystery. The formula for realizing where the “A” exists could be presented as this…
Need - (White Space / Frustrations) = Solutions
Yes, this is what has been called “Creative Thinking” but the term creative often evokes a feeling of fear in many students. Many students fail to believe that they are creative as they age. Numerous studies suggest that this happens for many around the age of 8. They don’t start out with this level of fear though. Early years students are generally naturally fearless as creative individuals. When children who are 3, 4 or 5 years old are given crayons, paint, brushes, paper and so on, they don’t look at us confused and baffled in any way, they simply create, without boundaries, abstract, authentic and innocent pieces of art work. This is in fact work of exceptional value as authentic bouts of genuine creative expression. What has happened in many cases, however, is that they then are given a pencil, lines to write in between, lines to draw and color in between, boundaries, grades and assessments galore. Soon after, for many, they lose confidence and even an awareness of themselves as creative beings.
We must embrace all of our students through our wonderful collaborations with Juilliard and MIT, use our talents and skills to collectively realize the “A” in STEAM and consider that it takes intelligence to answer a question, but it takes creativity to ask the questions.
I am confident in suggesting that the Juilliard approach embedded into our NAE schools also promotes the notion of design thinking. We use the phrase, “Thinking like a Musician or Artist”. For some, this strikes fear in a number of our students who simply do not view themselves as being creative. I fully embrace the MIT “Hands & Minds” approach. The combination of these offerings (Juilliard and MIT), linked with the “A” in STEAM results in the provision of a magnificent challenge-based curriculum in our schools, where we can develop and nurture design thinkers, who will be able to design their own futures, adapt to change and contribute effectively as confident well-prepared global citizens.
Tim Hainsworth FRSA
NAU Teaching Fellow (Music) Director of Middle School Music Windemere Preparatory School