Solution-Based Thinking starts with a goal instead of solving a specific problem. It considers both present and future conditions and parameters of the problem while simultaneously exploring alternative solutions.
Design thinking identifies and investigates unknown and ambiguous aspects of the current situation to discover hidden parameters and open alternative paths that may lead to the goal. Christoph Meinel and Larry Leifer assert that there are four principles to design thinking: the human rule (all design activity is ultimately social in nature), the ambiguity rule (design thinkers must preserve ambiguity), the re-design rule (all design is re-design) and the tangibility rule (making ideas tangible always facilitates communication). Design thinking is also useful when addressing complex or ill-defined problems. Education-based design thinking typically produces three results: helps school administrators solve institution-based problems, aids educators in developing more creative lesson plans and engenders design thinking skills in students.
- Design thinking in education is employed to promote creative thinking, teamwork, and student responsibility in learning.
- Implementation of the design thinking process creates coursework that is engaging and hands-on.
- One version of the design thinking process has seven stages: define, research, ideate, prototype, choose, implement, and learn.
- Within these seven steps, problems can be framed, the right questions asked, more ideas created and the best answers chosen.
- One example of design thinking implementation is having student representatives from a manufacturing company teach students the principles of design and establish the kind of product to be designed. The students then collaborate to design a prototype that the manufacturer produces. Once the prototype arrives, students must promote the product and support the ideas that lead to its design.
- Applying design thinking to schools identifies the following design thinking process:
- Understand: students explore the topic through research and develop familiarity with the subject matter.
- Observe: students take note of their environment, gather information and discuss possible motivation.
- Point of view: students consider alternate points of view to better understand the problem and to inform their ideas for the next phase.
- Ideate: students brainstorm without criticism or inhibition. The focus is to generate lots of ideas with an emphasis on creativity and enjoying the process.
- Prototype: students create quick prototypes to investigate ideas generated during the ideation phase.
- Test: students test their ideas in a repetitive fashion to determine which aspects are effective and which are not.
- Design thinking includes “building up” ideas with few or no limits during a “brainstorming” phase.
- The seven steps within one version of the design thinking process is not linear, can occur simultaneously and repeated.
- Design thinking can address complex problems through the use of analogies.
- Design thinking can also help educators by enriching curriculum and expanding student perspectives.
- This strategy can likewise, enable educators to integrate technology into the classroom and encourage collaborative learning.
- Design thinking helps reduce fear of failure and encourages input and participation from a wide variety of sources in the ideation phases.
- This teaching method can create collaboration with outside programs that then help create coursework that is engaging and hands-on.