The Education DesignShop: A Case Study on Education Reform Through Design Thinking

Abstract

The innovation curve has become saturated; the low-hanging fruit have been exhausted by traditional problem-solving approaches. Any advancement in the education sector from here forward requires a new thinking paradigm: design thinking. This paper documents the process of infusing design thinking into the minds of the education system’s greatest problem-solvers: policymakers, engineers/designers, educators, and students of high school, undergraduate, and graduate schools. Us- ing the formation of the Education Designshop as a case study, we ana- lyze the benefits and points of contention when using a design thinking approach, typical of tangible product designs, in a large-scale applica- tion, the systemic reform of education. Key