EMINENCE, Ky. (AP) — School districts around Kentucky are moving to a more student-friendly design aimed at keeping pupils engaged and offer flexibility for both pupils and teachers.
The "design thinking" concept is the brainchild of University of
EMINENCE, Ky. (AP) — School districts around Kentucky are moving to a more student-friendly design aimed at keeping pupils engaged and offer flexibility for both pupils and teachers.
The "design thinking" concept is the brainchild of University of Kentucky Education Professor John Nash. Eminence Independent School Superintendent Buddy Berry told the Lexington Herald-Leader (http://bit.ly/1iWyImE ) the concept is to make decisions about how the school day functions with empathy for teachers and students alike.
Nash runs the Laboratory on Design Thinking in Education. Berry went to a conference in 2011 held by Nash on "design thinking," which has been used for several decades by businesses and other organizations.
Nash spent nearly a decade at Stanford University, where design thinking was studied and implemented. He then started a private company to help nonprofits use the method, but academia called again. In 2011, he ended up at UK as a professor and head of the Next Generation Leadership Academy.
While training future leaders, he started to ponder how design thinking could be applied in schools.
"The people who are most affected by design thinking in schools are kids, but they are usually never part of the solution of how schools can be run to be more meaningful," Nash said.
Design thinking follows a standard pattern: Define the problem. Brainstorm radical solutions. Find prototypes of solutions. Get feedback on how it works. Fix problems