ABSTRACT
Children from a fourth-grade class at a primary school in Trinidad and Tobago participated in a three-week summer camp with a design thinking- based curriculum. The study aimed to examine how children developed and practiced empathy during the design class. Qualitative data were collected from the children and the instructors, providing thick descriptions of the children’s experiences during the camp. As anticipated, the findings showed that the children practiced empathy at several stages during the design process, where they had to learn to take the perspective of the target user of their designs. However, the less anticipated result was that the findings also demonstrated that the children had more opportunities to practice empathy during groupwork and critiques, where they empathized with the angst of their colleagues. These findings demonstrate how design education can be used to enhance the social development of children by providing varied opportunities for them to empathize with others.
