ABSTRACT
Design thinking is about solving problems using the methods and thinking processes of designers. These include creative processes such as experimenting, creating and prototyping models, soliciting feedback and redesigning. Design thinking places learners in contexts that make them think like designers, creating innovative solutions to address people’s needs. Design thinking is a social as well as a mental process. Designers work with the constraints of their materials — concrete and glass for an architect, or colours and computer code for a web designer — employing these constraints as resources to make decisions about what will be elegant and what will work in practice. As a pedagogy, the essence of design thinking is to put learners into contexts that make them think and work like expert designers. In teacher education, design thinking has been employed to help school teachers with lesson planning. Teachers need repeated practice to become effective facilitators.
