The fourth industrial revolution is radically changing the nature of work from a purely industrial character to non-linear and constantly evolving models. Schools’ learning systems are struggling to follow these changes and are no longer able to prepare students for the 21st century and the future of the labour market. As such, there is a need for educational systems to be capable of teaching the new generations the skills and attitudes necessary for 21st century societies and future working conditions. As such, the DESIGN FUTURES project aims at enhancing the capacities of teachers in competence-based education by developing and delivering teaching and learning modules that will enable them to embed highly innovative pedagogies of Design Thinking and the Maker Education in school curricula that can contribute to the development of the 21st century skills, such as critical thinking, problem solving, interpersonal skills, entrepreneurial initiative, media and Information literacy, and more. These pedagogies offer an interactive, open-ended, student-driven, multi-disciplinary experience that enhances the development of diverse skills, knowledge, and ways of thinking. The project partners were chosen from a variety of European countries in order to spread and increase the impact of the project around Europe, as well as to add diverse national contexts to the mix of activities, a facet that can yield better comparative results. TUE, the academic partner, focuses on educating students and advancing knowledge in science & technology. Designathon Works, expert in Maker culture, envisions a world where children are engaged in co-designing their future world. STIMMULI for Social Change, a social innovation research organisation, specialises in the educational field and innovative education. AllGrow Romania aims to create systemic change through collaboration between individuals and organizations. PACO, a design collaborative in which the potential of design and education is focused on fostering social innovation. Finally, the school partner, Aristoteleio College, offers a valuable field environment to apply the project’s products. Two main results are derived from DESIGN FUTURES: 1) Design of a professional development program for educators wishing to embed design thinking and “making” in their curricula. This program will move beyond traditional learning models that are lecture-based and have no direct connection to students. Instead it will be based on a makerspace learning model to enable educators to practice and learn how to incorporate design and maker learning into their curriculum. 2) Design and development of the DESIGN FUTURES Student Curriculum based on the design thinking and maker education that will offer a variety of activities under different school subjects and disciplines. The objective of the curriculum is not to teach students what is right and wrong but to enable them to experience, reflect upon and engage in innovative practices through which they use their experiences and reflections as a means to a deeper learning process leading to the development of 21st century skills. The associate participating schools’ role in the project is significant as teachers and students will have a maker education experience where students will unleash their creativity and be taught to design and make innovative solutions to identified societal problems through creative and critical thinking and with the use of new technology (i.e. maker kits). Students will thus participate in the Design Thinking and Maker Education activities co-created by the project’s partnership facilitated and guided by their teachers. In terms of the impact, teachers achieve professional development by being trained in innovative teaching and learning methods. This training enriches teachers’ toolkits and affords them with additional teaching methods and tools for the benefit of their own professional development, as well as their students’ learning. Students by receiving and actively participating in the innovative lessons are engaged in competence-based learning that develops their skills in 21st century capabilities. The students’ participation triggers learning processes that lead to development of critical thinking, creative capacities, initiative building, and other useful facets for the contemporary labour market. At the same time, the engagement of schools with innovative teaching and learning methods can create an ecosystem that supports and empowers teachers to conduct and adopt the design thinking and making curricula. As a result, this contributes to strengthening the teaching vocation and the school system, as systems that cultivate 21st century skills among young learners. As such, the DESIGN FUTURES will inspire the next generation to adopt more skills and competences, cut out for the future of the labour market which will contribute to overcoming mismatches between supply and demand in the employment area.
The overarching goal of the DESIGN FUTURES (DF) project is to empower the students of today to contribute to the design of a better future. Furthermore, the project aimed to enhance the capacities of teachers by developing and delivering teaching and learning modules that will enable them to embed DT and ME in school curricula that can contribute to the development of the 21st century skills in their students. The specific objectives of the project proposal were 1) to support educators in embedding DT and ME in their classroom through a DESIGN FUTURES curriculum by equipping them with tools, knowledge, and ready-to-use materials, 2) to enhance teachers’ professional development by supporting them to apply these innovative teaching practices related to competence-based education, and 3) to engage with schools, parents, and policy makers in order to build an ecosystem that supports initiatives and exposes children to design and making at an early age.
The limitations of the traditional education system have encouraged efforts to rethink how education should be used to equip students with the skills needed to address the challenges of the 21st century. Design Thinking (DT) and Maker Education (ME) are pedagogies that aim to equip students with the necessary skills to thrive in the non-linear and constantly evolving contexts of the 21st century. DT in education can be defined as project-based learning in which students gather and process knowledge while working on the design of yet unknown ’products’. And ME as project-based learning in which students design and make, through traditional craft techniques or digital technologies, a sort of ‘product’ which can be interacted with or demonstrated. Through these approaches, students are enabled to discover knowledge instead of receiving it passively. The two approaches can be combined as they both involve ideating, creating, and reflecting on experience. By combining DT and ME in early education, young children can be better prepared for the future by developing their creative, collaborative, and making skills. However, there are only a few practices that implement these approaches in education, even less so in elementary education.
The fourth industrial revolution is radically changing the nature of work from a purely industrial character to non-linear and constantly evolving models. Schools’ learning systems are struggling to follow these changes and are no longer able to prepare students for the 21st century and the future of the labour market. As such, there is a need for educational systems to be capable of teaching the new generations the skills and attitudes necessary for 21st century societies and future working conditions. As such, the DESIGN FUTURES project aims at enhancing the capacities of teachers in competence-based education by developing and delivering teaching and learning modules that will enable them to embed highly innovative pedagogies of Design Thinking and the Maker Education in school curricula that can contribute to the development of the 21st century skills, such as critical thinking, problem solving, interpersonal skills, entrepreneurial initiative, media and Information literacy, and more. These pedagogies offer an interactive, open-ended, student-driven, multi-disciplinary experience that enhances the development of diverse skills, knowledge, and ways of thinking. The project partners were chosen from a variety of European countries in order to spread and increase the impact of the project around Europe, as well as to add diverse national contexts to the mix of activities, a facet that can yield better comparative results. TUE, the academic partner, focuses on educating students and advancing knowledge in science & technology. Designathon Works, expert in Maker culture, envisions a world where children are engaged in co-designing their future world. STIMMULI for Social Change, a social innovation research organisation, specialises in the educational field and innovative education. AllGrow Romania aims to create systemic change through collaboration between individuals and organizations. PACO, a design collaborative in which the potential of design and education is focused on fostering social innovation. Finally, the school partner, Aristoteleio College, offers a valuable field environment to apply the project’s products. Two main results are derived from DESIGN FUTURES: 1) Design of a professional development program for educators wishing to embed design thinking and “making” in their curricula. This program will move beyond traditional learning models that are lecture-based and have no direct connection to students. Instead it will be based on a makerspace learning model to enable educators to practice and learn how to incorporate design and maker learning into their curriculum. 2) Design and development of the DESIGN FUTURES Student Curriculum based on the design thinking and maker education that will offer a variety of activities under different school subjects and disciplines. The objective of the curriculum is not to teach students what is right and wrong but to enable them to experience, reflect upon and engage in innovative practices through which they use their experiences and reflections as a means to a deeper learning process leading to the development of 21st century skills. The associate participating schools’ role in the project is significant as teachers and students will have a maker education experience where students will unleash their creativity and be taught to design and make innovative solutions to identified societal problems through creative and critical thinking and with the use of new technology (i.e. maker kits). Students will thus participate in the Design Thinking and Maker Education activities co-created by the project’s partnership facilitated and guided by their teachers. In terms of the impact, teachers achieve professional development by being trained in innovative teaching and learning methods. This training enriches teachers’ toolkits and affords them with additional teaching methods and tools for the benefit of their own professional development, as well as their students’ learning. Students by receiving and actively participating in the innovative lessons are engaged in competence-based learning that develops their skills in 21st century capabilities. The students’ participation triggers learning processes that lead to development of critical thinking, creative capacities, initiative building, and other useful facets for the contemporary labour market. At the same time, the engagement of schools with innovative teaching and learning methods can create an ecosystem that supports and empowers teachers to conduct and adopt the design thinking and making curricula. As a result, this contributes to strengthening the teaching vocation and the school system, as systems that cultivate 21st century skills among young learners. As such, the DESIGN FUTURES will inspire the next generation to adopt more skills and competences, cut out for the future of the labour market which will contribute to overcoming mismatches between supply and demand in the employment area.