‘’Design Thinking is a human-centered approach to innovation that draws from the designer's toolkit to integrate the needs of people, the possibilities of technology, and the requirements for business success.” as it was described by Tim Brown, CEO of the global design company IDEO. Since the 1960s, architects, designers, engineers and academics have conducted studies about the methods and processes of innovation in the design field. In the 1990s, IDEO, began pushing the idea that thinking like a designer changes the way organisations develop products and strategies. After business school seminars and executive education workshops by Stanford University's Design School, Design Thinking Approach has started appearing in the classrooms of younger and younger students. From that time on, schools all over the world are giving priority to integrating Design Thinking into the curriculum and some were founded on this core principle such as Nueva school by IDEO, Innova School in Peru, Design Tech a public high school in California. To be successful in today’s highly competitive world requires a person to develop and use a different set of skills than were needed before. People are trying to respond to a rapidly evolving global, dynamic shifts. This response includes new pedagogies that are evidenced by new standards, assessments, tools and learning environments. One such attempt to connect real world to classroom environments is through Design Thinking. Design Education based on Design Thinking Process allows pupils identifying problems, solving them creatively. It's a way of thinking and creating that will help students tackle the ever-evolving challenges of school and life. Design Thinking Approach results in children not only absorbing knowledge but also engaging in design activities and producing knowledge. Design Thinking allows learners to exercise different intelligences and different personal attitudes. It facilitates a deep understanding of topics, increases awareness and helps children to form opinions. It encourages the interaction between people, both between peers and teacher-pupils relation. It supports permanence of knowledge. It helps children to deal with a situation and find a solution. It encourages empathy and helps to understand other people’s perspective. It fosters a holistic understanding of knowledge between different disciplines. https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/fostering-students-creativity-and-critical-thinking_62212c37-en?fbclid=IwAR2pzbWH5-Lca03qSd6s4WWjp2qRyp2nH9dnpozsAEOTUAoiwzq6i9JEpZE#page105 The Project IDEAS aims to uncover and develop pupils’ creative confidence while creating new and innovative ideas and solving problems throughout using Design Thinking Approach. With the project activities which designed for specific goals and results, pupils will enhance collaborative skills, deepen observation, develop empathy and gain self confidence as creators, makers, designers and furthermore they will develop a sense of optimism. Design Thinking positively affects learning with hands-on activities and pupils benefit of active learning, or learning by doing. Learning “how to learn” will have far greater value in the long term than any content our children memorize, and this is the greatest possible advantage of using Design Thinking Approach. On the contrary of traditional school programs which confront children with prepackaged information and a simplified understanding of reality far away from outer life, this project offers activities to implement with and by children and these activities will be taken place with the goal of applying Design Thinking Methods in education contexts. The partnership consists of 6 schools from Sweden, Turkey, Malta, Latvia, Italy and Croatia. All the partners are determined and eager to participate. They have the capacity of adding value and significance to a shared vision with their support and commitment. They are good team players with their compatible organisational mission, experience, self confidence, capacity of qualified and voluntary staff to involve in the project and school administration support. The project IDEAS consists of 12 activities. The first six activities will be implemented with the 5th graders in the first year of the project. The last six activities will be implemented with the very same students when they are 6th graders in the second year of the project. All activities were prepared with detailed explanations in Lesson Plans containing; Duration Of Activity, Objectives, Materials, Learning Activity Method, Visuals, Preparation For The Teacher and Teacher’s Evaluation parts. Every activity has a short PowerPoint presentation for the pupils to watch at the beginning of each activity. The overall impact of the Project IDEAS can be described by the proverb which Italian artist and designer Bruno Munari used to explain the approach ''If I hear, I forget. If I see, I remember. If I do, I understand''.
The Project IDEAS aimed to uncover and develop pupils’ creative confidence while creating new and innovative ideas and solving problems throughout using Design Thinking Approach. With the project activities which was designed for specific goals and results, pupils enhanced collaborative skills, deepend observation, developed empathy and gained self confidence as creators, makers, designers and furthermore they developed a sense of optimism. Design Thinking positively affected learning with hands-on activities and pupils benefit of active learning, or learning by doing. Learning “how to learn” have had far greater value in the long term than any content our children memorize, and this was the greatest possible advantage of using Design Thinking Approach. On the contrary of traditional school programs which confront children with prepackaged information and a simplified understanding of reality far away from outer life, this project offered activities to implement with and by children and these activities have taken place with the goal of applying Design Thinking Methods in education contexts. The partnership has consisted of 6 schools from Sweden, Turkey, Malta, Latvia, Italy and Croatia. All the partners were determined and eager to participate. They have had the capacity of adding value and significance to a shared vision with their support and commitment. They were good team players with their compatible organisational mission, experience, self confidence, capacity of qualified and voluntary staff to be involved in the project and school administration support. The project IDEAS consisted of 12 activities. The first six activities were implemented with the 4th and 5th graders in the first year of the project. The last six activities were implemented with the very same students when they were 5th and 6th graders in the second and third year of the project since the project was extended due to the Corona Pandemic. All activities were prepared with detailed explanations in Lesson Plans containing; Duration Of Activity, Objectives, Materials, Learning Activity Method, Visuals, Preparation For The Teacher and Teacher’s Evaluation parts. Every activity had a short PowerPoint presentation for the pupils to watch at the beginning of each activity. The overall impact of the Project IDEAS can be described by the proverb which Italian artist and designer Bruno Munari used to explain the approach ''If I hear, I forget. If I see, I remember. If I do, I understand''.