Unit III: Instructional Strategies for Mathematics in the Intermediate Grades

Lesson 11 – Design Thinking

The students find learning mathematics most engaging when they are involved in
a thinking process that results in an output that can be applied to relevant
context. The design-thinking process engages the students in such a thought-
provoking and purposeful activity.

Design thinking is a progressive teaching strategy that allows the students to look for real-world problems and
finding creative solutions. Students do this by focusing on the needs of others, collaborating for possible
solutions, and prototyping and testing their creations.

Design Thinking Framework (Institute of Design at Stanford, 2016)

Stages of Design Thinking

1. Empathize

The goal of design thinking is for the students to respond to a particular need (a real-world problem) so it is
fitting that the first stage is empathy. In this stage, the teacher needs to be explicit in guiding the students to
put themselves in the shoes of others through activities like immersed observation and interviews. According
to the developmental stages, it is not natural for children in the intermediate grades to be empathetic toward
others. It is a common observation by teachers that the students at theselevels do not realize that their
actions affect others. So, applying design thinking in the classroom gives the children opportunity to cultivate
empathy, at the same time, their skills for problem-solving and empathy are being developed.

2. Define

The next stage is for the students to define the specific problem or issue that they want to address. First, the
students will identify an audience – the future users of the product they will develop. Their audience can be
students, teachers, family membeEmpathize stage and focus on one aspect of the problem. It is important
 that the students be able to identify a true problem because it is impossible to successfully complete the
design-thinking process without a meaningful problem to solve.

3. Ideate
This stage is the generation of ideas to solve the identified problem. This involves brainstorming and
research,.the students are to be encouraged to think out of the box and produce radical ideas. What sets this
stage apart from the usual brainstorming is that all ideas must be written or illustrated. Idfeas are usually
written or drawn on sticky notes and the students, later on, organize them into a mind map.

The students will apply their mathematical knowledge and skills. Aside from being able to operate their
problem-solving skillsm they will also be able to apply specific content knowledge like measurement,
proportion, geometry, and statistics.

4. Prototype and Test

The students go through a repetitive cycle of prototyping and testing. A prototype is anything that a user can
interact with in order to, later on, provide feedback about it. It can be made of easily accessible materials
like paper, cardboard, sticky tapes, recycled plastics, and so on. Once a prototype is created, they test it or
allow a user to test it, and then make improvements, or possible overhaul; the design, depending on their
observations and the feedback of the user. In these stages, it is important to emphasize that it is totally fine
to fail at the first attempt of prototyping. The trial-and-error aspect of the design-thinking process is glorified
because it is believed that the students learn many things through their failures. Even though a physical
product is the expected output of design thinking, it should be emphasized that going through the process
is what is more important because it is where the learning takes place.

Sample worksheet template (simplified version of Stanford’s sample template).

Your challenge is to redesign your school’s lunch experience.

Empathize

Observe your classmates, other students, teachers, and canteen managers during lunch time. Take time to
casually interview some of them about their usual lunch experience.

Notes from your observation: Notes from your interview:

Discuss your observation and interview notes with your groupmates. Do you have similar notes?
Define

Identify a user and define a problem that you want to address. Your group must come up with one user and
problem to address.

_______________________
User

Needs _________________________________________________________________________________
(user’s needs)
because _______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
(insight)

Ideate

Write/sketch two innovative ways to address your user’s needs. Be specific with your measurements and/or
proportions, if needed.

Idea 1: Idea 2:

Share your ideas with your groupmates. Get feedback. As a group, generate a unified solution that
incorporates the ideas and feedback from the members. It is not necessary that all ideas will be seen in the
unified solution. What is important is that all the members agree that the necessary ideas are integrated in to
the solution. Sketch your group’s unified solution below.

Unified solution

Prototype

Create a prototype of your unified solution. Use readily available materials like papers, cardboards, coloring
materials, sticky tapes, popsicle sticks, etc. Be accurate with your measurements by using ruler, compass,
and/or measuring tape.
 Test

Share your prototype with a user. Write your observations below.

What worked: What can be improved: More ideas:

Design thinking is a contemporary teaching strategy that fosters creativity by

allowing students to come up with concrete and tangible solutions to authentic
problems that they themselves identified.

Activity 10

Many teachers are not informed about design-thinking becasue it is a new, if not the newest, strategy in
teaching mathematics. Make an inforgraphic about design thinking for the teachers who have not yet heard
about it. Sketch the draft of your infographic below.
Portfilio 9

The design-thinking process is best learned when done. Go over the steps with your groupmates. Empathize,
define, ideate, prototype, and test to redesign your school’s lunch experience (use the sample worksheet
template).