Lesson 11

Design thinking

Objective
Execute the Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test stages of the design
thinking process.

Introduction
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.

Think
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.
This can be summarized in five stages: Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test. These
stages are adapted from the Institute of Design at Stanford University.

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

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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 development stages, it is not natural
for children in the primary grades to be empathetic toward others. It is a common observation
by teachers that the students at these levels often do not realize that their actions affect
others. So, applying design thinking in the classroom gives the children opportunity to
cultivate empathy, and at the same time, develop their problem-solving skills.
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 members, or just anyone in their
community. Then the students will use the information they gathered from the empathize
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.
Ideate
The third stage of design thinking 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. Ideas are usually written or drawn on sticky notes
and students, later on, organize them into a mind map.
It is at this stage that the students will be able to apply their mathematical knowledge and
skills. Aside from being able to operate their problem-solving skills, they will also be able to
apply specific content knowledge like measurement, proportion, geometry, and statistics.
Prototype and Test
Finally, 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 t, and then make
improvements, or possibly 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 fall
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.

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Experience
Below is a template of a sample worksheet that will guide the students through the
design thinking process. This is a simplified version of Stanford’s sample template. In this
example, the students are to create a project about their recess time experience.

Your challenge is to redesign your school’s recess time.

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

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 Ideate
Write/Sketch at least four innovative ways to address your user’s needs. Be specific with
your measurements and/or proportion, if needed.

Idea 1: Idea 2:

Idea 3: Idea 4:

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

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Prototype
Create a prototype of your unified solution. Use readily available materials like papers,
cardboards, coloring materials, sticky tapes, Popsicle, etc. Be accurate with your
measurements by using ruler, compass, and/or measuring tape.
Test
Share your prototype with a user. Write your observation below.

What worked: What can be improved: More ideas:

Assess
This lesson introduced design thinking as a thought-provoking and purposeful
strategy. Elaborate why you think design thinking was described as such.

Challenge
Many teachers are not informed about design thinking because it is a new, if not the newest,
strategy in teaching mathematics. The following activity will challenge you to convince a
teacher about the benefits of using this strategy.
1. Make an infographic about design thinking for the teachers who have not yet heard
about it. Sketch a draft of your infographic.

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 2. Share your infographic to a Kinder or Grade 1, 2, or 3 mathematics teacher. What are
the teacher’s questions or comments about design thinking? Were you able to answer
his/her questions? Do you share the same sentiments with him/her about design
thinking?

Harness
The design-thinking process is best learned when done. Go over the steps yourself
with a partner. Empathize, define, ideate, and test to redesign your school’s lunch experience.
This activity will be part of the learning portfolio that you will compile at the end of this
module.

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Your challenge is to redesign your school’s experience.
Empathize
Observe the students, your co-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 partner. Do you have similar
notes?
Define
Identify a user and define a problem that you want to address. You and your partner must
come up with one user and problem to address.

user
needs
user’s needs
because

insight

Ideate
Write/Sketch at least four innovative ways to address your user’s needs. Be specific with
your measurements and/or proportions, if needed.

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 Idea 1: Idea 2:

Idea 3: Idea 4:

Share your ideas with your partner. Get feedback. Then generate a unified solution.
Sketch your unified solution below.

Unified Solution

Prototype
Create a prototype of your unified solution.

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Test
Share your prototype with a user. Write your observation below.

What worked: What can be improved: More ideas:

Summary
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.