Education Across Borders
Innovative Pedagogical Approach Captures the Imagination of Global Educators

Karen Collias of Knowledge Without Borders™ has embarked on an exploration of education across borders to discover common pedagogical practices that connect educators. And design thinking keeps popping up in educational discussions.

Teachers in the United States use design thinking to implement Common Core standards. School leaders in Peru apply design thinking to educational challenges that include developing a “blended learning” curriculum for low-income students to designing the buildings where learning takes place. Students in Singapore enroll in an “Imagineering Programme” leading to a certificate in problem solving and innovation.

Educators and students around the world have embraced “design thinking” as a collaborative, human-centered approach to innovative problem solving. The design-thinking approach, presented in the info-graphic, is not a linear step-by-step process. Rather, overlapping spaces guide educators as they identify needs, define problems to be solved, think of lots of ideas, and experiment until they find a solution. Download an educator toolkit.

Collias recently traveled to Istanbul, Turkey and documented a collaborative design thinking project that brought together architects, educators and students to engage the larger community in imagining new solutions to a longstanding urban challenge. Read about their design thinking experience. A team of Knowledge Without Borders™ partners will travel to Lima and Arequipa, Peru to apply the design thinking approach as they collaborate with Peruvians on educational and community challenges. We will share their experiences in the next quarterly installment of “Education Across Borders.”

Design thinking could be a powerful tool to help you design meaningful solutions in your classroom, your school, your district or your community. To learn about the evolution and applications of design thinking, take a look at “What is Design Thinking?”