Thursday, August 18, 2011

TEaching design K12

http://www.idsa.org/teaching-design-k-12

Engagement, willingness to take risks, empowering students to believe that they can be creative by practicing, learning and encouraging them to problem solve, prototype, fail and iterate are unheard of ideas for most US school systems. These bold, new ideas that designers practice every day are starting to get some traction as an alternative to the present rigid US education system and could raise education scores of US students. 

Since the introduction of the National Curriculum in 1992, which included as one of the core subjects Design and Technology, the British education system has recognized that teaching design to K-12 grade children teaches a process and approach to creative thinking even if students don’t become designers when they leave school. This means that all young adults entering the workforce have an understanding of design. How does that compare to the people we work with in business? Besides the educational benefits for students, it also means a much better reception in the workplace for design because many more people have a fundamental grasp of what design can do and how it works as a process. 

As part of IDSA’s efforts to promote design to business, we set a long-term goal of ensuring that all students coming out of school at least know and understand what design is and what it can do. With this in mind, the following article outlines some of the advocacy IDSA has in the works to better integrate design into the K-12 education system.

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