Design thinking and digital technologies are increasingly introduced in education to develop children’s design literacy. This shift demands a change in teachers’ mindsets, capabilities and approaches to design and technology as well as new teaching practices. This paper reports on a research-based master's course developed to address and study the challenges that educators experience when teaching design in K-12 classes. We investigate three aspects that we argue are crucial when developing teachers' capability to teach design literacy to children: (1) ability to navigate a complex design process, (2) managing digital and analogue design materials and (3) balancing different modes of teaching. This paper demonstrates how a combination of design theory, in-school practice and peer-to-peer learning created a framework towards educating design educators – a framework that allowed us to investigate K-12 teachers' development of core competencies for bringing design and digital fabrication to diverse students. In addition, the study shows how the framework can facilitate and support co-development of new teaching practices.
Original language
English
Title of host publication
Fablearn '16 : proceedings of the 6th annual conference on creativity and making in education
Fablearn Conference on Creativity and Fabrication in Education: 6th Annual Conference on Creativity and Making in Education - Stanford University, Palo Alto, United States Duration: 14 Oct 2016 → 16 Oct 2016 http://fablearn.stanford.edu/conferences/stanford2016/
Conference
Conference
Fablearn Conference on Creativity and Fabrication in Education