Enhancing Student Learning Outcomes using Design Thinking Strategies

Abstract

The challenges that educators in the United States face are persistent, complex, and fundamentally human. Teaching requires a delicate balance between deeply understanding the student condition and adhering to systemic educational requirements. Teachers must cater to an increasingly diverse student population with unique backgrounds, goals, and learning needs. Additionally, technology and teaching methodologies are rapidly evolving, while state standards and curricula remain largely stagnant. These circumstances are compounded by teachers being overworked, under-supported, and pressured to meet unreasonable performance standards. To address these challenges, this paper offers a design thinking approach to developing more effective teaching strategies and, ultimately, improving student outcomes. Design thinking employs empathy-driven problem-solving to create flexible and adaptable solutions that work for a variety of classroom settings. This narrative literature review adopts the five-step design process for instructional planning and discusses relevant tools in the field of design that educators can directly implement in their classrooms. The aim is to provide teachers with an understanding of the practical benefits of these tools—enabling them to integrate these tools into their workflow for problem-solving without adding unnecessary complications. Now, more than ever, teachers need optimistic and collaborative solutions to address a growing education crisis, and design can serve as a catalyst for this change.