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“I Need to Sit on My Hands and Put Tape on My Mouth”: Improving Teachers’ Design Thinking Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes Through Professional Development

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Abstract

This case study reports the quantitative and qualitative findings of a professional development program focused on design thinking. The program took place in two rural southeastern counties in the USA. The professional development program was designed for elementary school teachers with limited science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) engagement. The goal of this program was to broaden the teachers’ understanding of incorporating STEM in their classrooms through the implementation of design thinking lessons. Design thinking is a powerful process that can allow teachers to transcend teaching STEM content areas alone and effectively integrate these disciplines into one problem-solving process. Through a weeklong professional development program, the teachers improved the knowledge of, skills in, and attitudes toward design thinking. Based on quantitative measures, there was a statistically significant increase in all three areas. Through thematic analysis, we found that participants specifically learned about implementing the design thinking process. This included providing students an opportunity to fail and struggle as they worked through the learning process. Also, providing students an opportunity to share their progress and ideas was highly supported by participants. Based on the evaluation of the professional development program, it was impactful due to the authentic opportunities for the teachers to practice what they were learning and opportunities for collaborative planning with their peers. We discuss the findings of this case in the context of relevant literature and provide suggestions for future professional development programs.

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Funding

The Georgia Governor’s Office of Student Achievement provided the grant funds that allowed this project to occur. Additionally, this project was approved by IRB and all participants gave their informed consent to participate.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Educational Technology and Communications, College of Education, University of West Georgia, Carrollton, GA, 30118, USA

    T. Logan Arrington & Lara Willox

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  1. T. Logan Arrington
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  2. Lara Willox
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Correspondence to T. Logan Arrington.

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Appendix

Appendix

Pretest/posttest

Design Thinking Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes Questions Maximum score = 80

Knowledge (rate your familiarity with the following terms) Maximum score = 8

Design thinking

Iterative problem solving

Skills (rate your skill level in the following areas in terms of your skills) maximum score = 24

Identifying applicable resources

Analyzing the system within which the problem exists to identify its given components

Creating and testing solutions that address the problem

Incorporating feedback from tests to improve your design

Communicating the solution to various audiences

Adapting to unexpected changes in problem solving

Attitudes [confidence] (rate your confidence in the following behaviors as they relate to your instructional practices) maximum score = 48

Allowing students to have self-guided instructional time

Allowing students the opportunity to face challenges and shortcomings in their learning

Allowing students the opportunity to trial solutions to the problem in a consequence free environment

Allowing students creative freedom to be innovative

Creating learning experiences that allow students the opportunity to explore

Creating learning experiences that encourage students to face challenges or fail in their initial attempts

Creating learning experiences that require students to engage in iterative problem solving

Creating learning experiences that allow students the opportunity to be creative while mastering content knowledge

Facilitating lessons where students are consistently exploring

Facilitating lessons where students are expected to fail or encounter difficult scenarios

Facilitating lessons where students are working on a similar problem and trialing different solutions

Facilitating student creativity and innovation

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Arrington, T.L., Willox, L. “I Need to Sit on My Hands and Put Tape on My Mouth”: Improving Teachers’ Design Thinking Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes Through Professional Development. J Form Des Learn 5, 27–38 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41686-021-00054-w

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