How Design Thinking Builds Creative Confidence in Kids

Ever wondered what is a thought or what is an idea? How do we think about all these amazing ideas that strike our minds every few seconds whenever we see something around us? And Most importantly how to transform these amazing ideas into great innovation?

The process of thinking to solve a problem and come up with innovative solutions is called design thinking.

Successful, leading companies like Apple and Google are heavily investing in design thinking for out-of-box solutions, people are writing books about it, and it is creating a buzz across the globe.

Everything around us is designed…Our homes, gadgets, clothes, vehicles, toys, games, food just name it! All of them are designed to solve a problem and make our lives easy. In order to get every single product or service available to us a lot of design thinking is done.

Tom Kelly rightly stated, “Design thinking relies on the natural — and coachable — human ability to be intuitive, to recognize patterns, and to construct ideas that are emotionally meaningful as well as functional.”

We want the next generation to become creators and designers. And you will be surprised to know that the natural world is the biggest source of inspiration for the design.

There’s something powerful that happens when you look at the natural world with a sense of awe, wonder, and curiosity and then connect those ideas to new designs that solve real-world problems.

 

So now you must be thinking what does it have to do with kids and their creative confidence?

Conventionally kids were taught to learn for the exam and were rewarded for the correct answers. But in the era of the internet, it is not all about the correct answers, we already have Google for that. In the long term, it is not just enough to have kids’ heads filled full with textbook materials, facts, and classroom lectures. It will surely give kids a well-filled mind but not a well-formed mind.

What today’s kids require is a well-formed mind to succeed in the future. A mind that understands and responds to facts and details that they are unfamiliar with and haven’t studied before. In other words, a mind that is ready to respond to a bigger examination called life. Because life doesn’t only give you things you’re prepared for. And for that, kids’ minds should be shaped by original thinking, who doesn’t just ask “why?”, but “why not?”

Traditionally, design thinking was widely used by businesses and professionals. But now it has become an essential competency and every kid should develop this skill at an early age for stellar success in the future.

 

How Design Thinking Builds Creative Confidence

Ignites curiosity about the world

The core of design thinking is curiosity and having a thirst to learn more. Kids have an inborn quality of being inquisitive which makes them question everything which helps them to discover opportunities that everyone around them cannot see. Curiosity can be cultivated with the help of design thinking. When kids are curious they come across many problems that are present in the world, if encouraged kids will look for ways to solve those problems.

 

Kids move from engaged to empower

Design thinking involves asking questions, understanding the problem, generating ideas to solve the problem, creating prototypes, and testing it. When kids own the creative process, they own their learning.

 

Helps in becoming confident problem-solvers

Design thinking broadens kids’ horizons. They look for problems and then go beyond themselves to seek solutions. It is an empowering approach, making sure that kids are ready to tackle any hurdles that come their way right from childhood.

 

Kids learn to iterate solutions

Too often, kids are told there is only one correct answer and they are stuck in a grading system that leaves zero scopes to explore. Design thinking helps kids learn to iterate versions of solutions for problem statements and test out the best ones. This will lead to hands-on learning and great results.

 

Boosts the ability to think outside the box

Design Thinking is an out of box approach to solve problems of the world. One has to be more imaginative, creative, experimental, and most importantly original. In order to find the best potential solutions, kids’ boundaries have to be pushed and limitations have to be challenged. This will boost kids’ ability to think creatively.

 

Kids learn to incorporate feedback

It helps kids in accepting failures and constructive feedback from others in order to improve themselves by refining their skills. Honing and harnessing this type of attitude will be extremely rewarding for kids as they will not be afraid of receiving feedback to do better.

 

Develops a mindset of helping people

The heart of design thinking is people and their problems. Kids are often more perceptive and motivated to help others. If encouraged, this can become a strong value from a young age which can help kids to do more for the people they want to help.

 

Five Stages of Design Thinking Process

Empathize

The centerpiece of design thinking is empathy. The first step involves an empathic understanding of the problem that you are trying to solve in order to create an innovative solution to the problem. It always includes some sort of engagement with people. Because it is important to put yourself in another person’s shoes and try to understand their circumstances and where they are coming from. Once the problem is understood clearly, the further process becomes easier.

Empathy is a valuable skill to have, it will help kids grow into an adult who is kinder and is willing to shoulder other people’s problems to find solutions.

 

Define

In this stage, the core problem is defined on the basis of information collected during the empathize stage.

 

Ideate

This stage celebrates the power of possibility. It helps to step beyond obvious solutions. The designers come up with great creative ideas and potential solutions to address the problem defined in the previous stage.

 

Prototype

Once you have ideas to solve the defined problem, it is time to quickly build multiple inexpensive prototypes. Prototypes are experimented with to check the solution scenarios and decision-making around what is working and what isn’t. Prototypes can be in the form of hand-made models, sketches, posters, or digital renders of an idea.

 

Test

It is the last stage in the process of design thinking. It involves real-time testing of the product where users are involved by using the best solution that was identified during the prototyping phase. The results that are generated during this phase are further used to redefine one or more problems.

The future belongs to innovators and problem-solvers, who can quickly adapt and evolve to flourish in the rapidly changing world as and when the necessity arises. Design thinking is that technique that will help us to create those Innovators.

To create those innovators {igebra.ai} has designed a unique program called math++, to infuse design thinking into early education and develop creative confidence in them. As we want kids to be exceptional problem solvers and give them the ability to create new avenues for the world to progress upon.

 

Authored By: Mr. Srini Vemula, the founder and CEO – {igebra.ai}