A2 Refereed review article in a scientific journal

Design thinking in early childhood education and care. A literature review and consideration from the perspective of young learners’ craft, design, and technology education




AuthorsGrönman, Satu; Lindfors, Eila; Rönkkö, Marja-Leena

PublisherSpringer Nature

Publication year2024

JournalInternational Journal of Technology and Design Education

Journal name in sourceInternational Journal of Technology and Design Education

ISSN0957-7572

eISSN1573-1804

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1007/s10798-024-09944-z

Web address https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10798-024-09944-z

Self-archived copy’s web addresshttps://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/458963852


Abstract

Design thinking is a cognitive, iterative process that involves identifying goals, understanding users, and creating solutions. It has changed from a designers’ activity to an all-around approach to the innovation process and become a pedagogical phenomenon. In this article, design thinking method is studied in an educational context among young learners (children aged 5–8) through a literature review. The aim of this review is to gain an understanding of the reasons why and the ways in which design thinking is applied as an educational method in early childhood education and care. Through the review, we aim to find new ideas for teaching craft, design, and technology education with young learners. We present the results of 20 peer-reviewed articles reporting empirical studies of applying design thinking methods in an educational context with young learners. The results show that previous research has identified three themes of reasons to apply design thinking in early childhood education and care: enhancing multidisciplinary teaching, teaching design thinking as a method and supporting children’s developmental domains, and participatory learning. The ways to apply design thinking with young learners also coalesced into three themes: children acting as designers by solving real-life problems, open-ended science problems, and challenges in imaginary play. In conclusion, we consider these findings from the perspective of teaching craft, design, and technology education for young learners.


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Funding information in the publication
This research was supported by Finnish Cultural Foundation, Satakunta Regional Fund, as a grant for doctoral dissertation for the first author.


Last updated on 2025-27-01 at 19:46