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
Authors: Grönman, Satu; Lindfors, Eila; Rönkkö, Marja-Leena
Publisher: Springer Nature
Publication year: 2024
Journal: International Journal of Technology and Design Education
Journal name in source: International Journal of Technology and Design Education
ISSN: 0957-7572
eISSN: 1573-1804
DOI: https://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 address: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/458963852
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.
Downloadable publication This is an electronic reprint of the original article. |
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.