Design Thinking Applied to Education and Training Erasmus Project

Project Title

Design Thinking Applied to Education and Training

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships addressing more than one field

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2014

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education

Project Summary

The D-THINK Project – Design Thinking Applied to Education and Training was conceived to answer to a specific challenge that the EU and the world are facing nowadays. The competitiveness of economies is increasingly dependent on the availability of a qualified and entrepreneurial workforce. Transversal skills such as critical thinking, initiative, problem solving and collaborative work will prepare individuals for today´s varied/unpredictable career paths. Attention needs be given to entrepreneurial skills as they not only contribute to new businesses creation but also for the employability of young people (Rethinking Education, EU, 2012). Under the EU Forum University Business Dialogue (2009), there was a consensus on the need for comprehensive change to curricula and learning methods and for the inclusion of transversal and transferable skills that should be “T-shaped”, rooted in the specific academic discipline while at the same time interacting/cooperating with other disciplines/sectors. Greater interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinary of education and research agendas was set as critical to set new curricula for employability. EU education and training (E&T) systems continue to fall short in providing these right skills for employability (Rethinking Education, EU, 2012). HEI and VETPRO need to keep the efforts to reposition themselves in the emerging learning landscape and to experiment new formats and strategies for learning and teaching to be able to offer relevant, effective and high-quality learning experiences in the future (Redecker, C. et al., 2011). Design Thinking (DT) is a holistic and user-centred innovation method, based on design cognition and design learning that enables multi-disciplinary teams and enact positive, design-led change in the world. DT proved already to offer learning tools, capable of delivering “new skills”, many of the new skills – sense making, social intelligence, novel & adaptive thinking, cross cultural competences, transdisciplinarity, design mind-set and virtual collaboration – employers & organisations seek. The need to prepare the present and future workers for an increasingly dynamic society has long been a concern at different political, educational and organisational levels. This scenario offers an important challenge to the E&T sector. HEI & VETPRO have a great responsibility in the success or failure of this adjustment. They are in the unique position to deliver the skills the market requires, and the workers miss. So, in this scenario the D-Think project was designed with the aims to promote a wider use of DT as a transversal learning method by developing and making available an innovative digital course supported on mobile learning for education professionals and trainers. The population targeted by the project includes HEI professors & staff, VET providers educators & staff, adult educators, professional trainers & key-actors in DT and Education. The main achievements of the project, include a Research Report, a Toolkit and a m-learning Course on DT applied to E&T. The project consortium includes 7 entities from 6 the EU (Portugal, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Finland, and Poland) comprising mainly HEI & VET institutions. Together the consortium gathered the necessary skills and competences to implement the project activities. The D-THINK included the development of the following activities and reached the following results: Clarifying of the role of DT in E&T and creating awareness about the new approaches on entrepreneurship learning and practical applications; Providing an innovative pedagogical methodology in line with EU priorities (learner centred learning; innovative pedagogical concepts) to be used in formal, informal and non-formal educational contexts; Enhancing teachers/trainer’s key competences and students employable skills through a collaborative and interdisciplinary learning environment; Offering a toolkit and a comprehensive training course with the following advantages: Developed from the best practices, enabling close-to-real experiencing and learning; Flexible; Original: learning a new methodological approach by applying that same method; Easy to disseminate through online platforms; Involving HEI & VET providers, guaranteeing appropriate exploitation of results through their centres and executive training programs. Valorisation, sustainability and MKT plans, a large variety of activities, adequate instruments/channels, have been used by partners with positive results in the engagement of the target groups and in generating awareness of the project. After 3 years of implementation the actual efforts of the consortium are focusing in to assure the maintenance and further sustainability of the outputs after the end of the project. Finally, these efforts and tasks resulted on a strategy and set of concrete actions to be implemented, which represent a real commitment of the partners to exploit the project results. Visit us at: www.d-think.eu.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 352194,09 Eur

Project Coordinator

CENTRO DE INVESTIGACAO E FORMACAO EM ARTES E DESIGN LDA & Country: PT

Project Partners

• ADVANCIS-BUSINESS SERVICES, LDA
• EFMD AISBL
• Akademia Humanistyczno-Ekonomiczna w Lodzi
• OY VAASAN AMMATTIKORKEAKOULU – VASAYRKESHOGSKOLA AB
• FONDAZIONE ISTUD PER LA CULTURA D’IMPRESA E DI GESTIONE
• VENTURE HUB SL
• Jarerdia, S.L.