Writing professional college essays is an important task. That’s why you can think of hiring experienced expert college paper help with extensive knowledge in various subjects. Academic essay writing expert from CustomWritings Lauren Bradshaw said, ”Many university and college tutors always say that the one thing that gives them joy is to see a room full of students conversing and working together. The secret to achieving this is making sure that students feel important, and they care about the work that they are doing”. This is the main reason why many tutors and professional writing services opt for design thinking because students can work in small groups, help each other and come up with solutions to deal with a variety of problems.
Design thinking keeps students engaged with what they are being taught in the classroom and prepares them for successful careers in a field of their choice. Some skills they will learn through design thinking include critical thinking, collaboration, empathy, and motivation. To understand this topic even further, with the help of an essay service expert writer from CustomWritings, this article will look at design thinking activities for students.
1. Begin with creative warm-up exercises
Getting college and university students into the design thinking mindsets is very easy when tutors and essay services start with a creative warm-up exercise. Tutors can do this by giving students a piece of paper with a few circles drawn on the front.
Once the papers with circles have been handed out, some tutors will often ask students to make the circles into anything they can think of. For those who are struggling, a tutor can share with them a few examples like a clock, a football, a smiling face, or even a globe. This will successfully warm up the students’ creative muscles before they get into design thinking mode.
2. Practicing understanding and thinking by conducting interviews (Problem Spotting)
Many people from the outside who have little knowledge about design thinking have no idea that it requires a lot of listening and understanding. One can only become great in this field if one can relate and connect to people’s needs. Before any student can design a solution, they have to learn to understand the needs of others as well as the everyday challenges that they face.
During this activity, students are asked to practice observation and listening to others. Instead of real-life clients, it is their classmate in this case, and this lays down the foundation for dealing with problems when they graduate and jump into the real world. Tutors and in some cases academic writing services, can split students into two and make them ask each other some questions.
They are encouraged to take notes and after the interview is done, every student should be in a position to examples the problem their classmate is having. It is an exercise that is very underrated but is one of the most effective when it comes to design thinking.
3. Have a brainstorming session
The whole idea of beginning this exercise is to encourage students to come up with as many ideas as possible to deal with particular problems. Since this article is talking about a classroom setting, the problems can be those experienced by other students.
Tutors have to remind their students that there are no bad or good ideas and that they shouldn’t be worried if their ideas sound crazy or impossible. Everyone is there to learn and the whole idea of design thinking is being creative without fear.
4. Come up with solution prototypes (Prototyping session)
From the brainstorming session, tutors and online writing services need to ask their students to pick the idea that stands out to them on their list and use the sketch prototype worksheet that they will be provided with and draw up their solution.
Students here are welcome to be as creative as they want too, just like the brainstorming process with sketch notes using things like doodling and pictures. The great thing about this exercise is the students get to interact and share ideas. This not only makes them understand each other better but also promotes teamwork and harmony in the classroom.
This prototyping session is also known as visualization by other people because students are making their thoughts real through diagrams, sketches, and other forms of visual expression as pointed above. To excel here, one must be able to display what many experts call creative confidence, which means working boldly without overanalyzing or questioning yourself during the creative process. It can be difficult for some students not to question themselves when they are creating something, but with some help from their tutors, those fears can quickly go away.
5. Reflection or iteration activity
When tutors teach their students something new, they will self-assess themselves to see how they’ve done. The best way to assess how a lesson went is to get feedback from students, and their responses can be used to change or modify lessons next time. A tutor can ask students what they enjoyed about the lesson before asking what they learned.
In the closing session, tutors can ask their students to use design thinking to deal with a problem they might be having at home. This reflection exercise also encourages deep thinking and creativity, as most problems most students might be facing at home have more than one solution. The process where a person learns from feedback and criticism to improve their work is called iteration.
Final thoughts
Overall the key design thinking mindsets are empathy, problem-spotting, brainstorming, and prototyping. Seeing a scenario from other people’s perspective is very important and is what empathy is all about and problem-spotting is where one will redefine a particular challenge, ask better questions and see opportunities. The power brainstorming plays here should not be underestimated because it is where one comes up with ambitious, wild, and multiple ways to deal with a problem they are facing. Prototyping is all about testing the ideas you have to see if they are working. When tutors use the activities above, they will notice that students will become more engaged, imaginative and enjoy the lessons they teach better.
