Enhancing teaching and learning through design practice

Design is part of a teacher’s practice on a daily basis. Teachers are constantly designing and redesigning learning experiences for their students. However, the notions of the teacher as designer or ‘teacher design practice’ are rarely used as frameworks within teacher education or continuing professional learning. In fact, ‘teacher design thinking’, that is, how school teachers think about and engage in design practice has been an under-researched area. Design thinking has the potential to provide teachers with a scaffold to reflect upon contextual and evidence-based factors when designing learning experiences for their students. However, we need to know how teachers engage in design and how their practice might be better supported. This paper will provide an overview of design thinking, and how it fits within teachers’ work. Results of a recent Australian study, which investigated early career and experienced teachers’ design practices will be detailed with a view to considering a model of teacher design thinking that may be integrated into teacher education and development to ultimately make a difference for student learning.