Results
Design Thinking fosters metacognitive skills and
competences explicitly by using a formalised process. Such
a process offers the teacher support in realising
constructivist learning and gives recommendations for
methods (e.g. method for effective reflection, brainstorming
rules). As described in the theoretical part above, Design
Thinking projects focus on constructivist learning and
integrate content. What is crucial in Design Thinking are the
process phases which need to be run through. The teacher
can put different emphasis on different phases, according to
the learning goal and individual needs. But only the process
as a whole, with all its steps sets the frame for constructivist
learning. Encountering new content and complex
interrelations of information, solving team crisis and getting
feedback for intermediate results are difficult aspects of
such a project-learning, but also crucial for developing
metacognitive competences. This is realised through the
Design Thinking process as a whole, or as Dewey would
point out the whole act of thinking. With the process on
hand, the teacher is prepared for these challenges, being
confident in solving them and thus more motivated in using
the process and actually realising constructivist learning.
In that, Design Thinking serves as a first standard for
constructivist teaching regardless of the scope of ambiguity
of teacher motivation. Once succeeded in the process
(solving of challenge, mastering the process), the teacher
gets positive feedback and the development of students
social competences can be assessed (Noweski 2012). This
success leads to motivation of both students and teacher in
realising more constructivist learning.