Design Thinking for German Vocational Schools? Discovering of an Innovative Approach by Testing in Teacher Education

Abstract

Design Thinking is an innovative approach that solves concrete problems and develops new products. Its constant spreading in industry, business, and non-profit organizations raises the question to which extent this approach may be of importance for German vocational schools. There is an increasing debate among scientists about design thinking in educational contexts, in which different authors regard it as useful for curriculum and school development as well as for coping with everyday school life. To assess the importance of design thinking for German vocational schools, pre-service teachers have tackled vocational school issues with design thinking. The paper concludes that design thinking is indeed of interest to vocational schools and that further work is recommended.

Keywords

• action research
• design thinking
• innovation
• school development
• teacher education
• vocational education and training