Taking Design Seriously in Education

Design capabilities are essential for students in the 21st Century. This Element provides a holistic picture of systemic change.

This Element conveys a vision of school systems in which every student becomes a capable designer. Design capabilities are described as essential for student flourishing in an AI era. It critiques the current status of design within school systems as being present but lacking substance. It defines design based on developments in design science.Design capabilities are essential for human flourishing in an AI era. This book argues that Design needs to be taken more seriously within education systems. It offers a timely critique of how Design currently exists in schools as present in name but lacking in substance: Why have decades of attempts to bring 'future skills' and '21st century skills' into schools been largely unsuccessful? Why has design thinking not delivered on its potential in education? Central to the authors' response is that Design is simultaneously relegated as a discipline and subsumed within other subject areas. Change requires more than repackaging well-worn ideas into yet another learning framework. Written for teachers, educational leaders and researchers, this book presents a pragmatic account of design capabilities and a vision for the systemic change needed for Design to be recognised as one of the most important subjects in the education of every student.