About

We, at Design Thinking for Schools, believe that the best way to learn how to do design thinking is by doing a design project, such as the ones that appear on this website. Nevertheless, the design thinking process for Level IV ends with the REFLECT stage to give students the opportunity to make sense of the experience and extract greater benefit from it. You can easily reflect by having a conversation and exchanging views and hearing each other’s perspectives, if you worked on a design project in a team. If, however, you worked on a design project individually, you can reflect with pen and paper.
Depending on whether your teacher chooses to grade the design project or not, they may evaluate your team conversation as it happens; or they may ask for a video of the team conversation to evaluate that; or, indeed, they may require a written report of your reflection on the design project.
 

What you need

• Your sketches, notes, and prototypes (or photographs of prototypes) from your design process.
• A4 notepad, and pens or pencils.
• A place with chairs and tables to work freely without distractions.
   

Method

Use the popular “What? So What? Now What?” method in your reflection conversation. This method uses the three questions to begin by reviewing the details of the experience, and then moves toward critical thinking, problem-solving, and creating a plan for future action. One student will be the designated note-taker.

• What?​​​​​​​
  • Tell the story of the design project;
  • without judgment or interpretation;
  • take each stage of the design thinking process in turn: EMPATHISE, DEFINE, IDEATE, PROTOTYPE, TEST, and REFLECT;
  • describe the significant events, stick to the facts;
  • what were the biggest challenges and their outcomes?
• So what?
  • What did you learn? What difference did the event make? Think critically about your experience;
  • take each stage of the design thinking process in turn;
  • how did different team members interpreted the significant events;
  • describe your feelings, ideas, and analysis of the events;
  • what were the lessons learned, and why?
• Now what?
  • How will you think or act in the future as a result of this experience? Draw conclusions from your experience;
  • what important things did you learn from this experience?
  • if you could start again, what would you do differently?
  • how will you apply what you have learnt to new situations in the future?
     

​​​​​​​Tips

• What?
  • Discuss only what happened. Avoid laying blame, or you may undermine this exercise in reflection.
• So what?
  • Be honest about evaluating your own performance, yet be kind and understanding about your teammates’ efforts.
• Now what?
  • Be realistic about how you expect to act in the future. Be cognisant that things won’t always go your way when designing, and you will inevitably face obstacles in the future.