Design Thinking Process (DTP) in Education: A practical guide to incorporating DTP into your curriculum and instruction for all content areas in the 6th standard to the 12th standard.

My goal this week is to complete a draft of a teacher's guide for using the Design Thinking Process. In the morning I go to the library at Indus and write and in the afternoons I read this book. This book helps me to think through what should be in the guide.










Here is my introductory letter:

Dear Colleagues:

I am writing to you as a teacher of 13 years in the Boston Public Schools. I teach U.S. History to
10th graders. I, together with my colleagues in the history department have been grappling with how
to make our curricula more student-centered and project-based for the last several years. We have
started incorporating projects in our units with a culminating research paper and project for  
their final exam at the end of the year. It is quite beautiful to watch and see the students’
progress over the years.

In 2019, I completed a Fulbright Distinguished Award in Teaching in India. As a practitioner, I was able
to take the time out of my classroom and research best practices around student-centered and project
based learning. I was very fortunate to find Indus International School in Bangalore that uses the
Design Thinking Process (DTP) as a teaching pedagogy and methodology in the classroom
from Kindergarten to the 12th standard. I was invigorated by this pedagogy and methodology that I saw
in elementary grades and middle grades.

I am speaking to all of you as a practitioner and am collaboratively writing this guide with other teachers
and professors as a way to think about teaching with a different lens. I have seen over the years so
many students feeling that their core content is remote and boring and through the DTP I have
watched students come alive and enthusiastic about learning. I alone, did not create this guide.
Again, the way DTP works is in groups and through several drafts and iterations, the following is
what was produced. The guide is written the way the contributors have thought through this process
and how to teach it. Please use what is helpful to you. There are no prescriptions and this is just a
guide to help awaken your classroom. Please use it as you wish and what makes sense for you and
your school.

My wish is for you to become the best teacher possible for the students before you and that you are
able to provide them with the skills necessary to flourish after they leave your classroom. And hopefully
along the way, you have fun teaching.

In Unity,

Brinda Tahiliani

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**I can not believe our time is almost over in India but as I start to look back, I am very excited about what I have learned on this journey with regards to education. I am eager to get back and share my ideas with my colleagues.