Design thinking emphasises a human-centered approach. When teachers master this mindset and understand the diverse needs of their students, designing engaging learning activities becomes much more intuitive!

We conducted a design thinking application training for the teachers at Sha Tin Wai Dr.Catherine F.Woo Memorial School. Through a warm-up activity—designing an ideal chair for your partner, participants started by asking the user’s needs, then creating a prototype and collecting feedback for further improvement. The main event had each group designing a prototype tailored to a specific group member’s needs. One common issue among teachers is neck and shoulder pain; one group designed a pillow with neck and shoulder massage functions, while others came up with an automatic page-turner and foldable desk.

Although a short session can only allow participants to create prototypes, they realise that ambiguity is inevitable and making ideas tangible facilitates communications.