Poverty, food insecurity, environmental and climate disasters, violence and human rights violations, inequities in access to goods, and fundamental rights are, unfortunately, realities present to a greater or lesser extent in contemporary global life. Thinking about another future is more just and equitable for all, and requires creativity, commitment, and inter and transdisciplinary knowledge.
Precisely because they are complex and multifactorial, real problems require not only complex answers but everyone’s commitment to solving them. When understood in the set of pedagogical practices, the resolution of these problems summons educators and students to this shared responsibility of recreating the present and transforming the future, while at the same time making tangible the knowledge produced and systematized by humanity. In other words, addressing the issues that affect students, teachers and their communities calls the school to its social responsibility to develop students capable of acting critically and with intellectual freedom.
Problem-solving: focus on Design Thinking and Project Based Learning
In the so-called Knowledge Society, it is necessary not only to access but to understand the information produced, applying it in favor of a sustainable agenda for the planet.
Initially proposed in the field of medical education and quickly appropriated by other fields of knowledge and educational practices, problem-solving focuses on mobilizing students to understand and respond to complex scenarios, using different research strategies and information systematization. This bundle of tools includes Design Thinking practices and the Project Based Learning (PBL) approach itself.