Location, context, time, and duration
An instructor training was organized in collaboration Evening Vocational High School of Volos on March 8, 2024. The event took place at the premises of the vocational school in the context of the normal school operations. The had a duration of 2 hours. The purpose of the event was to train educators at the Evening Vocational High School of Volos on good learning practices.
The event was attended by 10 educators of the Evening Vocational High School of Volos, who observed teaching delivered by the University of Thessaly team directly to the school’s students. The number of students that participated in the activity was 20.
The event had the format of a workshop. University of Thessaly researchers delivered a full design thinking session in the course of 2 hours. Educators observed the learning delivery in the context of planned training on emerging learning practices. The event contributed to the professional development of educators. During the event, 20 school students participated in the design thinking session. The general context of the session was sustainability, namely students were encouraged to use design thinking in order to synthesize innovative solutions to responsible environmental behavior.
Students worked in groups of 3 – 4 individuals. Initially, they engaged in creativity exercises for building their confidence in their problem-solving skills. Then, they participated in team building exercises for breaking the ice and facilitating collaboration. Students performed internet research on the general subject of sustainability, downloading articles and images. Based on their findings, they defined accurately the problem they wished to work on. The engaged in ideation exercises in their teams, with team members writing ideas on a paper and building on the ideas of their peers. Finally, the evaluated their idea and selected one, which they presented to the entire class.
The feedback of the audience was very positive. Both students and educators found the design thinking process very positive.
The event was promoted via a bulletin delivered by the Evening Vocational High School of Volos to students and educators in the school. In addition, the event was reported by the school to the Secondary Education Authorities of Magnesia, where the town of Volos is located, in the context of planned educator training for career development.