Design Thinking in Environmental Education: the problem of Eucalyptus Urophylla S.T. Blake in a school in the south of Bahia

Abstract

Design Thinking (DT) is an active methodology that promotes the leading role of students by solving a challenge/problem. The objective is to identify the benefits of applying the Design Thinking methodology, in stimulating and valuing the role of students in the debate on the monoculture of eucalyptus (Eucalyptus urophylla S.T. Blake) in a school in Teixeira de Freitas, Bahia. Systematic observations were made during the development of the five stages of DT: Empathise, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test. On a scale between unsatisfactory, acceptable, and exemplary, following the methodology of the Buck Institute For Education, student performance was classified as exemplary in almost all stages; except for the ability to propose ideas, classified as acceptable. The work reveals the importance of using active methodologies in schools to stimulate the leading role of young people; valuing common and scientific knowledge; expand the debate on local socio-environmental problems and transform the actions of the subjects; essential assumptions of Critical Environmental Education in the formal teaching and learning space.

Keywords: Teaching and learning. Scientific investigation. Active Methodologies. The leading role of the students.