Creativity in Indian Classrooms: Can Design Thinking Help in Fostering Creativity?

Creativity is an essential component for effective teaching and learning. It encourages curiosity, exploration and experimentation. It also plays a very important role in Design thinking process enabling learners to generate innovative solutions to complex problems. Design thinking is a human-centered approach to innovation that emphasizes on understanding of the human and their needs, redefining problems, challenging the existing solutions and working towards a novel outcome. When applied correctly, design thinking provides a structured approach among educators to teach future generations. At the core of design thinking lies creativity, which is vital for generating innovative solutions and fostering an environment where ideas can flourish. By integrating creativity into teacher training, we can create a generation of educators equipped with tools for every student. This paper examines the significance of creativity through design thinking as it pertains to education with focus on its role in using innovative teaching strategies in Indian classrooms and thus improving student outcomes. Through a review of relevant literature and case studies, we highlight how design thinking practices can enhance creativity and vice versa. This paper explores the significance of creativity within the design thinking framework, examining its impact on problem-solving, collaboration by the teachers as well as students.