Diwa trains more than 6,000 educators for #DIWA35

In celebration of Diwa’s 35th anniversary as the leading provider of K to 12 educational resources in the country, over 6,000 teachers were trained through Diwa Innovators Congress (Diwa iCON) as it made a stop in Manila (NCR); Cebu; Iloilo; Davao; Cagayan de Oro; North Luzon; and South Luzon.

School administrators learn from top speakers to learn how they further develop their curriculum with design thinking.

Diwa iCON, one of the milestone events of #DIWA35, is a series of learning opportunities designed to equip teachers all over the Philippines with skills that will help them remain relevant in the 21st century. This year, Diwa introduced the design thinking approach.

Design thinking is a dynamic approach to solving problems. In the classroom, educators need to equip students with skills to become effective problem solvers. This paradigm identifies four thinking points, namely, empathizing, brainstorming, rapid prototyping, and continuous feedback.

Designers are encouraged to get the full context of a problem through research. After which, there are brainstorming sessions with key individuals so that they can proceed to make a prototype. Rapid prototyping enables the designers to spot areas for improvement. Lastly, designers should consistently gather high-quality feedback to be able to refine the solution or product.

“We at Diwa believe that teachers can take a designer's mindset to create authentic learning experiences,” said Mr. Armel Espiritu, Vice President for Corporate and Marketing Communications.

For more comprehensive lessons, the Diwa iCON sessions were divided into preschool; grade school; and junior high school. There was also a specialized training module for senior high school students.

The seminar showed how design thinking can be integrated into grade school and junior high school subjects such as Science, Math, English, Araling Panlipunan, Filipino, Music, Arts, Physical Education, and Health (MAPEH) and Technology and Livelihood Education (TLE).

For senior high school educators, there were specialized seminars for the strands Accountancy, Business and Management (ABM); Humanities and Social Science (HUMMS); Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM); and Language and Communication.

“Design thinking competencies are really helpful in the classroom,” said one participant.