Can design education have a positive impact on primary school education beyond merely preparing designers? As designers, we know almost intuitively that design education is 'good education', and most designers would affirm that it would be beneficial to expose children to design education, because of the benefits of the signature pedagogies of design, such as problem-based learning, human centred creativity and iterations of prototyping and testing. This paper seeks to review and synthesize existing literature and make preliminary analyses, which will support the development of design thinking education interventions at primary school level, which could lead to a paradigm shift in education at this level. While it has been widely demonstrated that design education can play a successful role in supporting traditional education models in the delivery of skills such as math and language arts, this paper seeks to demonstrate that in addition to meeting traditional education demands, design thinking principles in children's education, such as empathy, collaboration and facilitation, human-centeredness, and creativity by iterations of prototyping and testing, will provide a sound base for children not only seeking to enter a design profession in the future but moving into any profession in the future and will lead to higher engagement at school and greater success in life.

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This article highlights a study in which critical pedagogy was introduced through design thinking strategies to primary school students in rural Trinidad and Tobago. By encouraging interactive discussions between students and instructors, the overarching objective was achieved. In order to build students’ critical awareness, agency and empowerment, during three weeks in a summer camp, the students and instructors engaged actively, in repeated dialogues concerning student rights, media bias, change, and utopian ideas for a better future. As the process unfolded, the students took more control of their learning. They identified and suggested solutions for community problems. The case study demonstrated that student-centred strategies which foster critical awareness and development of social consciousness, can be successfully implemented in schools with limited resources.

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