d.home Team Program Overview

To build the creative confidence inherent in all teachers and school leaders, we developed an innovative approach to teacher professional development that allowed teachers to learn the way they will teach their students – something rarely seen in conventional approaches to teacher professional development.

The d.home Team was a project the K12 Lab Network at Stanford's d.school ran from 2014-2016 to build a network of Bay Area schools practicing design thinking and to support educators incorporating design thinking into their curriculum and culture. It was a model for innovative teacher professional development that we hoped, once tested and established, could be replicable in multiple regions.

The 2014-2015 program year started with 9 Bay Area schools, 2 arcs (linked and visualized below) and one vision--to support educators to build their creative confidence and deepen their design thinking practice.

The 2015-2016 program year started with 3 Bay Area schools and 2 goals--1). to coach creative catalysts currently spearheading the design thinking practice within their school, and 2). support these creative catalysts to lead the practice and implementation of designing thinking authentic to their school's culture. What emerged were 16 tools to break school rule and 5 major insights.

The K12 Lab Network will continue its work in schools building the creative confidence of educators, creating opportunities for educators to deepen their design thinking practice, and building the network of teachers-as-designers through its #DTK12schools program. 

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