The Designing New Thinking Ecosystems (DNTE) Group (formerly the Design and Technology Education Group) at HBCSE envisions learning environments, experiences, and resources that integrate design, STEAM, sustainability, and societal perspectives to cultivate new ways of thinking, learning, and acting. While building on the group’s original focus on collaborative design, making, evaluation, cognition, and key ideas in design and technology education, the DNTE expands this work to address broader questions of learning, sustainability, systems thinking, and the role of design in shaping more equitable futures. Situated at the intersection of design, STEAM education, and sustainability, the group focuses on nurturing learners who can engage thoughtfully with complex, real-world challenges.
At DNTE, design is both our method and our goal. We use design-based approaches to create learning environments and educational resources, while also enabling learners to develop design and problem-solving capabilities through designing, making, testing, and reflecting.
DNTE resources and initiatives increasingly integrate learning in design, science, and mathematics with ecological and sustainability concerns and Science, Technology, and Society (STS) perspectives, creating rich interdisciplinary learning experiences. They also encourage learners to critically examine how technology shapes and is shaped by society and the environment. Through thoughtfully designed projects, lessons, modules, and other learning resources, learners draw on knowledge and practices from science, mathematics, the social sciences, and the arts to develop technical, design, and problem-solving abilities alongside judgement, imagination, creativity, and contextual sensitivity. In doing so, they cultivate critical 21st-century competencies such as critical thinking, collaboration, creativity, adaptability, and responsible decision-making.