The Future of Education
Co-designing with Children: Intuitive Insights for Growing Minds
Nimet Hüma Sabırlı, BESIGN The Sustainable Design School (Turkey)
Saumya Grover, BITS Design School (India)
Abstract
This paper examines Growing Minds as a practice-based case study exploring how co-design with children can inform the development of sustainable educational tools and support participatory forms of environmental learning. Positioned at the intersection of design research, primary education, student engagement, and games in education, the project investigates how children’s intuitive actions, play behaviours, and collaborative responses can shape both the design process and the learning experience.
The study responds to the limitations of instructional approaches to environmental education, where knowledge is often transmitted as abstract information rather than experienced through participation, exploration, and agency. Drawing on constructivist learning theories, participatory design, and the Reggio Emilia approach, children are framed not only as users but as active contributors whose insights emerge through embodied interaction, experimentation, hesitation, and improvisation.
Methodologically, Growing Minds employed an iterative, play-based co-design process with children aged 5 to 9 through repeated prototyping and playtesting sessions in classroom and garden-based learning environments. Observation, field notes, photographs, and reflective documentation were used to analyse how children interacted with materials, symbols, rules, group settings, and ecological concepts. Each design cycle informed the next, allowing the tool to evolve in response to children’s behaviours rather than predetermined assumptions.
Preliminary findings suggest that children’s participation improved the clarity, accessibility, and pedagogical relevance of the tool. Symbolic ecological icons supported stronger conceptual connections, while smaller group settings encouraged collaboration, autonomy, and peer learning. Outdoor sessions further strengthened sensory engagement and children’s understanding of environmental systems as interconnected relationships rather than isolated facts.
The paper argues that play-based co-design can function both as a design methodology and as a pedagogical framework for transformative environmental education, supporting children’s agency, collaboration, and long-term ecological understanding.
Keywords: co-design; children; play-based learning; environmental education; design thinking; iterative design; primary education
REFERENCES
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