Bridge Building Podcast Episode 72: Datta Podcast: Inspiring Future Educators Through Design Thinking with Leighann Ness Wilson

In this episode of the Bridge Building Podcast: From Technology to the Trades, we chat with Leighann Ness Wilson, a designer-turned-educator with a passion for fostering creativity and innovation in education. Leighann shares her journey from growing up in rural Nanango to designing workspaces across the globe and, ultimately, to teaching and researching how design thinking can transform teaching practices.

Currently completing her PhD, Leighann focuses on empowering pre-service teachers to embrace design thinking as a core component of their pedagogy. She offers insights into the challenges of teaching design in schools and why it’s critical for shaping 21st-century skills like problem-solving, creativity, and collaboration.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

  • Leighann’s journey from interior design to education and research
  • The importance of design thinking in the Australian curriculum
  • How design empowers both teachers and students to think critically and creatively
  • Tips for incorporating design thinking into classroom practice
  • Leighann’s vision for the future of design in education

Links and Resources:

Connect With Us:

  • Host: Stephen Anderson  podcast@dattaqld.org.au

 

About the Bridge Building Podcast

“This is the place where we dissect and then discover the many ways ITD teachers all over this country are using their passion to create passionate students. We talk of measuring and manipulating a multitude of materials of design and divergent thought, of creation with our minds and with our hands. And most of all, we talk of growing great young people because of course that is what we do.”

So what does that mean other than I like to show off my alliteration skills? Since coming back to teaching a few years ago the thing that strikes me most, and frankly scared me most is how lonely this job is. How little we know about what is happening in our subject area. The classroom next door, a class in the next school, let alone the next town are a mystery to me. I know there are teachers out there doing incredible things and this (the podcast) is a way for me to find out and be inspired. I would like to invite you along to listen and learn, to be inspired by some of the sensational teachers I speak to on the “Bridge Building Podcast – from technology to the trades”

About the Podcast Host

Stephen Anderson is a Design Technology, Trade Training and accidental Science teacher at a small high school 2 hours North West of Brisbane.

Over To You

If you know someone who is doing something spectacular or just great fun in design and tech or in trade training, I would love to know about them.

Contact me through my email osaerial@gmail.com

Music by:

Viola Pink

My favourite busker from the Nanango markets.