Design Thinking As An Approach In Teaching Translation

Design thinking as a method to teach different disciplines has gained more and more popularity in secondary schools, universities and companies. Frequently understood as a mind-set, philosophy, changing learning space and an effective contemporary learning and teaching technique, design thinking is usually applied in technological and social sciences where the development of solutions and prototyping, for instance when creating equipment, is self-evident. Yet, the usage of design thinking as a learning and teaching method is rarely adapted and used in humanities due to the fact that designing and prototyping in, for example, language studies, philosophy or translation is less characteristic. The application of design thinking in humanities is quite innovative. At the same time, it poses a challenge to both teachers and students since the process of learning and teaching needs to be reconsidered due to the design thinking process that has to be strictly followed and cannot be changed. This paper aims to discuss and describe a case when design thinking was applied in translator training at a university. Scientific literature about cases of the application of design thinking frequently present business cases, yet cases when design thinking is applied in language teaching and translation are quite rare. The novelty of the paper is related to an innovative approach applied when teaching translation, i.e., the use of design thinking. The authors of the paper discuss the main concepts of design thinking, introduce the process of design thinking and present the case how design thinking was applied in teaching translation. Challenges that are related with the application of design thinking as an innovative teaching method as well as student opinions are discussed at the end of the paper.