A recent literature review shows a growing interest in the application of design thinking principles in classroom and online teaching across different fields. At the same time reflection is an inseparable quality of professional competence and is consequential in developing problem solving and decision-making capacity. Therefore, the combination of design thinking and reflective teaching in the curriculum could advance the competence of the students.

The presentation aims to share good practice of combining design thinking and reflective teaching in communication studies to explore the possibilities of moving from organisational to community-based solutions. Usually students are trained to analyse the communication problems of the organisation and have less understanding about community-based problems and solutions. Encouragement to move from organisational to local context projects in the communication studies was given by the project “Higher Education Institutions as Innovative Triggers of Sustainable Development in European Cities in Post Covid-19 Era” (KA220-HED-96EB51E1). However, the pilot process experienced some difficulties and problems thus leading to a deeper analysis of this experience, insights and conclusions for more comprehensive outcomes.

Together with the learning process, the qualitative study was implemented. It was based on written reflections by students and teachers, organized three times during the process: interim, after finalizing the projects and after projects’ presentation at the local community. The qualitative content analysis was used for data analysis.

The results of the first reflection showed that the gradual involvement in the chosen working methods was effective and confirmed that the appropriate way to organise the working teams was applied. However, it also raised a few “red flags” that were addressed promptly and helped the teams: resolving conflicts within, encouraging questioning in the engagement phase, and clarifying the wording of the task in the define, empathise, and ideate phases. The biggest challenge observed was the students' time management, which caused the vast majority to miss the opportunity to do the empirical research and to gather additional information, and which they acknowledged as a major shortcoming. The second reflection focused on the successes and lessons of the project, as well as the evaluation of team and individual work. The third reflection revealed advantages and challenges of the possibility to implement developed projects at the community level and possible barriers moving from classroom to real life situation learning. Overall, the reflections emphasised the more positive aspects of teamwork, process, and methods. At the same time, there was a healthy self-criticism on the process.

In sum, the analysis of both positive and negative experience of design thinking principles implementation to the study process was possible due to applying reflective teaching. It extended academic knowledge, provided insights, how to improve learning process, offered examples which potentially could be applicable for different learning contexts.

Keywords: Communication studies, design thinking, local community problem-solving projects, organizational problem-solving projects, reflective teaching.