Design-based school development (DBSE) is designed to strengthen the problem-solving skills of actors in the school system. The aim is to make the best possible use of scarce resources and energies for development in the system. This internationally proven approach enables development projects to be carried out efficiently and effectively. It also enables the education system to continuously improve through repeated effective problem solving.
The DBSE DesignLab is a project of the Berlin Senate Department for Education, Youth and Family Affairs (SenBJF) in cooperation with the Robert Bosch Stiftung and under the scientific direction of Prof. Dr. Nina Bremm, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. During the project period 2024-2027, it will focus on the further development of design-based school development consulting in the sense of a science-practice partnership (WPP). While school development consultants from the Berlin support system (Fortbildung Berlin and ProSchul) accompany selected schools in the DBSE logic with the support of the respective school supervisory authorities, data-based feedback and design proposals from the scientific community provide impulses for reflection and further development of the consulting practice.
DBSE is seen as a supplement to existing advisory practices and is to be reviewed and further developed, in particular with regard to its ability to connect with effective problem-solving strategies in the German school development context. The Berlin overall strategy for educational quality aims to improve the language and mathematical skills of Berlin's schoolchildren and to significantly reduce the number of those who fail to meet minimum standards. Emotional and social skills are also to be promoted and secured. These objectives will be included in the DBSE DesignLab as a framework. Findings from the WPP are to be incorporated into recommendations for subsequent adoption by the new Berlin State Institute.
The DBSE-DesignLab is a follow-up to the Design-Based School Development (DBSE) project at Berlin schools. Between 2019 and 2023, the teaching staff of a number of selected schools, their school supervisors and the Senate Department for Education came together. Together with the originator of the concept, Prof. Rick Mintrop, and external school development consultants from bildung.komplex, they tested the DBSE approach in the German context. The project was scientifically accompanied by Prof. Nina Bremm and funded by the Robert Bosch Stiftung. School development consultants from proSchul and the Berlin Further Training Center, as well as school supervisors, were regularly invited to participate in the pilot phase. During the course of the project, a separate focus for the school development consulting profession was identified.