Here are some more resources you may find helpful that we’ve been hosting on empathy and Design Thinking
Conference on: Empathic Design, Human-Centered Design, Design Thinkinghttp://j.mp/15hgolC

Empathic Design Magazine – Empathy in Human-Centered Design 
http://www.scoop.it/t/empathic-design
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Design thinking is a dynamic pedagogy for co-learning that cultivates empathy. 

It is a multidisciplinary approach to solving human-centered problems and an empowering way of addressing needs and concerns. The modes of design thinking promote inquiry, iteration, and prototyping along with critical thinking, communication, teamwork, and making/tinkering.

  Empathy is highlighted as a mode of its own, wherein the design-thinker attempts to infiltrate and truly come to understand the needs of the end-user..

The design thinking process begins with discovery, moves to ideation and rapid prototyping, and ends with testing and execution. As an evolving process of learning, sharing, dialoguing, and problem solving, design thinking inspires adults and students to learn together. 

Dr. Lee-Anne Gray