Design Thinking: Create Great Thinkers in Your Classroom – Part 3

Student Led Learning

In my previous article, I shared what you need to consider when coming up with a Design Thinking question for your curriculum topic. I also started to walk you through an example of a Design Thinking project in the classroom. We looked at unpacking the project question and now it is time to plan the research to our question. How might we connect different generations within our community? Before we continue, I want to touch on an important point.

From Teacher to Facilitator of Learning

Using Design Thinking as a teaching framework requires a shift in mindset. We have all grown up on a particular image and perception of a “teacher.” Most of us view a teacher as someone who holds all the knowledge - a sage who stands at the front of the classroom and passes down knowledge. Moreover, this teacher is often looking for specific answers and guides their students on what they need to think. There are a few problems with this image.

Firstly, this is a lot of pressure to place on teachers. How can a teacher know everything? It is impossible! A teacher should be comfortable with saying, “This is a good question. I don’t know the answer to it, so let’s explore it together.” Secondly, the most powerful kind of learning does not come from being told what to think. Meaningful learning comes from a self-led exploration of a topic and forming your own thoughts.

Consequently, to provide a deep, meaningful and effective learning environment, teachers must become facilitators of learning. To do so, teachers must move away from the traditional concept of teaching and become facilitators of their students’ self-led learning. Teachers should help their students explore new ideas, question concepts, perform their own research, analyse information, come up with their own ideas and form their own thoughts based on their insights, new knowledge and understanding from their learning process.

There are two key things you can adopt to help you become a facilitator of learning:

1. Create a positive and supportive learning environment where students feel safe to be true to themselves, ask any questions, express any ideas, take risks, make mistakes and learn from them.

2. Use Design Thinking as a teaching framework.

Now we can continue exploring our Design Thinking project.

Planning the Research

As Design Thinkers, we want to create a preferable future with the people who will use our solutions. These are the people who are part of the question we explore. Also, since Design Thinking is a collaborative approach to problem-solving, any project is an opportunity to collaborate and connect with our communities. As a teacher, consider how you can connect your students with different generations within their communities. How can you bring your students closer to other generations?

Perhaps there is a nursing home nearby that will connect with your students when you contact them about the mutual benefits for both your students as well as their residents. This would be a great relationship to collaborate within your community.

Before beginning this relationship, however, your research should include gaining a deep understanding of elderly life, their challenges and their desires. You can watch videos on YouTube with your students on the life of older adults. There are even videos where children interact with nursing home residents and are then interviewed about their experiences.

ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) has done projects where they connected kindergarten children and teenagers with nursing home residents. It is beautiful to see how quickly children form strong connections with older

How might we connect different generations within our community?

adults and how everyone benefits from it. These projects would be an excellent way to inform your students about the lives of elderly people at the nursing homes.

If you are watching videos, have a reflective conversation as a class on what you just saw.

You can ask your students:

• What assumptions did you hold about older adults before watching this video?

• What did you learn from this video that you didn’t know before?

• What did you notice regarding the nursing home residents and their interactions with the children?

• What surprised you?

• What are you curious about?

• Watching such videos and having open discussions will prepare you for the next step, which is thinking with your students about questions such as:

• Who do students need to interview to gain an understanding of their project’s question?

• What questions do your students need to ask to gain these understanding?

In part four of this series, we will continue with our research. I will show you how to decide who to interview and how to design your interview guides.

Ortal Green

Ortal is a passionate educator with a mission to empower teachers and parents to create tomorrow’s innovators. She started her career as a computer scientist. She co-founded “Glittering Minds” and created a programme for schools, “PBL and Beyond”. She is also a an author and speaker. She can be contacted at admin@glitteringminds.com.au

Thinking Kids

An Individualised, Dynamic and Integrated Social Skills Programme

The Thinking Kids Programme is an individualised, dynamic and integrated social skills programme. It encourages children to be aware of their feelings, be thoughtful of others and be able to think independently under pressure. The Thinking Kids Programme aims to enlist the support of teachers and parents to help the children manage social situations with thoughtfulness and kindness.

Why Do we Need the Thinking Kids Programme?

It is well established that social and emotional skills are essential for children’s capacity to learn and succeed at school. A joint study between researchers at Monash University and the Australian Scholarships Group found 69% of parents across the public and independent sector believed schools should be teaching more social skills. The line between what children learn at home and in the classroom is being blurred as Australian parents increasingly ask schools to help socialise their children. It has also found that children with better play ability at a young age consistently showed few signs of poor mental health years later.

Thinking Kids takes wide research into account, resulting in a quintessential programme - understanding that:

• Children leave the structured, supportive environment of the classroom to a freer space on the playground.

• They need to keep the ‘rules’ and support from their teacher and parents in mind, and ask for additional help when needed.

• At recess and lunchtime, children can play and enjoy each other’s company but they can also encounter painful pressures and problems that are inherent in ordinary day-to-day socialising.

What is the Thinking Kids Programme?

The Thinking Kids Programme aims at developing independent thinking – an emotionally mature and fundamental quality. The following four capacities of the programme are aimed at independent thinking.

1. An awareness of oneself and planned thinking;

2. An inner control of feelings that is insightful;

3. A thoughtful ability;

4. Independent thinking.

An Overview of Thinking Kids:

• Term 1 Overview

- Playground Focus

- Thinking Kids: Homework

• Term 2 Overview

- Classroom Social Stories (A main part of the programme)

- Thinking Kids: Homework

• Term 3 Overview

- Q & A Style Discussion, featuring a parent/teacher panel

• Term 4 Overview

- Application – noticing children exhibiting targeted skills

Typical Homework Sheet

The following is an excerpt from a homework sheet. Parents/Carers, today the children in Year 4 thought about how they can include other children in their play or conversation on the playground during recess time. Please fill in this worksheet yourself and then discuss your answers with your child.

1a. When you are having a conversation, how do you include other people?

1b. How do you include other people into your family life?

1c. Why is it sometimes hard for you to include other people?

Typical Social Story Sheet

The following is an excerpt from a story.

Social Story: The Handball Game

The Year 5 boys play handball nearly every day underneath the sun shelter in the playground. Peter lined up on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and had only played once. Somehow, he kept missing out. Today is Thursday and he is really hoping for a longer time on the court.

Lunchtime arrived and the boys walked to the court ready to play handball. Tom shood around with Jack and Ron. He noticed that Peter was standing in the line, again. He whispered to his friends to get Peter out quickly so that they could continue playing.

Benefits of the Thinking Kids Programme

Yearly evaluations with teachers, parents and students revealed significant improvement in responses from all participants in independent thinking. Comments included:

• Noticed that the real issues faced in the playground were represented;

• Provided a platform/opportunity for discussions at home and school around complex issues;

• Raised awareness of ‘others’ and own place in playground situations.

The Difference Between Other Programmes and Thinking Kids

Thinking Kids is based on issues pertaining to the individual school. Essentially, observations identify playground difficulties, which, together with parent and teacher discussions, form the basis of the social skill stories. Combined with the overall structure of the program, this individualised program is always current, relevant and topical.

Helen Meyer is a special education consultant based in Sydney. Her experience spans more than 30 years across primary and secondary schools working with students, teachers and parents. She is inspired by her strong interest in a dynamic approach to thinking and learning. She is an accredited trainer of three programs: Therapeutic Storywriting, Cognitive Abilities Profile and the Bright Start program.

For more information, visit www.broadeningspecialeducation.com or email helen.specialeducation@gmail.com