Currently researching, reading, trying to synthesise information and make sense of it all for me so that I can add to our Literature Review on:
How can Design Thinking be used to enhance 21st Century Skills for New Zealand Primary Schools?
I am currently up to how are teachers engaging in Design Thinking and there is plenty of research of where it is happening overseas. Thank you to Philippa Nicoll Antipas - eodysseyblog your blog with your reflection, research and valuable information has been a godsend.
One of our sub-questions is:How are teachers engaging in Design Thinking to promote and incorporate 21st century skills?
Questions which keep coming up for me as I research are:
If Design Thinking is so fantastic why is it not being used more in NZ schools?
If Design Thinking naturally incorporates all the 21st century skills within the design process - why are we not using it instead of our Inquiry model, or problem based learning?
21st century skills -
I have read: Supporting future-oriented learning and teaching a NZ perspective - from this report which is now 4 years old, I get the impression that NZ educators are now referring to them as Future Focussed Education - with 6 emerging principles for 21st century education system:
- personalised learning
- new views of equity, diversity and inclusivity
- a curriculum that uses knowledge to develop learning capacity
- changing the scrip: rethinking learners' and teachers' roles
- a culture of continuous learning for teachers and educators leaders
- new kinds of partnerships and relationships:schools no longer siloed from the community
Narrowed down to a future vision: what could it look like?
- Diversity
- Connectedness
- Coherence
A question I am pondering is:
Do any of the following/existing models of inquiry eg: Spiral of Inquiry model; problem based learning; project based learning totally encourage and encompass totally the 21st century skills/themes, eg: critical thinking, communication, collaboration, creativity?
- collaboration
- knowledge construction
- self-regulation
- real-world problem solving and innovation
- the use of ICT for learning
- skilled communication
Are these inquiry models getting deeper learning for us as educators and for our students?
Or would the Design thinking model be a better fit?
Thanks Philippa this explanation has helped me clarify some of my thinking - a bit.
"After thrashing around in the dark for a fair bit, I decided I needed to come back to first principles – those of the design thinking mindsets. What I realised/remembered was that empathy is key to design thinking – it’s actually what separates design thinking from other inquiry or problem-based learning models. Design thinking is user-centred design; it is a deeply human process." https://eodysseyblog.wordpress.com/
Interesting Design Thinking is incorporated in Core's Ten Trends 2016
Hello from a miserable wet Rotorua day, am trying to get my head around my assignment so may be not much help. I like the idea of questioning the models we are presented with and if they actually fit into the 'new' ways of learning and teaching. Going back to go forward?? And my icky English does trip on using the word totally twice in the same sentence, lol. Well done on a great idea though.
ReplyDeleteHi Lynette, sounds like you're tackling some big questions. It's interesting that you were comparing the design thinking model to inquiry learning as we had the same conversation when using the Design/Engage Kit from SCIL this year. We could happily fit each of the stages of the 'Storyboard' to our Inquiry cycle (IGNITE) and in fact, used both 'headings' (Inquiry and Design) when planning our current inquiry. The key difference was considering the people (types as opposed to individuals) when planning the experiences, and also doing some 'prototyping' (testing out of ideas on the students) before developing too many of the experiences. We reflected on the progress of our inquiry today with a view to where to next. We went back to our people board to make sure our ideas were still fit for the 'end-users' of our planning.
ReplyDeleteThanks Cara for you feedback. It is interesting when you look at both models, I think that sometimes we have been using aspects of Design Thinking without realising it. I do think that it is important to spend more time reflecting at the empathising and prototyping stages of DT which I intend to do in the future.
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