The MindLab Session 13 - Design Thinking in the classroom and in Leadership

Design Thinking in the classroom and in Leadership 

Many issues we face in education are caused by poor design - great example is the poor design of the power points in the room we are in!!!

Linking Design Thinking to 21st Century Skills - can design thinking assist the acquirement of 21st-century skills?

'Design a Fashion Accessory' - in less than 10 minutes - 

Design thinking methodology - some examples 

1 - Empathy 

2 - Immersion 

Immersion - explore the topic 

Synthesis - connect my learning to problem finding - identify the problem 

Ideation - generating and judging ideas 

Prototyping - acting upon ideas 

Feedforward - sharing ideas 

3 - Thinking into action 

4 - Mindsets processes and methods -  the need to be agile in your thinking 


Design thinking means not holding onto what you believe to be true - prototype and be mindful of the process - ie don't try to skip steps. It's the mindset that sets the project.



Design Thinking for Educators - teachers are designers of learning

Our chosen issue or problem was - students designing their own assessments

We then had to cube the task - this was a bit of a painful task!!

Rogers' Adoption of the Innovation Cycle 

Different strategies need to be used for each section of the graph - the group - the innovators and early adopters want to be given the tool NOW.

Early majority want PD and support and need a lot to get there. I think Laggards should be named 'resisters'.....

Does the organisation that is trying to innovate have to set a timeline and say to the laggards you need to get on board. Or do you keep on 'watering the rocks'....

Leadership provides an environment for the laggards to be the critics - but there needs to be ground rules - provide the critique - provide the areas you want critiqued.

You can overlay leadership theory on the diagram- 

              situational - transformational -  transactional  - dictatorial 

When do you call it quits - ask the question 'is it absolutely essential that we all are doing this at the same time? will anyone die??'

Consider your worst user - the one that will be hardest to persuade to change -  profile them - ours was Bob - see below 

100 solutions in 10 minutes - then filter them 

1 a safe bet

2 a long shot, but difficult to implement 

3 darling - fav idea 

Then rank each individually - 1-10 - is it: 

- new 

- usable 

- feasible 

I still like showing them the 'door of the bus' as my personal 'darling' ....

Our winning idea is 'document everything and provide with checklists to follow'

After initial pitch, refine the idea based on rose, bud, thorn. Our final ad was a little less than constructive 'move the laggard on....' 

Advertisement:                                  

Worried about your laggards?

Are your laggards holding you back? 

You need the 574 step checklist! 

Guaranteed to move any laggard on! 

The bus is waiting........

How might design thinking inform leadership practices?

Certainly in the design of the strategic plan; the vision; their values etc....

The ground level are expected to implement the plan, are not necessarily the ones informing the vision.....

Too much criticism leads to no action - bias over action. 

Showing not telling, having visible processes, so that everyone knows where it's going. 

The process has to be seen to be followed. 

Change is a process of evolution, the first prototype may not be perfect, but that's OK, we need a culture of safe failure. We have to design the safe space for this person to fail in. 

One week on.....future planning

One week back on deck from my two week 'adventure in Aus.'  Where is my thinking at? Where is my school at? What plans are in place for the next week...month..term...year....?

I made a list on notepad as I was leaving Future Schools Conference two weeks ago. What we could change now, this term, this year, next year. It looked like this -


Things to change now
- encourage staff to flip the classroom
- weekly sharing of Yr 9 class docs - via Google Docs
- any staff who want to trial different furniture - get it!
- look for further integration - not just the MLP trial going on now

Short Term  
- remove walls where we can 
- plan for vertical forms

Long Term 
- one year's warning / notice possible change to school day - two shifts
- evaluate pastoral care system - time/value
- IT teacher support - investigate 
- add solar power, extend undercover - change the building
- de-isolate SLT from rest of the school 


However....a colleague reminded me that we should be using 21st century thinking and that I should just not be diving in and ploughing ahead (nothing like mixing metaphors) with what should be the final stage of any 'design thinking process' (thanks Mr O)

So....we have a framework for out TOD in June.

Looking forward to working through the process ...and then diving in...

Time and Title	Content
8.45 – 9.00 Staffroom	Define the Problem / (Solution needed) OL/CL In order to solve a problem we need to clearly define what the problem is first. We must decide exactly what needs to be solved, and give proper context to the problem.
9.00-10.00 Staffroom	Discover – Feedback from teams from Melb/Sydney/Chch/Auck/Tauranga/ModCurDes/ MLP trial etc This is the stage of researching and gathering, and analysing clear knowledge about the problem. This helps us to give the problem context so that we can identify with it easier. (This is where we record and document all our professional learnings from conference, keynotes and professional readings over the last 18-24 months. This is the groundwork that has been done - visits to MLE schools in Auckland, Edutech conference, Melbourne conference, future schools conference, PPL last year etc)
10 – 10.25 Staffroom	Morning Tea
10.30 – 12.25 Set venues	Dream – cross curricular teams (readings provided beforehand) Here we open up the heart and mind to the possibilities and visions of a Modern Learning Curriculum at Rangiora High School the way we wish to see it. This phase is all about imagination, extrapolation and visualisation. (This is where we put everything on the table, dream big, see how much of the dream we can fit in. )
12.30 – 1.00 Staffroom	Debrief - Dream – feedback
1.00 – 1.55	Lunch
2.00 – 3.00 Set venues	Design – Learning Teams – extended learning episode Term 4 This is basically the workshopping phase. Here the actual mechanics of the Modern Learning Curriculum begin to take shape. It will require amongst a number of other technical requirements - consultation, critical analysis and evaluation, financial forecasting, timetable models, trials and further evaluations. (This would be the perfect phase to be the main part of workshopping in the TOD April 20? TOD could then be part of the 2 year process of gathering information about where we are going and allow staff to co-construct the MLC look for RHS based on the problem/solution as stated in phase 1 and the gathering in phase 2 - it would make the day highly targeted and productive to producing an outcome for MLC at RHS)
3.00 – 3.20 Staffroom	Debrief – Design  – feedback