During my journey through my master’s program, this is the first time I’m admitting to a former opinion of mine. Before I began my current career as an educator, I was working as a veterinary nurse. Shortly after I began my current position, I remember a conversation I had with a friend. I voiced my opinion on modern education, standing firm on the importance of reading books and keeping teaching and learning how it used to be. I imagine my stubbornness and resistance to change attributed to my views (and total lack of formal educational experience). My friend, a primary school teacher, had feelings the opposite of mine.
In these past four years or so I have learned an astronomical amount of information about teaching and learning. What has become quite clear is that this profession is always evolving and changing. Over the past few months I’ve learned about design thinking. With design thinking, educators are revisiting past “solutions”, theories, methods, and opinions with a fresh pair of eyes. During design thinking, educators look closely at the audience or user, gaining appreciation and empathy for those who are at the center of the problem or the area in need of change. From there, thoughts on how to bring about new ideas and solutions arise, are created, tested, and improved upon. Design thinking is an effective tool for students but has also grown to be important for educators, as stated by Susie Wise, “. . . the design thinking process functioned as a kind of oasis for educators, reconnecting them to their creativity and aspirations for helping students develop as deep thinkers and doers, not just as test takers” (Wise, 2016). Through design thinking I’ve learned more about the process, or specifically gaining an appreciation for and understanding of the journey and the steps it may take to reach a successful outcome. I’ve recognized, after implementation, what modes of design thinking were most insightful and helpful to me. And lastly, I’ve realized how this process of problem-solving can aid in providing alternative methods of teaching and learning to students through transformation of my personal TPACK.
When I took some time to reflect on what I’ve learned about design thinking, I quickly remembered the conversation I had with my friend about education years ago. The difference between now and then is an understanding of others and change. Design thinking is a process of problem-solving that is centered around others. Others are put first during this process, a very important factor I’ll admit to sometimes forgetting. Years ago I didn’t think much about the needs of students. I thought about what I did as a student, what I was expected to do, and about my personal experiences. I figured these practices and ways of learning would surely work on all students. But, it is through the experience I’ve gained over the past few years and through the new knowledge of design thinking that I realized I couldn’t be more wrong.
While this process of problem-solving involves me, the key component here is others - those who are at the center of the change. I cannot give my students the experience they deserve without taking the necessary steps to better understand what it is that they need and the root of the problem. Fatima Cassim writes that problems are generally loosely defined and states how important the user is in design thinking, “Consequently, neither the design problem nor the design solution is clear at the onset of a design process. In light of this, the skill of formulating required by designers has to do with finding and understanding design problems. More specifically, the skills inherent to formulating are first, assessing the client’s aspirations/desires in order to identify the problem and secondly, to frame the problem at hand” (Cassim, 2013). This component of design thinking, empathy, is crucial. When stepping into the shoes of those affected, the problem becomes a bit clearer, or a different problem or challenge is brought to light. And in the end, this empathy allows me as an educator to recognize the true problem and to act as the facilitator to the problem outcomes.
I’ve also learned design thinking is a true process. At times I tend to get discouraged and caught up in details. While frustrating, this process of problem-solving showed me that it’s okay to get caught up, and that it’s just one part of the entire process. The process of design is non-linear, at times taking one step forward and two steps back. Stanford d.school suggests five modes or components of design thinking: empathizing, defining, ideation, prototyping, and testing. These modes can overlap each other and can differ depending on the problem defined at hand. While some suggest using these five modes, others such as Jeanne Liedtka, have created similar strategies of design thinking. She believes that the process of design thinking involves four questions: What is? What if? What wows? What works? (Marques, 2018). But regardless of the route taken, the outcome, or prototype, is likely not a permanent solution but a step towards improvement and meeting “satisfactory.” This design process is constantly turning and evolving, adapting to the changes tied to the problem’s user or audience.
As I reflect on what I’ve learned about design thinking, I begin making connections to TPACK (Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge). TPACK, a theoretical framework created by Punya Mishra and Matthew Koehler, consists of three forms of knowledge that are integral elements to developing a student’s ideal teaching and learning experience. With this framework, educators weave connections between content, technological, and pedagogical knowledge, resulting in the “sweet spot” where all students benefit from their educational experience (Koehler, 2012). I can begin using design thinking to strengthen my technological and pedagogical knowledge areas that may vary depending on the course, content being taught, and users. It’s important that educators provide opportunities for students to strengthen skills, or twenty-first century competencies, such as communication, critical thinking, collaboration, experimentation, and creativity. But I’ll be the first to admit that this is not always any easy task. First, focusing on my pedagogical knowledge, or my methods or theories for teaching, I’ve used past personal experiences or more traditional views of teaching before I gained more formal educational experience. It can be difficult to encourage and foster these skills using traditional methods. But using this process of design thinking, I can take a different approach to forming these educational experiences. Putting others first, to best understand how they wish to learn and grow, will continue to give me different and new perspectives on how to approach a learning situation, because ultimately these experiences are for my students. Integration of this type of brainstorming and creativity will likely lead to pedagogical strategies that would otherwise not have been considered or potentially even been a thought, in the end allowing flexibility and improvement to my approach.
Reaching into new ideas for teaching and learning environments through the process of design thinking will surely have an impact on my technological knowledge of TPACK. Use of design thinking will help consider what tools are readily available to students, what tools are not, and what tools can be added or created to enhance the educational experiences. Technological tools should heighten students’ utilization of twenty-first century skills and help with content retention or retrieval. In the end, design thinking can be used to contribute new ideas and solutions to my own TPACK and help recognize that these components are constantly changing and evolving to work toward solving student-centered problems or shifts in educational needs and desires. As quoted by Koh, Chai, Benjamin, and Hong, “Design thinking focuses on what can be done in practice; accordingly, it enables teachers to transcend the belief mode of thinking, and to work creatively with ideas that yield practical solutions. Design thinking can be utilized as a means to exploit TPACK to engender 21CL (twenty-first century learning)” (Koh et al., 2015, pp. 537-538).
I’ve learned that while the components or framework of design thinking might differ slightly from one individual to the next, there are a few key parts that make this a unique brainstorming and creative process. First, it is user-centered. Gaining empathy for the users or audience is critical. Equally as important is the creation. Design thinking is used to potentially solve a problem, improve a standard, or fix an issue with the creation or suggestion of something different. And lastly, testing and improving the potential solution or suggestion is vital. Moving forward, I think it’s important to remember this processess’s key parts because every teaching scenario is different, and the student population and culture is ever-changing and evolving.
As an educator, and designer too, I look forward to utilizing this problem-solving process to strengthen my TPACK knowledge domains so I can continue to facilitate optimal learning experiences to each one of my students. Change in the profession can be overwhelming, but I believe that design thinking will help me face challenges head-on and push me outside of my comfort zone.
References:
Wise, S. (2016, February 8). Design thinking in education: Empathy, challenge, discovery, and sharing. Edutopia. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/design-thinking-empathy-challenge-discovery-sharing-susie-wise.
Koehler, M. (2012, September 24). TPACK Explained [Web blog post]. Retrieved from http://www.tpack.org/.
The TPACK Image. (2011). Reproduced by permission of the publisher, © 2012 by tpack.org. Retrieved from https://matt-koehler.com/tpack2/using-the-tpack-image/.
Cassim, F. (2013). Hands on, hearts on, minds on: Design thinking within an education context. The International Journal of Art & Design Education, 32(2), 190-201. doi.org/10.1111/j.1476-8070.2013.01752.x
Marques, P. (2018, April 9). Design Thinking: creating value through problem-solving [Web blog]. Retrieved from https://uxdesign.cc/design-thinking-creating-value-through-problem-solving-2e8306d929e2.
Koh, J. H., Chia, C. S., Benjamin, W. & Hong, H. (2015). Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) and design thinking: A framework to support ICT lesson design for 21st century learning. The Asia-Pacific Education Researcher, 24(3), 535-543. doi:10.1007/s40299-015-0237-2