The Methods
Human-centered design is a practical, repeatable approach that helps us arrive at innovative solutions to difficult problems. IDEO developed a set of Methods as a step-by-step guide to unleashing creativity, putting the people (in our case, students) we serve at the center of our design process to come up with new answers to difficult problems.
IDEO believes that the creative process contains multiple cycles of iteration, and with each phase, a team moves closer to a refined solution. Divergent and convergent thinking move us from one iteration to the next. In divergence, we go wide to find insights and generate new ideas. In convergence, we narrow our focus by refining ideas and synthesizing information (It is important to note that design thinking is best used with a collaborative team. This is not to say that you cannot move through a design thinking process alone, but you will inherently gain more creative ideas when working as a team of teacher-designers). The series of divergence and convergence moves us through three phases: inspiration, ideation, and implementation.
Inspiration
Inspiration is about people. When you start with empathy, you get to know the people you are designing for. Teachers need to get to know the students they are designing for. This is a divergent stage because you are gaining as much information as possible. Designers often create a persona, or a representation of the needs, thoughts and goals of the target user. By creating a persona, it prevents designers from generalizing all users into one bucket and thinking that everyone has the same needs and goals. Teachers suffer from this all the time when they think that how they taught a particular lesson will work every year with any student. Personas are designed to help designers empathize with individuals. Designers gain inspiration through interviews and observation so that they truly understand the hopes, needs, feelings, and desires of those they are designing for.
What does this look like for teachers? Well, interest surveys are a decent place to start. Unfortunately, I have seen many teachers give the survey and never use the information. Instead of interviewing your students at the beginning of the school year, I suggest taking time each day to identify details from your students’ lives and identities that you can integrate into future learning experiences. It isn’t about having a list of interests for each student, but more about authentically getting to know each of your students. Think of it this way: would you rather have a friend that has a list of your favorite foods, movies, and music and may or may not reference it before you hang out? Or, would you rather have a friend that knows that you love the movie The Princess Bride because you always watched that movie with your dad when you were home sick from school. Which of these friends shows a more authentic friendship?
Ideation
Once designers have a ton of information, it is time to converge and synthesize. Synthesizing all of the collected data helps designers make sense of everything that they have heard or observed, and then allow them to start ideating. During the ideation phase, designers generate tons of ideas (through brainstorming), identify opportunities for design (prototyping), and test and refine innovation solutions. Linus Pauling famously said, “If you want a good idea, start with a lot of ideas.” Ideation is about quantity, not quality, so IDEO has rules for brainstorming: (1) Defer judgement; (2) Encourage wild ideas; (3) Build on the ideas of others; (4) Stay focused on the topic; (5) One conversation at a time; (6) Be visual; and (7) Go for quantity. Ideation consists of both divergent activities (like brainstorming) and convergent activities (like prototyping and testing).
What does this look like for teachers? Well, you need lots of ideas for upcoming learning experiences. The best way to brainstorm is to have a group of fellow teachers that you can brainstorm and plan with throughout the year. However, if you are a lone teacher who doesn’t have a strong educator network, why not involve your students? You’re designing for them, so why not get their ideas for future learning experiences?
Implementation
This convergent phase gives designers a chance to bring their solution to life. Piloting prototypes “in the wild” (or in the classroom) is a great way to gain insight as to what is working and not working. The implementation phase can have multiple rounds depending on what is learned during “beta” tests. As designers are gaining feedback on their solution (or as teachers are gaining feedback on their upcoming learning experience), they are already iterating for the next learning experiment.
At the end of any design cycle, there is always a debrief session. It is important to reflect on the lessons learned throughout the design process. What does this look like for teachers? This is the messy part of teaching. Most times, you just saddle up and try out an idea to see if it will resonate with your particular students. Don’t assume anything! Just because your boys loved reading comic books in the classroom last year, doesn’t mean that using superheroes in your reading learning experience this year will work with your current boys.
Having both the mindset and a process to follow, teachers can design creative and culturally responsive learning experiences for their students. In fact, IDEO now offers a Design Thinking Toolkit for Educators that adapts their creative process and methods of design specifically for K-12 education. IDEO has spent countless hours in classrooms, teacher’s lounges, and hallways of private, public, and charter schools. They have met with teachers and administrators and spoke with professionals that work with educators. IDEO definitely practices what they preach!
Resources for inspiration, ideation and implementation
My favorite activity is the 30 Circles. Students love it!
Stanford University Resources for Educators
Liberatory Design — National Equity Project
Harvard University Design Thinking in Education Infographic
I hope you all have a great week! Let me know if you try out any of these resources. I’d love to hear how things went. — Adrian