GROUP

WORK

Brianne Bancroft, Emily McKay, Sue Mylde

Task 5: Exploring • Design process A: ‘Design Thinking for
Educators’

Different Design • Our team considered this design thinking

process (IDEO, n.d.) of discover, interpretation,

Processes
ideation, experimentation, evolution.
• The clarity of this design process stuck out to us.
These are some of our observations and
considerations.
– This process is very tailored to the classroom situation
– It has outstanding clarity of steps
– “It’s a deeply human approach that relies on your ability
to be intuitive, to interpret what you observe and to
develop ideas that are emotionally meaningful to those
you are designing for—all skills you are well versed in as
an educator.”
– However, this process fails to put empathy explicitly
at the centre of the design process.
• Design process B: Design Thinking Process - Institute of design Stanford
• https://dschool-
old.stanford.edu/sandbox/groups/designresources/wiki/36873/attachments/74b3d/ModeGuideBOOTC
AMP2010L.pdf
• Highlights of this design thinking process.
– Start with empathy - this process explicitly places empathy at its heart: “Empathy is the centrepiece of a human-
centred design process” (Institute of Design at Stanford, n.d.)
– Organized - The structure of this process allows us to explore the elements as they occur while also giving us the
opportunity to reflect on our progress and build upon it. Transitioning from one step into the next this structure
creates a foundation centred around empathy and continues to develop.
– Adaptable- Easily adaptable to fit any aspect of designing learning and teaching.
– Iteration - While the process may be articulated linearly, it welcomes iteration thus allowing us to redesign and
reshape our work depending on suitability.
•
When we decided that empathy was an important aspect of our design process, we wanted to explore
how we can incorporate the clarity and organization of the design thinking for educators process with
empathy embedded. This led us to finding Stanford's Institute of design, Design Thinking Process.
Chosen design process: Design Process B - Institute of Design at Stanford

Problem of Practice: How might we use project-based learning to measure student growth and
achievement?

In this part of Task 5, we consider our chosen design process in relation to our Problem of Practice, as
established in Task 4.
Empathy
Empathy is our starting point when considering a solution to
our problem of practice - How might we use project-based
learning to measure student growth and achievement?

“The Empathize mode is the work you do to understand

people, within the context of your design challenge”(
Institute of Design at Stanford, n.d., p.2).

Our work in empathy is twofold. First, in relation to

assessment, and second, in relation to project-based
learning.

In order to enhance the assessment process for our

students, teachers need to understand and identify students’
needs through an empathy lens, using it as a tool of
reflection. Our perspective on assessment is to use it as a
measure of student learning rather than a measure of a one-
off, standardized final product.
Define
For the second stage of Design Thinking, define, we began to
converge our ideas regarding how we assess and what elements of
our students work we are assessing.

We have decided to emphasize how might we use project-based

learning to measure student growth and achievement.

This question will allow us to explore the multiple entrypoint for

assessment and how we can better implement it to focus on our
students accomplishments and growths.

We have also considers that the problem of practice we have

converged on may be overwhelming for teachers to implement and
in doing so we believe we need to consider the pressures teachers
will face as well.
• Ideate
• In ideation, we “transition from identifying problems to creating
solutions for your users”. (Institute of Design at Stanford, n.d.).
•
We started formulating some ideas as to how to solve this
problem.
• E.g.
• PL -Day (teachers training)
• Student-led assessment - students building their own rubric
• How can we make assessment engaging and meaningful?
• Consider what kind of information or data that teachers need to
gather to assess learning and how to gather information or data?
• Project based learning is our means for instruction in this case
– It can be interdisciplinary
– Student work at their own pace or level
– Emphasis on process of learning
• Scaffolding the lesson to see growth and development
Ideate
However, we felt that this was inadequate as an ideating
process. Instead, we had to sit down to ‘diverge’ our ideas
within ideation once more, in order to ‘converge’. The
next slide contains a photo of the outcome of our ideation
process.

In entering this process, we were actively participating in

ideation using the framework by:

“deferring judgment – that is, separating the generation of

ideas from the evaluation of ideas. In doing so, you give
your imagination and creativity a voice, while placating
your rational side in knowing that your will get to the
examination of merits later.”(Institute of Design at
Stanford, n.d., p. 3)
These are the highlights of our ideation process:

We can’t change how we assess without

changing how we teach.
While many assessment tools exist, they are not
well-organized and may not always align.
Project-based and inquiry learning is a teaching
lens.
The new Alberta curriculum aligns well with this
approach because of the focus on procedural
and conceptual knowledge
Project-based work can incorporate many
different teaching methods (e.g. inquiry, direct
teaching, group work and field trips)
Ideate - The Expert Perspective

In our team, we attended different design seminars on 30

January in order to inform our process further.

From Sue’s attendance at David Scott and Deirdre Bailey’s

seminar, she was able to garner this understanding for
assessment in the context of project-based or inquiry-
based learning.

In summary, teachers can assess sub-tasks within the

inquiry or project on the basis of understanding
procedural or conceptual knowledge.
Prototype Planning
Our prototype planning process was driven by this simple idea:

Students Teachers assess

demonstrate learning &
learning & understanding
understanding
Key Rationale:

Inquiry/Problem-based learning aligns with the new curriculum

(Alberta Education, 2018).
Triangulation of evidence helps to put evidence of learning in
context (Davies, 2011, p. 95).
COP model (connect2learning.com, 2019) of conversations,
observations and products enables student-centred learning and
assessment.
Structuring the prototype according to different methods of
teaching will help organize the alignment of assessment
strategies.
Next steps:

We are now ready to create a prototype which will bring

together the ideas we set out during this planning phase.
To ease navigation, this will be documented within Task 6.
 Task 5:
Reflecting on our chosen design:
This student-centred design process is anchored in empathy and gives our work a
stronger foundation. We were able to delve deeply into our question, in order to devise

Reflection
solutions which were tangible, viable and manageable given our time frame.

The diverging and converging of ideas which emerged during out discussion resulted in
many ‘aha!’ moments including a rethinking of our approach, the sequence in which we
had to approach this work a well as the potential solution ideas (also see Task 6).

Challenges
We realised that while documenting our work was important, our process may not
have mirrored the tasks in the expected manner, for example, speaking to an
expert and attending expert sessions happened while we were in the middle of task 5
and not during task 6 per se. In order to overcome this challenge, we spoke to our
course instructor to ensure her that the process was documented
we spoke to our course instructor to ensure her that the process was documented
even if reorganized within our presentation/reflection.

Another challenge which arose related to identifying the correct problem of practice
and the perspective from which a solution can be derived. Our group members were
extremely good at communicating when we need to take a step back to reconfigure
and get back on the same page. This was a way to overcome any miscommunication
and ensure that we move forward effectively.
 Task 6:
Iterations

Generating As mentioned in Task 5, some of the processes expected

within Task 6 occurred in the timeframe of Task 5, so

and Testing
flexibility is required (like in any design process).

Possible
Our design solutions were human-centred. We wanted to
provide teachers with a practical ‘downloadable’ one-stop
solution, but we saw that this problem of practice is
Design broad, and our challenge remains trying to make this
viable, and manageable for our colleagues.

Solutions As a natural part of this process, we needed to go through

many design iterations, and be flexible in our thinking as
we reach for resources already within our grasp, and
improve on those to make them ‘fit-for-purpose’.
• Human-centred design for equity by Elizabeth McNeilly
• When designing for students it is important to consider
biases
• Using equity in human-centered design means
– Accommodating the needs of individuals
– Means every child receives what they need to develop to their full
academic and social potential
• Upon reflecting on this workshop, we took a critical look at
our design process. This workshop introduced two extra
steps to the design process we have chosen. Elizabeth
McNeilly introduced the concept of equity within the
human-centred design process. To incorporate equity we
were asked to think critically about our biases and how
they may impact the students we teach.
• Looking at our design process we determined that we were
bias about assessment and the solution to our problem of
practice. McNeilly’s presentation led to develop a better
understanding of what our prototype should encompass,
to be used successfully.
 Aligning Assessment and PBL

Task 7:
Why project-based learning (PBL)?
Project-based learning allows students to engage with real-world problems.
It offers multiple opportunities for students to demonstrate their learning
and for educators to assess understanding.

Students demonstrate Teachers assess

Finding the
learning & learning &
understanding understanding

Organizing Designing with Assessment in Mind

Project-Based Learning Main Inquiry

Right
D Main Inquiry
E Problem/Question
S • Scott (2019) suggested that the main inquiry can be broken down
I Sub-Tasks
G
• This could be an essential question
• E.g. in Language Arts Grade 4 “How do my interpretations of texts
support my construction of meaning?“ (Alberta Education, 2019)
Sub-Tasks
into sub-tasks which all help answer the main question
• Sub-tasks can assess different aspects of conceptual and procedural
knowledge which connect to the main inquiry

Solution
• E.g. a task that demonstrates how story elements like plot or morals
Sub-Tasks Sub-Tasks can contribute to understanding (Alberta Education, 2019).
N

E Considering the Evidence

Pro
d
V

u ct
Evidence of learning through sub-tasks can be collected in the form of
Conversations, Observations and Products (COP).
I
• COP strengthens the validity of our classroom assessment
D

on
• Not limited to summative evidence but instead must include

i
vat
E procedural and conceptional knowledge

s er
• Multiple mediums of demonstrating their understanding reduces the
N Conversation

Ob
barriers they face and allows teachers to engage in a cycle of
assessment, feedback, and promoting growth
C
Although different instructional content will lend itself better to different
E Anne Davies’ COP areas of the assessment triangle, it is important that we continue to
Triangulation of Assessment consider the other areas and engage accordingly .

Consider the 4 C's Using the 4 C’s as a Teacher’s Checklist

C These four competencies form a recommended checklist upon which

H Communication the evidence of learning (Conversations, Products or Observations)

can be measured.

E • Communication - indicators include: sharing thoughts, questions,

ideas and solutions
C Collaboration • Collaboration - indicators include: students reflecting on
different roles and responsibilities and teamwork
K • Critical Thinking - indicators include: making learning
connections between disciplines to develop new understanding,
L Critical Thinking metacognition and posing deep questions
I • Creativity - indicators include: trying innovative approaches,
asking new questions, surprising methodology and
S Creativity demonstrating originality.

T
For more resources please find attached “53 Ways to Check for Understanding” created by Edutopia
References Connect2learning.com (2019) Transforming Assessment. Retrieved from
https://connect2learning.com/members/transforming-assessment/

Alberta Education (2018) New Learn Alberta K-4 curriculum. Retrieved from
https://new.learnalberta.ca/?x=9FDE164E

Connect2learning.com (2019) Transforming Assessment. Retrieved from

https://connect2learning.com/members/transforming-assessment/

Davies, A. (2011) Making classroom assessment work (3rd ed.). Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.

Galileo.org (2015) Centrality of assessment within design. In Focus on Inquiry. Retrieved from
https://inquiry.galileo.org/ch3/centrality-of-assessment/

IDEO (2012) Design thinking for educators. Retrieved from http:// designthinkingforeducators.com/

Institute of Design at Stanford, (n.d.) An Introduction to Design Thinking: Process Guide. Retrieved from
https://dschool-
old.stanford.edu/sandbox/groups/designresources/wiki/36873/attachments/74b3d/ModeGuideBOOTCAM
P2010L.pdf

Scott, D. & Bailey, D. (2019, January) Planning for Discipline-based Inquiry at University of Calgary, Calgary,
AB.