Is it wise to jump straight into the making stage? (Re-write)

Do you ever just want to jump straight in and start doing that project that you don't even think about planning? Have you ever thought of the benefits of applying the design thinking to your teaching? This is a method that most students as well as teachers don’t know how to follow or don’t use because they leave things to the last minute.

You may be thinking, “what is design thinking?” Design thinking is a process used to understand the user, test assumptions and redefine difficulties which will create solutions and strategies for further development of learning and tasks. (Dam et al., 2020). The article “What Is Design Thinking? A Comprehensive Beginner's Guide by Emily Stevens”, has shown the importance of the design thinking process and how it works for education, work or everyday life. This method supports teachers by having structure to successfully collaborate with others whilst creating meaningful learning experiences for all students. (Ballenger et al., 2020). Design thinking is used for practical and creative problem-solving.

(Stevens, 2020).

The diagram above shows the five stages and how you can jump from the different stages throughout your design process.

Putting the stages into your teaching:

Stage one: Empathise – find your students’ needs and how they view the world. This can be used with different strategies which include, surveys, interviews, student profiles and feedback.

Stage two: Define – state the learning needs and consideration of your students.

Stage three: Ideate – find possible solutions, develop scenarios and story boards for learning experiences.

Stage 4: Prototype – use meaningful and original learning experiences. Plan these in advance by writing lesson scripts.

Stage 5: Test – evaluate your content and strategies and how they worked with the children. (Ballenger et al., 2020)

The design thinking method can be implemented for students with different disabilities for teachers to be help their needs throughout the classrooms to create a more secure environment. (Ballenger et al., 2020)

Before researching this method, I didn’t know what it was or how to apply it to my teaching and study. Engaging with these texts educated me on how this method works, it will be valuable to my education as an early career teacher. Because it gives you a clear outline of how to plan the project/ lessons and what you need to do, if something works you can go to the next stage and then if it doesn't you can go back to the stage where you think you may need adjusting.

The strengths of this method throughout are that it explains in detail how to follow the five stages to complete your planning. The five stages were well explained with a visual and written representation. As well as implementing this method with students and their disabilities and struggles in class.

Overall, this method was well written and changed my views regarding whether it is wise to jump straight into the making stage. My previous educational experiences help me understand this design thinking process. Usually, I just jump straight into making, which then causes me to struggle and then complete a poor assignment. Following the design thinking process I can research my topic better, start the task early with planning then when ready I can start my task with knowing how to do it, as well as to eventually help me in the classroom as an early career teacher.

After reading this article I’m going to change the way I jump into the making stage straight away as it just isn’t wise to do so.

References

Stevens, E. (2020). What Is Design Thinking? A Comprehensive Beginner's Guide.

CareerFoundry. https://careerfoundry.com/en/blog/ux-design/what-is-design-thinking-everything-you-need-to-know-to-get-started/.

Ballenger, S., & Sinclair, N. (2020). Inclusive Design Thinking-Model for Inclusive Course Development. Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, 23(4), 1-10.

Dam, R., & Siang, T. (2020). What is Design Thinking and Why Is It So Popular? Interaction Design Foundation. https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/what-is-design thinking-and-why-is-it-so-popular