When a recent post lauding the concept of Design Thinking appeared on
the Jedlab Facebook forum,
I was intrigued enough to do some research into the technique. The reading and
video materials that I saw have encouraged me to consider how I can incorporate
Design Thinking into my online classes.
"Design Thinking," within the educational framework, refers to
a creative process that helps the teacher and students design meaningful
solutions to real-life problems. The goal of design thinking is to encourage
students to work in a more human, innovative, collaborative manner and in a way
that supports proto-type driven solutions to real-life problems.
My research turned up a wide range of methods that can be used to
promote design thinking in a classroom. The strategy that I like best, and
which I think will be most useful to me in my classes on Israel, involves a
simple process that, I believe, promotes more creative thinking on the part of
the students and more opportunities for reflection and growth on the part of
the teacher.
In the classroom, a design thinking lesson should begin with a
generative statement -- i.e. "Israel is important to the Jewish
people." This provides an opening for the students to expand on the
statements with tangents and directions that will lay the groundwork for future
activities and work. The students can then develop the subject by presenting
their ideas for sub-categories that they would be interested in investigating
further. In the case of an Israel curriculum this might involve Jewish
diversity in Israel, the historical relationship between the Jewish people and
Israel and some of the present-day issues that revolve around Israel's
relationship with the diaspora community.
At this point the class can either break up into pairs or groups or
continue to work together. Additional thought-provoking questions should be
presented -- one of the questions that I am planning for my lesson involves
asking the kids to consider how they think an alien might react when seeing,
for the first time, the special relationship that exists between the Jews and
the Land of Israel. This, my question continues, takes into account that most
non-Israeli Jews are thousands of years
removed from the Land of Israel. Another philosophical inquiry-type question
could launch a unit on Jewish diversity by having the students imagine a walk
down a Jerusalem street during one of the Jewish holidays and asking them to
consider what different sights they would see as different Jewish communities
celebrate the holiday according to their own traditions.
The idea is, basically, to find avenues that allow the kids to take the
introductory generative statement and expand it into the directions that
interest them. In a design thinking lesson the teacher uses empathy
so that the students own the subject. The teacher will
then define the issue or concern which broadens
the subject to fit each student's interests. As the students ideate
they make the subject real and powerful. The
teacher must always prepare for unpredictable answers and allow
the students to focus on the areas that interest them.
A lesson that's created around the concept of design thinking is aimed
at encouraging the students to be aware of their own cognition processes as
they identify and use resources that help them to explore subjects in a real
and meaningful manner. Educators who have brought design thinking into their
classrooms have commented that a design thinking-based curriculum allows for
deeper learning, but demands that the educator be prepared to allow the process
to evolve. Most students are not used to such an open atmosphere in the
classroom and will need time to become acquainted and comfortable with these
types of lessons. In addition, design-thinking curriculum takes more time than
a traditional lesson.
Online education fits into design thinking curriculum. Students don't
have to raise their hands or wait for their turn to express themselves -- as
the questions are presented the students can participate immediately through
chat or other online tools.
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