Badge Description
Teachers are designers. Everything we do as teachers is design: from lesson planning to seating charts - it’s all design. Design Thinking is a designer’s framework that teachers can use to become more effective in creating meaningful and engaging learning experiences for students.
Participants who complete outlined experiences, reflections, and design challenges will have practiced looking at teaching through the lense of a designer. Gizmo is committed to the Design Thinking process as THE way to engage in creative problem solving because of its commitment to empathy and how it puts the end user in the center of the design process.
Design Thinking has been placed first in a series of three Professional Development experiences offered beginning in the Fall of 2019 because Gizmo believes the tools of Design Thinking are foundational to effective, engaging, and creative learning inside and out of school.
One Professional Development Credit is available through the University of Idaho for participants upon successful completion of badge outcomes.
Supporting Rationale & Research
Lor, Rex. (2017). Design Thinking in Education: A Critical Review of Literature.
Henriksen, Danah & Gretter, Sarah & Richardson, Carmen. (2018). Design thinking and the practicing teacher: addressing problems of practice in teacher education. Teaching Education. 1-21. 10.1080/10476210.2018.1531841.
S Retna, Kala. (2015). Thinking about “design thinking”: a study of teacher experiences. Asia Pacific Journal of Education. 36. 1-15. 10.1080/02188791.2015.1005049.
Resources
- Course Syllabus
- Opening Workshop Slide Decks (am & pm)
- Closing Workshop Slide Deck
- Gizmo’s Design Thinking Resources
Design Thinking for Educators Toolkit v2
The Field Guide to Human-Centered Design
Agency By Design, Thinking Routines + Tools + Practices
Required Outcomes & Evaluation
Participants are engaged in a variety of activities over the fifteen (15) hour training period. See syllabus for full details. The course follows a “6-5-4” format: 6 hours in-person training, 5 hours independent application, reflection, & coaching meetings, 4 hours of presentation and closing workshop.
Required Outcome | Workshop Activities & Assignments |
Participants will learn the design thinking phases: Inspiration | Ideation | Implementation by doing small group “Rapid Cycle” and “Deep Dive” activities |
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Participants will learn how to apply their knowledge of Design Thinking to solve real world problems of interest to the participant |
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Participants will learn how to create student learning experiences that engage students in using Design Thinking to solve real-world problems of interest to the student |
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Participants will engage students in design challenge as co-designers or end users and work toward implementation of design challenge outcomes collaboratively. |
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Alignment
We’ve aligned our Professional Development to the Danielson Group’s “Framework For Teaching.” We believe that the Evaluation Instrument (2013) outlines exceptional teaching practices. The Framework is broken down into four Domains:
Domain 1: Planning & Preparation
Domain 2: Classroom Environment
Domain 3: Instruction
Domain 4: Professional Responsibilities
What follows are the strands within each domain that align to the given PD experience.
1f. DESIGNING STUDENT ASSESSMENTS |
2a. CREATING AN ENVIRONMENT OF RESPECT AND RAPPORT |
2b. ESTABLISHING A CULTURE FOR LEARNING |
2e. ORGANIZING PHYSICAL SPACE |
3c. ENGAGING STUDENTS IN LEARNING |
3e. DEMONSTRATING FLEXIBILITY AND RESPONSIVENESS |
4a. REFLECTING ON TEACHING |
4d. PARTICIPATING IN THE PROFESSIONAL COMMUNITY |
4e. GROWING AND DEVELOPING PROFESSIONALLY |
About the Issuer
Gizmo is Coeur d'Alene’s nonprofit community makerspace, located on the North Idaho College Campus. At Gizmo, art, design, technology, and tools are connected by the hands and minds of the people of this community. It is a place where creative play is done by everyone. Gizmo is an incredible informal learning environment and was sought by the Idaho STEM Action Center as a partner to help increase access to STEM and STEM learning in Idaho Schools. Gizmo’s Innovative Education initiative was created with generous financial support by the Idaho STEM Action Center.
These experiences: (1) Design Thinking, (2) Project Based Learning & Assessment, and (3) Maker Educator together create a rich training program to support educators in building student choice, agency and rigiour into their classroom practices. A participant will maximize the impact of all three PD experiences by engaging in each, however, we have designed them to be modular so than a participant can participate in any of them without first needing to experience the others.
