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

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

Participants will learn how to apply their knowledge of Design Thinking to solve real world problems of interest to the participant

  • Opening Workshop Activity: Group coaching session

  • Assignment 4: “Zoom coaching meeting & design challenge feedback” (see syllabus for details)

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

  • Assignment 2 : “Readings & Reflection” (see syllabus for details)

Participants will engage students in design challenge as co-designers or end users and work toward implementation of design challenge outcomes collaboratively.

  • Assignment 3: “Design Challenge” (see syllabus for details)

  • Assignment 5: “Design Challenge Presentation Preparation” (see syllabus for details)

  • Closing Workshop Activity: Design Challenge Presentation (session 1 examples)

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.