Our professional commitment to developing the mindsets encompassed by the design thinking process with students was richly complemented during a recent learning experience at the Calgary Board of Education’s “Future of Learning Lab.” We embarked on this journey with our Kindergarten students which lasted five days; presenting us with the valuable time required to truly honour and explore the complexities of design thinking.
Within this exciting maker space, we spent time learning alongside many Learning Specialists, parent volunteers, innovative materials, and tools both low and high tech. Our learning focused on a different aspect of the design process each day, guided by the central question: “How can our classroom become a sharing and caring learning environment?”
Our students readily embraced the authentic challenges they faced as designers, and developed sincere understandings of empathy. Students also became adept at iterating and excited to build upon their designs using the feedback they received from others. As students exercised their critical and divergent thinking abilities, we observed increased levels of independence and creative risk taking. To quote one student designer: “You need confidence to design… Believe that you can do it. First you figure out what you need, make a plan, do it with confidence and keep going until you get it right.”
Design thinking continues in our classroom as the students design games for each other and enjoy daily opportunities during Makerspace Time to explore and build upon their design related competencies.
1 Comment
Laura Elphinstone
5/6/2016 09:40:55 am
Fantastic to see your design thinking plans come to life! What a great walking trip for your school. - Laura
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