Feature Wicked Insights Into Design Learning
By Doris Wells-Papanek
54 DMI Spring 2014
It started with a group of about 50 highly motivated K-12 teachers, college educators, practitioners, administrators, business leaders, and forward-thinking college students. They called themselves the Design Learning Network, and their aim was to figure out what students need to know in order to survive and thrive in the twenty-first century.
Feature Wicked Insights Into Design Learning
Wicked Insights int Design Learning
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It has been said many times that opposites attract—and it is fortunate for us that they do. As design and business professionals in a global economy, we are governed by collaborations with others from around the world to ensure our joint success. Our work often hinges on timely and effective communications via real-time digital tools. These online experiences, if done well, afford us the feeling that we share the same physical space even though we are likely many thousands of miles apart. Educators, too, have been affected by the global economy and by real-time digital tools. Those who work in the field of K-12 education find that if they are integrated well, these tools can result in positive experiences as teachers interact with their students and prepare them for life and for future careers. In an effort to meet those goals, teachers have been asked to align their instruction to specific nationwide standards and guidelines, with the ultimate goal of making responsible and actionable decisions in order to build strong relationships with their students and support their learning needs. Design and business professionals tend to be competitive. We hold our cards close, with many layers of protection in place to ensure we do not miss narrow windows of opportunity to capture the targeted markets. In contrast, educators are not competitive by nature—they tend to subscribe to an open-source mindset. Schools around the globe are exploring the benefits of project-based learning with close links
to STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) subjects, as well as a heavy investment in technology. However without proper planning and attention to how students learn, such shifts in instruction can easily turn into what amounts to a huge distraction—and, in some cases, a disaster, when funding and/or support dries up. Educators and business professionals share one substantial common interest in improving our educational system: Their own success rests very heavily upon a versatile and prepared workforce. That’s where design comes in.
The Design Learning Network The Design Learning Network is a global organization grounded in solving wicked problems using an action research approach—the study of one’s own practice by way of inquirybased learning. In the spirit of inquiry, three guiding questions beg to be asked: 1) What do students need to know and be able to do in order to prepare for careers that have not yet been invented and for life as an adult in the twenty-first century? 2) What might we do as design and business professionals to assist and support young people today as they navigate this fuzzy K-12 journey? 3) What sense do young people today make of their present existence and unwritten future, much less what has taken place in the past to cause their current context? DMI Spring 2014 55
Feature Wicked Insights Into Design Learning
The Design Learning Network Symposium
The Ingredients for Success To ensure that student engagement takes place, learners require: • Relevant applied learning that is useful and worth investing in to process • Experiences that offer choices in how they show evidence of their learning • Collaborative, reflective, and articulated student-tostudent interactions • Flexible instruction based on student learning needs and informative assessments Source: Greenleaf Papanek Publications, “Engaging Today’s Students,” 2007.
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In the fall of 2012, a group of 50 highly motivated K-12 teachers, college educators, practitioners, administrators, business leaders, visionaries, and forward-thinking college students from across North America gathered in Dearborn, Michigan, to begin to answer the first of these questions. In partnership with the Industrial Designers Society of America, the first Design Learning Symposium was organized with the assistance of K-12 teachers who had been actively collaborating for quite some time, but had never met in person. As a working group of like-minded yet diverse participants, we came together to converse, learn from one another, and lay the groundwork for the network’s future. Throughout the day, invited attendees heard from leading experts on topics such as what is happening in the learner’s mind, nurturing competencies to survive and thrive in the twenty-first century, and developing a global perspective on how to expand our open-source design-learning community. We also heard from K-12 best-practice presenters, who shared stories of their experiences with integrating design into their classrooms with a focus on creativity, problem-solving, and innovation. We concluded the session in a design charrette, where we explored initial next steps and desired impact of the network. As guided by our keynotes and best-practice presenters, we considered guiding question 1 above by trying to answer a question of our own: — What level of impact might design as a methodology for teaching and learning have on twenty-first-century student learning? — K-12 design education today represents a continuum of approaches. Several schools offer design as a subject in which students learn the skills of the discipline. The Design Learning Network, however, offers teachers and students of any subject opportunities to develop action research-based and inquiry-learning skills by way of the design learning process.
The design learning process consists of five steps: 1) Explore: Engage in a sensory-based exercise to explore key concepts and skills. 2) D escribe: Define the challenge (project), ask a critical question, investigate habits of mind. 3) Explain: Make sense of findings, brainstorm via divergent thinking, create a plan of action. 4) Demonstrate: Visualize, iterate design solutions and prototypes, and present final outcomes. 5) E valuate: Reflect on learning process, consider improvements and new applications. Within this first symposium, we focused on developing a learning-centered approach to K-12 design education anchored in research-based pedagogy that is scalable and sustainable within any classroom across the nation—regardless of infrastructure, curriculum, or funding. To that end, we engaged in a process to unpack vital connections to how designers learn, process, and sort through vast amounts of information as they create and implement innovative solutions to problems worth solving. Following the symposium, we turned to Guiding Question Number Two: — What might we do as design and business professionals to assist and support young people today as they navigate this fuzzy K-12 journey? — And that’s where you come in. The Design Learning Network offers you the chance to create a positive and productive impact for young people as they strive to make sense of an ever-changing global society. The Design Learning Network links likeminded members with international partners and organizations, such as the School of Art & Design at the University of Lincoln in the United Kingdom, the Council for British Teachers, the Industrial Designers Society of America, the National Art Education Association, the American Institute of Graphic Arts, Co-oproduct.org (an online portal for free-sharing product design ideas focusing on Creative ReUse), Next.cc (an
Feature Wicked Insights Into Design Learning Notes 1. Betty Garner, “Getting to Got It! Helping Struggling Students Learn How to Learn” (Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2007).
Figure 1 2011-IDSA Innovation Journal: The first Design Learning Challenge invited a group of highly energized college design students to re-envision their high-school learning experiences as if the design learning process had been integrated into their core classes.
eco-web that develops ethical imagination and environmental stewardship), and the Design-Ed Coalition (an organization that develops policies of support for design education at the international, national, state, and local school district levels). The ultimate goal of the shared efforts between network members, partners, and organizations is to create effective and sustainable design learning links among primary, secondary, and higher education students and teachers on a global scale. The overarching objective is to create a wide cross-section of disciplines to engage in meaningful and human-centered design learning experiences within a collection of thoughtfully selected and developed activities and events, such as design learning challenges, workshops, and symposiums, along with dynamic online communications and collaborations. Anchored in an action research approach, the aim of the network’s efforts is to mindfully
enhance overall educational experiences for all educators and students involved. The Design Learning Network offers K-12 educators and their students opportunities to embrace design as a “pedagogical” approach to teaching and learning best practices—we invite all learners to become creative problem-solvers, take ownership of their learning, and make good choices.
The Design Learning Challenge The framework of the design learning process is based on the insightful research of Dr. Betty Garner. A former middle school art educator, Garner noticed that many students who excelled in her class were poor performers in core subjects. To unpack this mystery, she went back to school and dug deep into why some students get it and some don’t.1 She discovered one common link that offered clues to why it is so difficult for some students to remember, pay attention, and follow DMI Spring 2014 57
Feature Wicked Insights Into Design Learning Notes 2. Doris Wells-Papanek and Walter Hargrove, “The Victor Papanek Going Forward Action Research Pilot Study,” 2010.
The Rules A few things for professionals to keep in mind as we engage K-12 teachers and students in the design learning process: • As design and business professionals, we must check our egos at the door. • With each communication and action, the student’s well-being and learning needs are of the utmost importance. • Always keep in mind “little d” and “big L”—design serves pedagogy for learning, rather than being taught as a subject. K-12 teachers drive the bus; we, as professionals, are invited guests. We must be flexible and adapt to the context of K-12 teachers and students, whatever it may be. We are not pushing the design process; we are assisting with the integration of the design learning process.
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directions. Garner described this problem as “underdeveloped cognitive structures.” Cognitive structures provide humans with the glue our brains need to connect new information with things we already know, sort information into patterns, find relationships, and develop shortcuts to access information quickly. Consequently, students who have poorly developed cognitive structures lack the capacity to see relationships and notice the obvious— which, in turn, makes it painfully difficult to make sense of new information as they learn how to learn. Discovering how to visualize and becoming aware of what stays the same and what changes is essential to the development of cognitive structures. I believe that designers learn to develop these structures by way of the design process, and that Dr. Garner’s research could lead us to a design learning process that can be translated into use within K-12 classrooms. In 2010, I wrote a paper with Walter Hargrove2 in which the two of us described a do-it-yourself human-centered and student-directed learning pedagogy. A year later, I set out to engage in a series of design learning feedback loops and informational interviews along the east coast, with the goal of discussing the feasibility of developing the design learning process. Beginning in Boston, I met with Scott Stropkay and others at Essential Design, Joe DiMartino at the Center for Secondary School Redesign, Adam Smith at Rhode Island School of Design, and Tucker Viemeister at Rockwell Group. I traveled to New York City where I met with Bill Moggridge and Jason Schupbach at the Cooper Hewitt Museum, Wendy Brawer at Green Maps, Lisa Smith of Lisa Smith Product Design Studio, and Sachiko Uozumi, an international humancentered design liaison for UNESCO. Further down the coast, meetings took place in Philadelphia at the Charter High School for Architecture and Design and at the Science Leadership Academy. My journey concluded in Washington DC in meetings with Kendall Starkweather at the International
Technology and Engineering Educators Association, Kristina Goodrich at Design’s Voice, and Clive Roux at IDSA. These efforts ultimately led to the first Design Learning Challenge—a partnership with IDSA. We invited a group of highly energized college design students to re-envision their high school learning experiences as if the design learning process had been integrated into their core classes. This was turned into an article we published in IDSA’s Innovation journal. The article, “Design Is to Thinking as Learning Is to Doing,” concluded with an open invitation to design practitioners and educators to become involved with the design learning movement. Within the 2012 and 2013 school years, an increasing number of K-12 teachers and students began to participate. Students were challenged to explore a world of infinite creative ideas as they tackled a problem worth solving within their classroom, school, neighborhood, or community. The goal was to engage in the design learning process to create innovative outcomes resulting in positive impact. In 2013, with the help of an additional partner—the National Art Education Association—the 2013 IDSA Design Learning Challenge celebrated more than 500 students who submitted more than 65 challenge projects. Two of these stand out as key offerings of integrating the design learning process within K-12 classrooms today. Observations to Objects This project, from Perkiomen Valley Middle School-East, in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, empowered students to investigate the following critical question: In what ways might students, empowered through the process of inception (problem finding, clarifying, and defining) and self-generated criteria, manage their own learning and work toward an as yet unknown end? The students produced several innovative outcomes, such as an electronic bracelet designed to increase motivation to complete homework
Feature Wicked Insights Into Design Learning
Students who have poorly developed cognitive structures lack the capacity to see relationships and notice the obvious—which, in turn, makes it painfully difficult to make sense of new information as they learn how to learn. on time and improve attitudes toward learning, a set of linked smart-device apps designed to share schedules and availability of family members to spend valuable time together, and an “infinite clock” designed to start the morning with a sense of calm and offer greater alertness during the day as a result of feeling well-rested. One Perkiomen Valley student reflected on her design learning experiences: “After we received feedback from reviewers and prototyped it on our own, our group had to really try and think outside the box for ways to make our product the best but different and convenient at the same time, as if it were real…. Aspects that designers do like observing, building, and researching made me think differently about how problems are found and solved in the world. I enjoyed having to do this while making our design because it was a way I’ve never used to find and solve my own problems, and I feel it grew my creativeness and ability to expand my thoughts!”
Figure 2 Jobs 2050 Design Learning Challenge Lincoln: One student reflected on her design learning experiences: “Aspects [of design work] like observing, building, and researching made me think differently about how problems are found and solved in the world.”
Autism awareness Students at Blue Valley Middle School in Overland Park, Kansas, devised an Art for Autism project—a communication design campaign aimed at building a student community that not only learned about this isolating condition but transformed its school’s climate and culture. The principal of the school summed up the project: “As a principal, one of my proudest moments this year is the last assembly we had. We celebrated the students for Art for Autism and they got a standing ovation. I actually got teary-eyed just looking out and seeing students who are giving their heart and soul to this organization.”
Wicked solutions Solving wicked problems has become a significant marker in the DNA of the Design Learning Network. In August 2013, 80 leading designers, along with STEM and design educators from around the world, connected in real time through Skype for a first-of-its-kind linked workshop that
Figure 3 Jobs 2050 Design Learning Challenge: The question to be asked: In what ways might students… manage their own learning and work toward an as yet unknown end?
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Feature Wicked Insights Into Design Learning
The Design Learning Network offers K-12 educators and their students opportunities to embrace design as a “pedagogical” approach to teaching.
was organized and moderated by myself and David Bramston, principal lecturer at the University of Lincoln’s School of Art and Design. The subject? The life of a honeybee in the year 2050. Why does this qualify as a wicked problem? Since 2006, North American migratory beekeepers have seen an annual 30 percent to 90 percent loss in their colonies; non-migratory beekeepers noted an annual loss of more than 50 percent. Similar losses were reported in Canada, as well as in several countries in Europe, Asia, and Central and South America. Honeybees face numerous threats, from pests and parasites to bacterial, fungal, and viral diseases and pesticides. Obviously, bees facilitate pollination for most plant life, including well over 100 different vegetable and fruit crops. Without them, plant growth would be limited and food supplies would suffer. Hosted by the University of Lincoln in the UK and the Design Learning Network at Columbia College in Chicago, the five-hour workshop was co-facilitated by design practitioners from IDSA’s 2013 International Conference. The two groups, 40 at the University of Lincoln and 40 at the Columbia College Chicago, used the design learning process to ponder this question: Imagine the year is 2050. What impact might a sustainable approach have on the ecosystem and well-being of the honeybee, as well as on the livelihood of their keepers within the US and UK? Using an eco-centered approach, the blended US and UK teams explored contributing factors to the honeybee’s current trajectory—then designed a sustainable solution that encouraged population growth, restored and maintained naturedriven pollination practices, and enhanced the quality of life of locally based colonies. A short documentary was produced of the event and can be viewed on YouTube (Chicago-Lincoln Design Learning Challenge Workshop 2013). The workshop has spawned several follow-up efforts. Three University of Lincoln graduates— two in the UK and one now in Spain—have initiated projects around the protection of bee habitat. 60 DMI Spring 2014
Start making sense Here’s the third Guiding Question: — What sense do young people today make of their present existence and unwritten future, much less what has taken place in the past to cause their current context? — The premise of the Jobs 2050 Challenge is anchored in a 2013 study conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers— in which more than 200 employers were surveyed regarding their top priorities for new hires. Overwhelmingly, they look for candidates who are team players and problem-solvers who can plan, organize, and prioritize their work while being able to express themselves well verbally. The Jobs 2050 Challenge invites high-school students to investigate, design, and prepare for jobs of the near-term and future from multiple perspectives: art, design, the humanities, science, technology, engineering, and math. It rests heavily on research done by Arnold Wasserman (see page 62) and on the coursework he and co-instructor Peter Scupelli have been delivering at the School of Design at Carnegie Mellon University. That course, Dexign the Future, teaches students to use long-range strategic scenarios to understand the forces that create, change, and shape the design of material culture, communication environments, services, lifestyles, social interactions, and community. Worldwide preparations for the Jobs Year 2050 Challenge took place in the UK at the University of Lincoln in February 2014. The event invited a creative network of industry-leading designers, artists, educators, and design students to collaborate with more than 500 K-12 students from the UK, the US, Spain, and China. Each day of the event was documented in depth and then posted by UK primary school students who are enrolled in the Young Journalist Academy. (Please visit www.thefuture2050.com to access photographs, videos, and a tumblr page.)
Feature Wicked Insights Into Design Learning Doris Wells-Papanek, MEd collaborates with educators, practitioners, and learners to design and research learning experiences. She has coached educators and learners of all ages, authored multiple papers, and presented at national and international conferences. She is the founder and executive director
As a collective, 130 high-school students from Paseo Academy (Kansas City, Missouri), Blue Valley North High School (Overland Park, Kansas), and the CAPS Program (Blue Valley School District’s Center for Advanced Professional Studies) prepared for the American version of the Jobs 2050 Challenge. Over a two-month period, students investigated future eco-centered career opportunities within art, design, the humanities, and STEM and imagined what jobs of the future (2050) might look like compared with today (2014) and the past (1980). The students were challenged to propose creative and innovative job scenarios aimed at purposeful actions as they prepared for an entrepreneurbased career in the near future. In addition, learners engaged in meaningful steps toward reversing previous adverse practices, resulting in stabilizing balanced ecosystems by the year 2050. The final Jobs 2050 Challenge event was held on March 1, 2014, at the Kansas City Art Institute, and was a collaborative effort among teachers, students, designers, and entrepreneurs. The morning session offered K-12 teachers an interactive professional development session with keynote speaker Garfield Gini-Newman, professor at the University of Toronto and national senior consultant at The Critical Thinking Consortium. In the afternoon, participants rolled up their sleeves to coach and mentor 50 of the high-school students who refined their plan of action. The result took the form of visualizations of the top three ideas, from which a final design concept were prototyped and presented to the jury panel. The day wrapped
of the Design Learning Network, which promotes the K-12 design learning process through individual members, as well as international partners and organizations. Anchored in an action research, human-centered, and sustainable approach, the aim of the network’s efforts is to mindfully enhance overall educational experiences
for all educators and students involved. Wells-Papanek holds a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction design with a focus on action research from National Louis University and a bachelor’s degree in product and environmental design from the Kansas City Art Institute & School of Design.
up with an open dialogue and reflection session moderated by Gini-Newman and an appreciation of the challenge participants and winning plans of action. As with the Honeybee Challenge, a documentary movie will be produced and posted on the project website, www.designlearning.us.
Going forward When all is said and done, the design learning process actively invites not just design and business professionals to engage in the attraction of opposites, but K-12 students also. Students are expected to use divergent thinking to tackle wicked problems and seek innovative solutions. They do this by producing multiple ideas (as opposed to one “correct” answer) as well as by flipping the problem around to understand many perspectives and multiple points of view. At times, they will even engage in contrary positions to gain insights into the problem. Students today are faced with many levels of uncertainty as they prepare for the future, including facing the probability of applying for jobs that do not as yet exist. I invite you to put yourself in their place—to go back in time and remember what the future might have looked like for you as a soon-to-be high-school graduate. Perhaps you didn’t realize you would one day play the hero in one or many students’ stories? Please do join us. The Design Learning Network welcomes your assistance and support at any level. We have only just begun, and there is so much more on the horizon! In fact, please attend our next Symposium—which will be held September 19 to 21 in Boston, Massachusetts, at District Hall.
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