"I can’t do that. I don’t have the skills. I know nothing about that." These are mindsets that the new ADST curriculum is aiming to eliminate. In classrooms around the world, teachers are facilitating innovation and creativity through design thinking and human-centered design thinking, and putting their students at the center of REAL problems.
In British Columbia, the new curriculum aims to prepare BC’s students for the real world and to be future ready citizens. The framework for the ADST curriculum serves to help students grow along a continuum of skills and readiness, moving them from a sharing of ideas and a producing of ideas to where they can empathize with those who will/are affected by the problem they are working to resolve.
King Middle School in Maine is doing just that with its students – Pose a problem that students will work on through an empathetic lens.
The schools approach, Expeditionary Learning, is transforming schools, readying students for an ever changing world. King’s approach to Human-Centered Design Thinking can serve as a model for schools to enrich the design process.
As students become more familiar with the design process, teachers will move more into the role of facilitator and students will have the opportunity to creatively and critically explore the ADST curriculum. It is important that steps are taken to ensure that all students have the tools and skills to successfully navigate the design process, and that a Positive Growth Mindset is practiced in a safe learning environment.
The new ADST curriculum is designed to allow teachers and students to explore across content areas so that learning can be personalized, relevant and meaningful. As students discover their passions and develop their global awareness, they will become empathetic design thinkers who can observe and engage with their community.
In their book “Applied Design, Skills and Technologies: Design Thinking & Human-Centred Design Thinking”, Sandra Averill and Stacey Bernier explore the steps teachers can take towards fostering student understanding of the Big Ideas in ADST curriculum. Their framework describes how students can become empathetic, human-centered design thinkers as they transition from grades K-5 to 6-9 to 10-12.
As a teacher librarian, I look forward to and encourage collaboration with teachers to build human-centered design thinking classrooms, and to find and implement tools and resources to enrich the design ideation of our learners.
Averill, S., & Bernier, S. (2017). Applied Design, Skills and Technologies: Design Thinking & Human-Centred Design Thinking. Langley: Langley Schools.
Education, E. (2018). Empowering teachers to unleash the potential of their students. Retrieved August 12, 2018, from EL Education: https://eleducation.org/
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