Session 4: Design Thinking as Pedagogy: Makerspaces, Serious Play, Threshold Concepts,  and Curricular Planning

Overview

March 12 2022, 5:15 – 10:15am

This session is a deep dive into the pedagogical potential of design thinking and related approaches such as making / DIY/ serious play. We will do an activity on curricular planning and identifying threshold concepts in the learning content. Our guest speaker Anat Shabi is an expert on Lego Serious Play, a fascinating approach to problem solving and strategy building. Michael Vaughn knows how to run a maker space, but more importantly, he has some interesting thoughts on why making is a worthwhile activity.

Handouts, Slides, Recordings

Guest Speakers

9:15am EDT

Anat Shabi is a prolific advocate for ‘Lego Serious Play’. She has been integrating creativity and serious play into training online and offline workshops for the past decade.

8:15am EDT

Michael Vaughn is an instructional designer and making expert who worked in higher ed for 15 years helping faculty, staff, and students find new and meaningful ways to use technology to enhance their teaching and learning.

Readings

Meyer, J., & Land, R. (2003). Threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge: Linkages to ways of thinking and practising within the disciplines (pp. 412-424). Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh. https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.476.3389&rep=rep1&type=pdf

Noel, L. A., & Liub, T. L. (2017). Using design thinking to create a new education paradigm for elementary level children for higher student engagement and success. Design and Technology Education, 22(1). 1-12. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1137735.pdf

Vaughn, M. (2017). How making and makerspaces promote healthy mindsets for learning. http://michael-vaughn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/How-Making-and-Makerspaces-Promote-Healthy-Mindsets-for-Learning.pdf

Lego Serious Play. LSP: Open-source. https://www.dropbox.com/s/8n2drwvqq5tzqdl/LSP_Open_Source.pdf?dl=0

Schön, S., Ebner, M., & Grandl, M. (2018, October). Designing a Makerspace for Children–Let’s Do It. In International Conference EduRobotics 2016 (pp. 3-15). Springer, Cham.

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Martin-Ebner-3/publication/338164859_Designing_a_Makerspace_for_Children_-_Let%27s_Do_It/links/5e1229f092851c8364b26c2e/Designing-a-Makerspace-for-Children-Lets-Do-It.pdf

Stanford Biodesign. (2015, February 6). IDEO: Brainstorming and other ideation techniques [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/xXsHI_VlhmY

Stanford d.school Design Thinking Bootleg: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/57c6b79629687fde090a0fdd/t/5b19b2f2aa4a99e99b26b6bb/1528410876119/dschool_bootleg_deck_2018_final_sm+%282%29.pd

IDEO.org. (n.d.). Mindsets. Retrieved August 07, 2020, from https://www.designkit.org/methods

Mindful Marks. (2018, June 9). Design thinking: Prototype [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/Q4MzT2MEDHA

Da. R., & Siang, T. (2017). Stage 4 in the design thinking process: Prototype. Interaction Design Foundation. https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/stage-4-in-the-design-thinking-process-prototype

Dow, S. (2011). How prototyping practices affect design results. Interactions, 18(3), 54–59. https://doi.org/10.1145/1962438.1962451

Cerejo, L. (2010, June 16). Design better and faster with rapid prototyping. Smashing. https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/06/design-better-faster-with-rapid-prototyping/

Zuiker, S., Jordan, M. & the Learning Landscapes Team (2019). Inter-Organizational Design Thinking in Education: Joint Work between Learning Sciences Courses and a Zoo Education Program. Open Education Studies, 1(1), 1-23. https://doi.org/10.1515/edu-2019-0001

Student summaries:

• What is Serious Play? Summarize and discuss the guest lecture by Anat Shabi.
• Why can making help students learn better? Summarize and discuss the guest lecture by Michael Vaughn.
• What are threshold concepts? Document and discuss the group activity ‘threshold concepts’.