- Blake and Justin discuss the challenges of time and assessment.
- Q - Are these concerns that you share? Are there other concerns that come to mind?
- A - yes most definitely concerns about assessment .. which ties back to motivation
- Students study strategically - they often argue that they have limited time and energy, As a result, if students do not see a grade attached to an activity, they may quickly see little reason to devote additional time and energy to completing it.
- Such approaches are typically discouraged by assessment .. which tends to puts more of a focus on measuring lower level thinking skills (easier to mark) ... and less on higher level thinking skills (more difficult and subjective to mark).
Two key issues
- Time
- Assessment
Time
- concern about having enough classroom time to realize this - just where is there room when there are so many other demands being made on this time?
- Need to identify where some of the very same functions of Design Thinking are already occurring in the course .. and capitalize on those
- concern about planning time - this requires much more planning than before (mind you.. once planned .. executing it is much easier)?
- No really escaping this .. though time for this may be leveraged if one is collaborating with other instructors on realizing the same (common planning time)
- concern for the need to demonstrate the value of something before it can be formally absorbed
- this requires time to realize before it can be formally "accepted"
Assessment
Problems- DT is a set of skills .. not just one
- DT is part of 21st Century Study Skills - how to assess these is problematic too
- focus shifts from product to process
- as a result there is a need to focus on "formative" assessment
- done more frequently - likely at each significant step
- likely involves
- reflection
- what did I learn
- why is it important
- how can I apply this with other things, family, peers, community?
- assembled evidence in a portfolio
Another fundamental problem
- temptation to use compliance checklists - as rubric for assessment
- yet this is not Design Thinking
- checklists provide a rough pathway to realizing Design Thinking
- but evidence of learning is more personal and often found in the reflection and sharing
Major Problem for students
- essentially two types of students
- A student
- loves challenges .. less motivated by grades.. just enjoys learning
- B student
- contract learner
- tell me what I need to learn ... to what standard or quality
- give me a model to apply
- I will then do it
- but DT is no longer "doing school"
- DT does NOT offer a formula, does NOT offer a solution
- high risk of failure
- yet failure is essential to learning
- often means doing things that are more interesting
- yet very difficult for students looking to "do school" (low tolerance for failure)
carrot for teachers?
DT needs to be sold as "meaningful work" that prepares students for the future
