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συντροφια του περιβαλλοντος, 4/12/2013

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This post has been updated from previous publishing.
Below are 50 ideas for a new education. Note, most of these are about education as a system rather than learning itself, but that's okay. It's often the infrastructure of learning that obscures anyway.

Few of them may work; even fewer would work together, and that's okay too. As long as we're dreaming anyway, let's get a little crazy.

1. Make connectivity and interdependence the catalyst for all learning.

2. Stop claiming every child will be proficient. (Find find something else to promise.)

3. Have students design their own quality criteria, and develop frameworks to help them understand how.

4. Celebrate learning by celebrating learning models-every school is branded by that model and approach, rather than historical names and empty mascots. Embrace that there is no best way to teach and learn.

5. Don't require students to come to school.

6. Stop using the words and phrases proficient, best practice, and student engagement; s top reporting proficiency through demographic groups, and instead do so individually.

7. Have a group of successful professionals document the 10 most important things they know, and the 10 most important skills. Then compare and contrast them with national academic standards.

8. Let students use smartphones in the classroom. This is not a school problem, it is a learning model problem.

9. Mobilize learning by mobilizing and empowering students in communities they care about.

10. Make classrooms places students want to be.

11. Make school walls invisible-literally made of glass.

12. Ditch internet "filters" and instead making all access transparent to parents and guardians, and published in schools for all to see.

13. Be honest when things suck, are boring, or are wastes of time. Stop rationalizing, making excuses, or using confirmation bias.

14. Transform all schools to 21st century cultural centers with cutting edge experts, technology, and programs.

15. Stop encouraging students to go to overpriced colleges that fail to improve students' lives, and that perpetuate a system that stifles innovation and equity.

16. Make elementary school about literacy, creativity, and play-and that's it.

17. Make middle school about self-discovery, accountability, and an introduction to how to find and evaluate information they care about.

18. Make high school about citizenship, thinking habits, and guided participation in physical and digital networks.

19. Fund schools with the precision and zest of a Fortune 500 company.

20. Treat the best teachers like rock stars: Give them reality shows, endorsement deals, and huge contracts.

21. If students underperform (regardless of the terms of said performance), hold them accountable as well. Find a way-and it can't be punishment. It has to be meaningful, possibly social, and absolutely knowledge-based.

22. Make students accountable to one another, not teachers. And use a different word-make it positive.

23. If we don't celebrate learning the way we do swagger and controversy in entertainment, let's stop being surprised when students love Beyonce more than Aristotle.

24. Ditch formal professional systems. Every teacher is an expert in something. There's your PD team.

25. Educators: Stop patronizing edtech like brand fanatics.

26. Use a grading system that starts at zero, not 100.

27. Make school budgets entirely transparent.

28. Throw out letter grades and test scores forever. At most, move to a 0, 1, 2-didn't complete the work, completed without meeting quality criteria, completed while meeting quality criteria.

29. Stop asking so much of teachers and administrators.

30. Stop oversimplifying teaching and learning.

31. Make sure anyone on a school board or committee understands what it means to understand something, and the realities of leading a dizzying mix of students to that point for dozens and dozens of standards. Then they can vote, make policies, hire, etc.

32. Promote learning through networks, not curriculum. (And while we're on the subject, ban all scripted curriculum.)

33. Make joy, curiosity, and the ability to ask the right question at the right time the criteria by which we measure a school.

34. Worry less about teaching evolution, and more about evolving teaching.

35. Rebrand teaching and learning completely the same way Apple has done with computers, Starbucks has coffee, and Nike has jogging.

36. Stop demonizing teachers for the increasing cultural apathy to formal education.

37. Push the government out of schools completely.

38. Design complex mentorship and apprenticeship programs for all students older than 13.

39. Use curriculum based around thinking habits, and the ability to know what's worth understanding rather than "content."

40. Use curriculum based on the ability to self-direct and design their own learning pathways.

41. Require parents, community experts, and business leaders to teach or co-teach.

42. Stop teaching-which is a push-pull action; instead, promote learning.

43. Use YouTube channels instead of textbooks.

44. Eliminate all hierarchy in schools.

45. Use podcasts and social media channels instead of classrooms.

46. Make libraries more like app stores with technology that excites students-that they want to use.

47. Create curriculum that functions like a playlist, and that browses like Google search results; require students to document their own understanding.

48. Allow students to decide what they do and don't want to learn; insist only that the learn something.

49. Treat the goal of education as self-knowledge: Who am I, and how do I relate to the world around me?

50. Design every school as a think tank to understand and address local problems and opportunities.

Image attribution flickr user daveparker; 50 Crazy Ideas To Change Education; 50 Radical Ideas In Education

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This post has been updated from previous publishing. Below are 50 ideas for a new education. Note, most of these are about education as a system rather than learning itself, but that's okay. It's often the infrastructure of learning that obscures anyway. Few of them may work; even fewer would work together, and that's okay too.

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3) Value Mistakes

No has ever learned something valuable without making mistakes. Mistakes are going to happen, and they are actually part of the process of learning. Encourage students to see their mistakes as one of many steps toward mastery.

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by TeachThought Staff

If you're a TeachThought reader, you know that thought is at the core of our content-curiosity, critical thinking, self-direction, and play among other slivers of learning.

This is especially true as it relates to teaching, learning, and technology. At the point where teaching, learning, and thinking overlap sits the concept of a learning taxonomy. And at that the center of that overlap is Bloom's Taxonomy, certainly the most iconic of the thinking frameworks we use today.

And somewhere in that center of overlap is this graphic. You've probably seen the dozens of posts we've done to clarify Bloom's-at least in form. We've shared different versions of Bloom's taxonomy-pinwheels, iPad wheels, charts, cards, posters, power verbs, a simplified version for students, you name it.

Teacher have always found Bloom's taxonomy useful-which makes sense: If teaching is about thinking, any way to get a fresh take on a taxonomy that promotes it should draw some interest. We've featured graphics like these-often by M ia MacMeekin -in the past. Mia does a great job of capturing useful tips and strategies in easy to digest graphics, and this graphic is no exception

In terms of graphic commentary, it's a straightforward take on Bloom's updated taxonomy (Create on top). It also includes the power verbs that are so useful in writing lessons and objectives, etc. Check out Mia's site and let her know what you think.
A Taxonomy Tree: A Bloom's Revised Taxonomy Graphic

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A Taxonomy Tree: A Bloom's Revised Taxonomy Graphic

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by TeachThought Staff If you're a TeachThought reader, you know that thought is at the core of our content-curiosity, critical thinking, self-direction, and play among other slivers of learning. This is especially true as it relates to teaching, learning, and technology. At the point where teaching, learning, and thinking overlap sits the concept of a learning taxonomy.

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2) Change the Emphasis

In mathematics, instead of focusing on correct answers, focus on correct process. If students are learning and following the correct process, then they will eventually also produce the correct answers. A good automated tutoring program can help by honing in on the exact step a student struggles with when attempting a challenging problem.

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1) Change your Own Mindset

Struggling students can either be viewed with a fixed mindset, as simply stuck forever with an understanding that is sub-par—or, they can be viewed as a welcome challenge, and an opportunity for you to hone your teaching skills, and them to hone their learning skills.

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Αγγλικά που σας αφορούν

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Αγγλικά που σας αφορούν

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just the 4 of us task4

επιμορφωτικά προγράμματα

Αγγλική Γλώσσα Ι

Διάρκεια:50 ώρες

Βασικοί Στόχοι:Η κάλυψη απλών, καθημερινών επικοινωνιακών αναγκών των ενηλίκων, σε ένα εισαγωγικό επίπεδο, στην Αγγλική γλώσσα

Προϋποθέσεις Συμμετοχής:Ενήλικες, ανεξάρτητα εκπαιδευτικού επιπέδου και τουλάχιστον Υποχρεωτικής Εκπαίδευσης

Ενότητες:1. Τα Αγγλικά είναι παντού, 2. Ας γνωριστούμε, 3. Στο τηλέφωνο, 4. Θέλω να μάθω περισσότερα για σένα, 5. Η Οικογένειά μου, 6. Διασημότητες, 7. Ας κινηθούμε και ας ξεκουραστούμε, 8. Έτοιμοι για μαγείρεμα; 9. Είσαι ότι τρως, 10. Σπίτι μου Σπιτάκι μου, 11. Σπίτια και Έπιπλα

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Διάρκεια:50 ώρες

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Ενότητες:13. Πώς είναι ο καιρός; 14. Καθημερινή ρουτίνα, 15. Οικογενειακές στιγμές, 16. Τα αγαπημένα μου, 17. Πάρτυ, 18. Ενδιαφέροντα, 19. Σινεμά, 20. Τηλεόραση, 21. Περάσαμε υπέροχα! 22. Χαιρετίσματα από τη Ρώμη, 23. Έχω ξαναπάει, 24. Μεγάλοι εξερευνητές, 25. Πάμε για ψώνια, 26. Ανακύκλωση

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Προϋποθέσεις Συμμετοχής:Ενήλικες ανεξάρτητα εκπαιδευτικού επιπέδου με τουλάχιστον Υποχρεωτική Εκπαίδευση, που τους ενδιαφέρουν οι ξένες γλώσσες στον τουρισμό και έχουν ΥΠΟΧΡΕΩΤΙΚΑ Πιστοποιητικό Επιμόρφωσης του εκπαιδευτικού προγράμματος Αγγλική Γλώσσα ΙΙ ή γνώση της Αγγλικής γλώσσας αντιστοίχου επιπέδου.

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Lesson Plans & Rubric - Reteach and Enrich

Sample materials used to teach, assess, reteach, and enrich one week's fifth grade math objective: differentiating prime and composite numbers. Watch our video or read the article to learn more about Mesquite's Reteach & Enrich program.
Reteach Examples Enrich Examples
Example of a game played in enrichment class
Websites
Activities used by Mesquite teachers for teaching prime and composite numbers

Tools for Data Assessment

Teachers at Mesquite meet weekly with the student achievement teacher to review the most recent assessment data and plan instruction for each student accordingly.
5th Grade Math Formative Assessment Tracking Sheet
Sample spreadsheet used to track student performance on each objective.
Tracking Sheet for Bottom 25 Percent of 5th Grade Students
Students whose performance falls in the bottom 25 percent of the class are tracked more closely using spreadsheets like this one.

Benchmark = 1 quarter

AIMS is the state standardized test

PL = Performance Level on AIMS

M = Meets

A = Approaches

FFB = Falls Far Below
Class Development Profile Grid
Grid displaying per student performance for each objective on a benchmark test.

MS = Meets Standard

AS = Approaches Standard

FS = Falls Below Standard
Development Profile Fifth Grade Class
Profile report of overall performance for one fifth grade class on a benchmark test.
Development Profile for Fifth Grade
Profile report of overall performance for entire fifth grade on a benchmark test. Codes such as S1C1, S1C2, are weekly performance objectives; M05 is Mesquite, 5th grade.

Culture

Websites & Readings

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Resources and Downloads for Differentiated Instruction | Edutopia

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Tier One
Meeting Physiological Needs in the Classroom

1. Water bottles and water breaks.

2. Focused attention practices: These practices, involving breathing, imagery and sound, last one and a half to two minutes as students close their eyes or focus on an object of attention, practicing quieting their minds from the free-flowing thoughts that bombard our thinking every day.

3. Physical surroundings: These include room arrangement, color, temperature, plants, etc.

4. Food: Provide a mixed snack bar and have the class designate times to grab some energy bites and continue working.

5. Instrumental Music.

These elements contribute to brain-compatible learning by creating a physical environment that is inviting, warm and friendly!
Questions to Ask Myself

1. What do I need?

2. Am I tired?

3. Am I hungry?

4. How much water have I had over the past 24 hours? Is it enough?

5. What resources (people, activities or experiences) could assist me in reaching my small and larger physiological and psychological goals?

Tier Two
Stability, Safety and Security, Freedom from Fear

1. Attitude: Sometimes it is enough to have a personal affirmation that creates feelings of safety and security. For example: "Right now in this moment I am safe. I am breathing, I am aware, awake and I can think and feel!"

2. Worry drop box: As you enter the room, drop a written concern in a box situated by the door. Research shows that writing out our concerns and worries frees up the working memory and relieves anxiety.

3. Pin-ups: The class assigns various students to physically post a compliment or affirmation each day. We all need to feel validated and often lose sight of our strengths and talents because the brain is wired with a negative bias. These pin-ups help us focus on positive experiences and behaviors instead of faults and mistakes.

4. Common experiences: Develop class guidelines together. Create a class blog. Invite outside speakers that promote service and safety: police officers, counselors, former students who have risen above difficult situations, etc.

Tier Three
Belonging and Love

1. Classroom service project.

2. Partnered work.

3. Celebrations: Create special and celebratory days all year long: birthdays, VIP days, strength day, progress days, colorful days, etc.

4. Working together: Assign these roles within the class: a) Listener, b) Recorder of feelings and thoughts, c) Small group of decision-makers, d) Student who "cares for" the teacher, office staff and other students, e) Poetry reader, f) Designer of classroom decorations, g) Gatekeeper who checks for disputes and conflicts

5. Community circle: For 3-10 minutes at the beginning and ending of class, share a time where empathy is defined, discussed and brought to life. You might also share movie clips, personal narratives, or a story to jumpstart the day.

6. Identity: A classroom theme, flag, song, flower and animal totem.

Questions to Ask Myself

1. How do I handle negative situations? When these situations occur, what do I typically say to myself?

2. What statement would encourage me?

3. What are three negative emotions I feel most often?

4. What are three positive emotions I feel often or sometimes?

Tier Four
Achievement, Recognition and Respect of Mastery, Self-Esteem
For students to feel capable and successful, we must create an environment that lends itself to this type of mastery.

1. Expert Day: Students get to demonstrate personal expertise.

2. Career Day: Bring in college students and community members to share the possibilities of academic and professional success following high school.

3. Display skills as a class: Create and design quizzes, assignments and instruction for students in other classes and grades.

Small Goals I Am Mastering

1. Work completion

2. Dialogued about frustrations

3. Stayed focused on assignments

4. Showed respect and compassion for others

5. Regrouped and continued to work after a frustrating time

6. Helped another student or teacher

7. Contributed ideas and suggestions to a conversation

8. Used positive language in describing a need or desire

9. Self-reflected about my daily work and interactions

Questions to Ask Myself

1. What statement would encourage me?

2. Who are my heroes? What character traits do I admire that make them my heroes?

3. How will I know I am on the right track? What will tell me if I stray from pursuing my goals?

4. What are my strengths?

5. What are my challenges?

6. How will I focus on these strengths knowing that my thoughts and feelings drive all my words and actions?

Tier Five
Self-Actualization and Self-Fulfillment Needs
This is level of self-evaluation related to service. We begin to explore and model, designing, evaluating and analyzing information outside of our own basic needs, serving others. To become creative thinkers, we have to begin discovering the problem, not just coming up with a solution. In this tier, students become self-assessors and self- reflectors. They are able to see and understand how their actions, thoughts and feelings affect all lives.
Questions to Ask Myself

1. What is my purpose in life?

2. What are the challenges in reaching my purpose and the lives of others?

3. How can I serve the world?

4. Why is there conflict and war? What can I do? What can we do?

Have you ever encouraged self-examination and self-reflection among your students? Please share your experiences in the comments section below.

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Addressing Our Needs: Maslow Comes to Life for Educators and Students

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In the mid-1950s, humanistic psychologist Abraham Maslow created a theory of basic, psychological and self-fulfillment needs that motivate individuals to move consciously or subconsciously through levels or tiers based on our inner and outer satisfaction of those met or unmet needs.

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ΕΑΠ - ΑΡΧΙΚΗ

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Ελληνικό Ανοικτό Πανεπιστήμιο

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As one of the most popular trends in education in recent memory, you've undoubtedly heard of the flipped classroom. But what is it about a classroom that's been flipped that makes it unique?

A flipped classroom is a type of blended learning where students are introduced to content at home and practice working through it at school. This is the reverse of the more common practice of introducing new content at school, then assigning homework and projects to completed by the students independently at home.

In this blended learning approach, face-to-face interaction is mixed with independent study-usually via technology. In a common Flipped Classroom scenario, students might watch pre-recorded videos at home, then come to school to do the homework armed with questions and at least some background knowledge.

The concept behind the flipped classroom is rethink when students have access to the resources they need most. If the problem is that students need help doing the work rather than being introduced to the new thinking behind the work, than the solution the flipped classroom takes is to reverse that pattern.
What Students Might Do At Home In A Flipped Classroom
Watch an online lecture

Rreview online course material

Read physical or digital texts

Participate in an online discussion

Perform research
What Students Might Do At School In A Flipped Classroom
Skill practice (guided or unguided by teacher)

In-person, face-to-face discussion with peers

Debate

Presentations

Station learning

Lab experiments

Peer assessment and review

This doubles student access to teachers-once with the videos at home, and again in the classroom, increasing the opportunity for personalization and more precise guiding of learning. In the flipped classroom model, students practice under the guidance of the teacher, while accessing content on their own.

A side benefit is that teachers can record lectures that emphasize critical ideas, power standards, and even the pace of a given curriculum map. It also has the side benefit of allowing students to pause, rewind, Google terms, rewatch, etc., as well as creating a ready-made library for student review, make-up work, etc.
Criticisms Of The Flipped Classroom
Of course it's not that simple, and there are pros and cons of a flipped classroom.

As a learning model, criticisms include reduced opportunity for self-directed critical thinking, decentering the role of the student, encouraging a lecture-driven march through curriculum, and in general simply streamlining an already industrialized approach to learning.

And just like in a regular classroom, success depends greatly on the quality of the teacher, the clarity of communication, and the quality of given curriculum, assessment, and instruction. Further, equity is still a major issue, and it doesn't address the dated approach most educational systems take to curriculum. So there's that.
A Clarifying Image
But new thinking about how students learn is still thinking all the same-and below is an image from Sanne Bloemarts via coetail.com that nicely summarizes the definition of the flipped classroom. One big takeaway? The students do homework at school.

The big idea of a Flipped Classroom? Preview content home and then practice at school.
The Definition Of The Flipped Classroom

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As one of the most popular trends in education in recent memory, you've undoubtedly heard of the flipped classroom. But what is it about a classroom that's been flipped that makes it unique? A flipped classroom is a type of blended learning where students are introduced to content at home and practice working through it at school.

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Promoting an inclusive approach  with tips on accessibility using technology

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by Drew Perkins, Director of TeachThought PD
Ideally, as instructional leaders, those in school administration positions like principals and/or central office positions view their work as more of a sort of support role than as 'the boss.'

While there are usually other aspects to those roles the idea is that you're doing what you can to make it easier for your teachers to be as great as possible. One of the ways often utilized in pursuit of this is the type of professional development workshops and services TeachThought PD provides but it's certainly more than just that.

Teachers are passionate about helping their students and as a result seeking to improve their craft. That said, PD doesn't always feel particularly helpful. In fact, it sometimes feels quite the opposite. It's incumbent on school leaders to be intentional about the design and planning for professional development and arguably more importantly, to be reflective in the evaluation of it.

So how do you know if your professional development is working for you? Consider these nine questions.
9 Questions To Measure Professional Development Effectiveness For Schools And Teachers How was the experience for the teacher?
Were they engaged in a variety of activities that were intellectually interesting but also kept them from atrophy in their seats. Were they physically comfortable and were there things like coffee or other basic human needs? Were they spurred to ask lots of questions important to them and was there safety in asking challenging questions? Did they feel valued and recognized as professionals and human beings?
Did teachers grow?
Did they gain new knowledge? Were they able to acquire new skills that will help them improve their craft? Are their new understandings that they uncovered in the learning process and how visible are they? Did this PD inspire more questions that might serve as a roadmap for continued professional growth?
Is leadership supportive?
When an organization's leadership hasn't made intentional efforts to support the changes it's not likely to be effective even if teachers find the content worthwhile. Teachers want to feel their leadership has been thoughtful about their PD. What systems, practices, and curriculum pieces need to be considered and potentially changed to help make this work successful?
Is the PD consistent with Mission and Vision?
Too often professional development isn't aligned with the school or district's mission and vision. This often leads to, what feels like, frustrating and pointless professional development. Is there a process that roots professional learning consistently toward a shared target? What durable anchors do you have in place to prevent 'initiative fatigue'?
Will teacher practice grow?
Similar to the previous question but more concerned with continuing development, will teachers try, reflect, and improve? Even if we aim for teachers to takeaway tools they can implement quickly is their a culture that incentivizes and supports improved use of strategies as they become more familiar with them? Are there systems in place that encourage positive peer critique and rich inquiry like Collaborative Lesson Study and use of protocols like those we encourage within our PBL workshops?
Will it impact students?
Ultimately we want professional development for teachers to positively impact students. Did it or will it benefit them? In what ways, how much, and for how long? Is that benefit aligned with the mission and vision and your ideal graduate? What evidence, not proof, will show that students are gaining from the work of teachers as a result of the PD?
Will growth be sustained?
This might feel redundant but almost any teacher can tell you it's a very real concern. Will teachers be allowed to continue to work on whatever they started in the PD session? What will happen when they struggle? Will this be replaced with something else without giving it time to take root and find success? I've written about some of these questions before in 7 Questions To Guide Your PBL Implementation Plan but quite honestly they're not exclusive to PBL.
Are teachers empowered?
Does the PD place teachers in the role of active learning? Are they taking initiative because they're excited about the possibilities? Does that excitement dwindle after the first 24 hours because the workshop was more about the presenter as performer? Or are teachers continuing to 'practice' their learnings as a true professional learning community?
Does the PD contribute to school culture?
Some of this is incumbent upon the participants but if you're choosing an outside PD provider will they engage with teachers in ways that help further your intended school culture? You want to be sure their practices are consistent with what you want from your teachers. Are their exercises or activities requiring professional dialogue and reflection? Are they pulling the best from teachers? Or is the PD viewed as just another checkmark, hoop to jump through, or more work to be compliant?

Planning and picking professional development can be challenging. Similar to teacher's work with students, it is often hard to find ways to meet the needs of everyone all of the time. Part of that are the systems we have in place that often relegate professional learning to certain days instead of an ongoing process.

Consistently striving for these ideals with clarity of your mission and vision as guides can yield great results if you take the time to be thoughtful in planning, implementation, and evaluation.

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Is Your PD For Teachers Working--Or Just Work?

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by Drew Perkins, Director of TeachThought PD Ideally, as instructional leaders, those in school administration positions like principals and/or central office positions view their work as more of a sort of support role than as 'the boss.'

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LangMOOC invites all interested to participate in the final workshop of the project period. The workshop will be held on 25th November 2016 at South Hill Centre, Cemetry Hill in Hemel Hempstead, UK. Programme:...

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But like many organizational leaders, principals may get stymied when they actually try to describe the elements that create a positive culture. It's tricky to define, and parsing its components can be challenging. Amid the push for tangible outcomes like higher test scores and graduation rates, it can be tempting to think that school culture is just too vague or "soft" to prioritize.

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Design thinking is a methodology which provides a solution-based approach to solving problems. It's extremely useful when used to tackle complex problems that are ill-defined or unknown-because it serves to understand the human needs involved, reframe the problem in human-centric ways, create numerous ideas in brainstorming sessions and adopt a hands-on approach to prototyping and testing. Learning about the five stages of design thinking will empower you and allow you to apply the methodology to your work and solve complex problems that occur in our companies, our countries, and across the world.
Design thinking is a non-linear, iterative process that can have anywhere from three to seven phases, depending on whom you talk to. We focus on the five-stage design thinking model proposed by the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford (the d.school) because they are world-renowned for the way they teach and apply design thinking.

What are the 5 Stages of the Design Thinking Process

The five stages of design thinking, according to the d.school, are:

Let's dive into each stage of the design thinking process.

Stage 1: Empathize-Research Your Users' Needs

Empathize: the first phase of design thinking, where you gain real insight into users and their needs.

The first stage of the design thinking process focuses on user-centric research. You want to gain an empathic understanding of the problem you are trying to solve. Consult experts to find out more about the area of concern and conduct observations to engage and empathize with your users. You may also want to immerse yourself in your users' physical environment to gain a deeper, personal understanding of the issues involved-as well as their experiences and motivations. Empathy is crucial to problem solving and a human-centered design process as it allows design thinkers to set aside their own assumptions about the world and gain real insight into users and their needs.

Depending on time constraints, you will gather a substantial amount of information to use during the next stage. The main aim of the Empathize stage is to develop the best possible understanding of your users, their needs and the problems that underlie the development of the product or service you want to create.

Stage 2: Define-State Your Users' Needs and Problems

Define: the second phase of design thinking, where you define the problem statement in a human-centered manner.

In the Define stage, you will organize the information you have gathered during the Empathize stage. You'll analyze your observations to define the core problems you and your team have identified up to this point. Defining the problem and problem statement must be done in a human-centered manner.

For example, you should not define the problem as your own wish or need of the company: "We need to increase our food-product market share among young teenage girls by 5%."

You should pitch the problem statement from your perception of the users' needs: "Teenage girls need to eat nutritious food in order to thrive, be healthy and grow."

The Define stage will help the design team collect great ideas to establish features, functions and other elements to solve the problem at hand-or, at the very least, allow real users to resolve issues themselves with minimal difficulty. In this stage, you will start to progress to the third stage, the ideation phase, where you ask questions to help you look for solutions: " How might we encourage teenage girls to perform an action that benefits them and also involves your company's food-related product or service?" for instance.

Stage 3: Ideate-Challenge Assumptions and Create Ideas

Ideate: the third phase of design thinking, where you identify innovative solutions to the problem statement you've created.

During the third stage of the design thinking process, designers are ready to generate ideas. You've grown to understand your users and their needs in the Empathize stage, and you've analyzed your observations in the Define stage to create a user centric problem statement. With this solid background, you and your team members can start to look at the problem from different perspectives and ideate innovative solutions to your problem statement.

There are hundreds of ideation techniques you can use-such as Brainstorm, Brainwrite, Worst Possible Idea and SCAMPER. Brainstorm and Worst Possible Idea techniques are typically used at the start of the ideation stage to stimulate free thinking and expand the problem space. This allows you to generate as many ideas as possible at the start of ideation. You should pick other ideation techniques towards the end of this stage to help you investigate and test your ideas, and choose the best ones to move forward with-either because they seem to solve the problem or provide the elements required to circumvent it.

Stage 4: Prototype-Start to Create Solutions

Prototype: the fourth phase of design thinking, where you identify the best possible solution.

The design team will now produce a number of inexpensive, scaled down versions of the product (or specific features found within the product) to investigate the key solutions generated in the ideation phase. These prototypes can be shared and tested within the team itself, in other departments or on a small group of people outside the design team.

This is an experimental phase, and the aim is to identify the best possible solution for each of the problems identified during the first three stages. The solutions are implemented within the prototypes and, one by one, they are investigated and then accepted, improved or rejected based on the users' experiences.

By the end of the Prototype stage, the design team will have a better idea of the product's limitations and the problems it faces. They'll also have a clearer view of how real users would behave, think and feel when they interact with the end product.

Stage 5: Test-Try Your Solutions Out

Test: the fifth and final phase of the design thinking process, where you test solutions to derive a deep understanding of the product and its users.

Designers or evaluators rigorously test the complete product using the best solutions identified in the Prototype stage. This is the final stage of the five-stage model; however, in an iterative process such as design thinking, the results generated are often used to redefine one or more further problems. This increased level of understanding may help you investigate the conditions of use and how people think, behave and feel towards the product, and even lead you to loop back to a previous stage in the design thinking process. You can then proceed with further iterations and make alterations and refinements to rule out alternative solutions. The ultimate goal is to get as deep an understanding of the product and its users as possible.

Did You Know Design Thinking is a Non-Linear Process?

We've outlined a direct and linear design thinking process here, in which one stage seemingly leads to the next with a logical conclusion at user testing. However, in practice, the process is carried out in a more flexible and non-linear fashion. For example, different groups within the design team may conduct more than one stage concurrently, or designers may collect information and prototype throughout each stage of the project to bring their ideas to life and visualize the problem solutions as they go. What's more, results from the Test stage may reveal new insights about users which lead to another brainstorming session (Ideate) or the development of new prototypes (Prototype).

It is important to note the five stages of design thinking are not always sequential. They do not have to follow a specific order, and they can often occur in parallel or be repeated iteratively. The stages should be understood as different modes which contribute to the entire design project, rather than sequential steps.

The design thinking process should not be seen as a concrete and inflexible approach to design; the component stages identified should serve as a guide to the activities you carry out. The stages might be switched, conducted concurrently or repeated several times to gain the most informative insights about your users, expand the solution space and hone in on innovative solutions.

This is one of the main benefits of the five-stage model. Knowledge acquired in the latter stages of the process can inform repeats of earlier stages. Information is continually used to inform the understanding of the problem and solution spaces, and to redefine the problem itself. This creates a perpetual loop, in which the designers continue to gain new insights, develop new ways to view the product (or service) and its possible uses and develop a far more profound understanding of their real users and the problems they face.

The Take Away

Design thinking is an iterative, non-linear process which focuses on a collaboration between designers and users. It brings innovative solutions to life based on how real users think, feel and behave.

This human-centered design process consists of five core stages Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test.

It's important to note that these stages are a guide. The iterative, non-linear nature of design thinking means you and your design team can carry these stages out simultaneously, repeat them and even circle back to previous stages at any point in the design thinking process.

References & Where to Learn More

Herbert Simon, The Sciences of the Artificial (3rd Edition), 1996.

d.school, An Introduction to Design Thinking PROCESS GUIDE, 2010.

Gerd Waloszek, Introduction to Design Thinking, 2012.

Images

Hero Image: © Daniel Skrok and the Interaction Design Foundation, CC BY-NC-SA 3.0.

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The 5 Stages in the Design Thinking Process

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The Design Thinking process is a human-centered, iterative methodology that designers use to solve problems. It has 5 steps-Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test.

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World of Better Learning | Cambridge University Press

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Following the publication of From Teacher to Trainer, Peter Lucantoni considers the roles of today's teacher trainers, and looks particularly at the role of mentor.

We often talk about teacher roles, and the fact that a teacher needs to feel confident doing many different things, both inside and outside the classroom. In a recent blog ( 7 roles of a teacher in the 21st century), the Eton Institute discusses a specific number of roles (seven): controller, prompter, resource, assessor, organiser, participant, and tutor. Many would argue that seven is an underestimation and that teachers wear considerably more hats. In From Teacher to Trainer, Matt Ellman and I point out that 'It's not uncommon for professionals in several fields to perform their roles in a variety of different contexts. For teachers this results in constantly having 'to make choices as part of their work' (ibid). Making these choices results in teachers frequently changing roles.

So as a teacher trainer, what do we do?

Probably most of us think of teacher trainers as the ones who deliver training sessions to teachers. To support them in their professional learning and development: 'a facilitator for teacher learning' (Waters, 2005, p. 212). Indeed, this is perhaps our most important trainer role: to input knowledge in an impactful way, and to help teachers to implement ideas so that the learners' classroom experience can be affected in a positive manner. However, as with teachers, teacher trainers have multiple roles beyond delivering training, and trainers require various skills to be effective. Trainers may be called upon to monitor a teacher's performance, observe classes, provide feedback and make assessments. However, a further role, and one which can be very broad and deep, is the mentor.

What's the meaning of mentor?

According to the Online Cambridge Dictionary, a mentor is 'a person who gives a younger or less experienced person help and advice over a period of time, especially at work or school.' Ideally a mentor will be a teacher or teacher trainer with plenty of varied teaching experience, working in the same environment as a less experienced or novice teacher or teachers, and supporting them in various ways. Institutional backing is imperative for any mentorship scheme to be successful because time will need to be allocated for a mentor to meet with their mentee or mentees, and any related costs have to be factored in. It is important for all stakeholders (i.e., administration, mentor, mentees) to understand the purpose of mentoring, the processes and activities involved and the expected outcomes.

What does a mentor do?

A mentor will not only help teachers to develop their teaching skills but will encourage them to reflect on their teaching practices and understand more about their own professional development. Additionally, an effective mentor will always be ready to listen to teachers, providing emotional support and encouragement as and when necessary. Furthermore, mentors may be called upon to evaluate teacher performance through classroom observation, with the purpose of providing developmental feedback. Therefore, mentors 'not only have a professional/development role, but an institutional role and an assessment function' (Randall with Thornton, 2001, p. 13).
If you would like to learn more about being a teacher trainer and a mentor and the various roles that they perform, check out From Teacher to Trainer. You can also read Matt Ellman's latest post on 3 signs you're teacher trainer material.
References

Randall, M., & Thornton, B. (2001). Advising and supporting teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Waters, A. (2005). Expertise in teacher education: Helping teachers to learn. In K. Johnson (Ed.), Expertise in second language learning and teaching (pp. 210-229). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

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We're Teacher Trainers, But What Do We Do? | Cambridge English

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Following the publication of From Teacher to Trainer, Peter Lucantoni considers the roles of today's teacher trainers, and looks particularly at the role of mentor. We often talk about teacher roles, and the fact that a teacher needs to feel confident doing many different things, both inside and outside the classroom.