Where to begin designing for students as designers?

“What do I want my students to be able to know and do as a result of this lesson?” 

“How can I design an activity in which students can search for the answers for themselves?”

 

Beth Pandolpho cites these two questions that she asks herself when beginning to design lessons in an article for Edutopia.

 

Pandolpho wants her students to have agency in their learning by creating lessons that afford them autonomy. Research is on Pandolpho’s side because it shows that when students have control over their learning, or design their own learning, they are more likely to experience “deep learning and mastery of both transdisciplinary and subject matter” along with acquisition of other 21st Century Skills (Levinsen and Sørensen). 

 

And thus we know that “students as designers” works, so the question becomes “How do teachers design lessons that give students the desire and tools to design their own learning?”

 

Levinsen and Sørensen suggest designing lessons that provide stages to scaffold how to do this and use a modified version of the Dale’s model of competence levels:

 

1.	Practice	teacher  student
2.	Organization and Planning	teacher  student
3.	Situated and practice based reflection	teacher  student
4.	Theory based reflection	teacher

 

Reflecting on Nussbaum’s concepts of five creative intelligence, let's explore how he might view a teacher’s role in creating lessons that enable students to design their own learning.

 

It seems to me the Project Based Learning (PBL) provides opportunities for students to design their own learning. How can I apply Nussbaum’s ideas of knowledge mining, framing,  playing, making, and pivoting into lessons for students?

 

Combining Nussbaum’s concept of knowledge mining with Levinsen and Sørensen idea that students will need to practice designing, I might begin by introducing students to exemplar PBL project products. Students could explore the rubric for each exemplar PBL and then reflect on a series of questions about the choices the PBL student designer made and if they were effective. Some of the questions that might help the students assess a project are:

 

• When you first viewed the project, did you recognize it’s meaning?
• What details were helpful in recognizing the meaning of the project?
• How did the project make you feel?
• Do you want to learn more about the meaning of the project?
• What might you have done differently?

 

I think these questions would help students make memorable connections to the project while they collect information and ideas about what details make an effective PBL product. I believe that immersing the students in the exemplar PBL is a bit of knowledge mining and that it also fits with the Levinsen and Sørensen recommendation that the first step in designing a lesson in which students become lesson designers is practice.

 

 

Levinsen, Karin Tweddell, and Birgitte Holm Sørensen. “Teachers’ Designs for Learning Practices When Designing for Students as Learning Designers.” Designs for Learning, vol. 11, no. 1, Jan. 2019, pp. 30–39. EBSCOhost, doi:10.16993/dfl.111.

 

Pandolpho, Beth. “Putting Students in Charge of Their Learning.” Edutopia, George Lucas Educational Foundation, 4 May 2018, www.edutopia.org/article/putting-students-charge-their-learning.

Harnessing Creativity: Project Based Learning?

In this continued discussion of Creative Intelligence: Harnessing the Power to Create, Connect, and Inspire, written by Bruce Nussbaum, the focus is on the main idea of the book: creativity can be learned and given direction. Nussbaum presents concepts and shares true stories as concrete examples to support his idea and convince readers that, indeed, creative intelligence can be learned by individuals who are willing to open their minds and engage in the possibility of a different story. The author’s first illustration of his point is an excerpt from the biographical prose of rock legend Keith Richards. Richards modestly concedes,

“What I found about the blues and music, tracing things back, was that nothing came from itself. As great as it is, this is not one stroke of genius. This cat was listening to somebody and it’s his variation on the theme. And so you suddenly realize that everybody’s connected here. This is not just that he’s fantastic and the rest are crap; they’re all interconnected” (p. 9). 

Nussbaum presents his ideas as five competencies: knowledge mining, framing, playing, making, and pivoting. This review focuses on the first two steps of Nussbaum’s concepts to cultivate creative intelligence: knowledge mining and framing. The later concepts of playing and making are now quite popular and easier to understand. The final concept, pivot, is also clear. Pivot means to find a way to take an idea from creativity to creation; a final step (which does not mean finished) in being able to use creative intelligence in a business sense. “...taking the intangibles that money can’t buy -  our dreams, our desire – and turning them into the things that it can” (p. 183).

Beginning, like Nussbaum, with knowledge mining, the author makes clear to the reader that a person does not need to be a native of a group to understand its culture enough to glean important and utilizable ideas from that culture or group. The act of being open and appreciative of a group or culture cannot make an outsider a member, however, what is learned from exposure is something that can be applied to other situations. Knowledge mining makes it possible to recognize similarities among different groups and enables a vision to apply new knowledge in unique ways. Exposure and acceptance of a group’s collective knowledge invites wisdom and understanding. Nussbaum uses the example of Steve Jobs interest in calligraphy leading to Macintosh computers having the first “beautiful” typography. Not wanting to be an expert in calligraphy, but simply appreciating and learning about calligraphy as a young man led to Jobs’ desire to create a product with something unique and “creative” (p. 43). Knowledge mining involves a person finding what is truly meaningful to themselves and combining it with experiences and their own aspirations (p. 33).

The next concept of creative intelligence relies on the ability to “frame” a situation. Nussbaum explains that framing comes in three variations: narrative, engagement, and what-if (p. 34).  A problem with no evident resolution can take on new meaning if set within a different narrative or story. How an individual interacts or engages can change the lens of a situation. And, when given a safe environment and time, the sky can be the limit with what-if thinking which dreams about what the future may hold.

A change in perspective, looking at the situation from a different angle, gives a person power and control over their situation.  “Knowing that you have the power to frame your interactions and your place in the world opens up opportunities to interact with people in new and creative ways and rethink the way you see everything” (p. 111).

It seems that setting a new narrative or story is an important concept that other authors have also pondered. In his book A Whole New Mind, Why Right-Brainers Will Rule The Future, Daniel H. Pink also discusses the importance of story as a concept by which design can take on meaning. According to Pink, the essence of the aptitude of story is context enriched by emotion (p. 101). Both Nussbaum and Pink believe that stories can stimulate emotional connections that create stronger links to understanding and that the story is important. Where Pink sees opportunities for stories to inform design, Nussbaum avers that the story is a stepping stone on a path that begins with knowledge mining and ends with pivoting creativity into a creation.

Within framing, Nussbaum’s idea of engagement is particularly relevant as a concept because the ways people engage is always evolving. Tom Standage points out that the telegraph brought with it, “...a technological subculture with its own customs and vocabulary...” in his book The Victorian Internet; and so has social media. Engagement through social media, according to Nussbaum, has now led to burnout and people seeking more authentic experiences and real engagements (p. 113). Like every culture or group, taking the time to foster engagement or communication in a way that makes sense and has value for your target audience is another way to frame a situation, get to the heart of it, and understand it.

Framing through story, engagement, and pivoting means “Changing the way we see the world, connect with people, and think about the future” (p. 110).

Playing is the fun iteration of ideas trying without the long-term consequence of failure. Playing requires trust. Playing encourages risk taking by letting people not have to worry about consequences that are real life.

Making was identified by Nussbaum as a movement. Individuals being able to step away from large scale manufacturing and instead being able to create or make and produce their own goods or services through more open markets and  more opportunity. Not necessarily inventing things that are new but reinventing things to have quality, value, and meaning.

Finally, pivoting is typically used to mean able to change quickly, however, according to Nussbaum pivoting is a means to go from creativity to creation. Often, pivoting takes the skills of someone outside of the circle of the creator. 

I find value in Nussbaum’s competencies for harvesting creative intelligence. I believe knowledge mining would be similar to scaffolding and that students learn best through narrative - or framing. I especially see options for project based learning (PBL) designs. It is possible that PBL will afford a better chance at successful online learning for students who have not ever considered online learning as an option and are hesitant to engage in it. I look forward to exploring more of Nussbaum’s ideas through a teaching lens in future blog posts.

Nussbaum, Bruce. Creative Intelligence: Harnessing the Power to Create, Connect, and Inspire. HarperBusiness, 2013.

Pink, Daniel H. A Whole New Mind: How to Thrive in the New Conceptual Age. Cyan, 2006.

Standage, Tom. The Victorian Internet: the Remarkable Story of the Telegraph and the Nineteenth Century's Online Pioneers. Phoenix, 1998.