Teaching as Inquiry through a Design Thinking Lens

This week I was lucky enough to be invited to be a Learning2 Leader at Learning2 Asia - a fabulous practitioner led conference that was developed by an innovative group of educators frustrated by the conferences they had available to them. Learning2 is now spreading across the globe with upcoming meet ups in Johannesburg, Milan and Ecuador. For my extended sessions I looked at  how Teaching as Inquiry can be used a mechanism for leading change. As a result of attending the NoTosh edition of Google Teacher Academy last year in Sydney, I decided to combine what I knew worked about Teaching as Inquiry with what I picked up at GTA last year, resulting in what I think makes perfect sense - Teaching as inquiry through a Design Thinking lens.

Below is an outline of my workshop activities. Much thanks to Ewan, Tom and Hamish (NoTosh) for their generosity in sharing many of these ideas and resources.

Intro and PPT Presentation 

Link to slides

• Introduction to Teaching as Inquiry and Design Thinking
• Why we need to evolve our practice?
• How we can you use Teaching as Inquiry to become “adaptive experts”?

Professional Reading: Spiral of Inquiry

Phase One: Focusing Inquiry (Immersion) 

Key questions
What do we know about each student's:

• prior learning
• ethnicity/culture (Who are you? Where are you from?)?
• linguistic background/languages spoken?
• interests/hobbies/community involvement?
• aspirations/goals (both student and family/community)?
• skills, knowledge (including prior cultural knowledge) and understandings?
• expected levels of progress in your learning area/class?

Activity - Drawing the issue

Select one group of students you teach (may be a class or a group within a class)
Using the data and the questions above create a visual map of what you know about your learners and their needs - feel free to use any combination of words and images.
Identify an issue that is important and therefore worth spending time on.

Activity - Think, pair, share brainstorm

Think about your issue, get together with a partner and discuss and brainstorm all of the possible aspects of the issue. Try to challenge one another

Activity - Hexagonal Thinking

NoTosh website - Hexagonal Thinking

Phase Two: Focusing Inquiry (Synthesis)

Activity - How Might We questions

NoTosh Website - Explanation of template

Phase Three: Teaching Inquiry (Ideation & Prototype) 

Key Questions
Knowing what I do about my students:

• what themes/contexts/texts will connect with their lives, experiences and prior knowledge, including their prior cultural knowledge?
• what learning outcomes are important and relevant for them?
• what period of time will they need to meet these outcomes?

Knowing what I know about 21C skills:

• what skills are important?

Activity - 100 ideas in 10 minutes

NoTosh Website - Come up with great ideas
Sinner Man by Nina Simone (10 min song)

Activity - Prototyping

Select one idea, prototype and present

Activity - Idea Gallery and Rose, Bud, Thorn (if time)

Putting up your How Might We question on your screen and write out and place your prototype (the teaching strategy or intervention you are going to trial) on your keyboard. Move around the room, reading ideas and giving Rose, Bud, Thorn feedback.

Two PD Video - Rose, Bud, Thorn

Phase Four: Teaching and Learning (Testing)

This is the phase where you would trial the strategies with your class.

Phase Five: Learning Inquiry (Reflection)

Activity - Discussing ways you could collect post inquiry data (quantitative AND quanlitative)

Padlet - Workshop (feel free to check out the ideas shared at the workshop)

Reflection Activity - World Cafe

Activity - World Cafe

What will you take away from today's learning?
How do you see teaching as inquiry being used to lead change? Potential challenges/opportunities?

World Cafe Website

Resources & Links

Teaching as Inquiry NZC Website
NoTosh Website (Design Thinking Resources)
Using Teaching as Inquiry to guide an elearning action plan (video)
Teaching as Inquiry at Epsom Girls Grammar School (video)
Teaching as Inquiry: A mechanism for leading meaningful and manageable pedagogical change

Planning Templates

E-learning Action plan 2011
E-learning Action Plan 2012
Blank Teaching as Inquiry Planner

Extension activity: Thinking about the “why”

Collaborative Activity - Online Jigsaw Reading Activity Looking at the Research about

Teaching as Inquiry (feel free to use this with your colleagues).

In this activity you will be reading and attempting to summarise some key pieces of research about Teaching as Inquiry. Each group will be given a piece of research to focus on. You may like to divide the reading up between you, or choose to all read then discuss.

When you are ready to write up your key points or summary notes, use the Google Form link below for your piece of research.

When writing your notes, consider the following the questions:

• What are the key messages in this reading?
• What are the opportunities or pros of Teaching as Inquiry?
• What are the challenges related to using Teaching as Inquiry?
• What can schools/teachers do to make Teaching as Inquiry more effective?

Research Papers/Reports
ERO Report - Directions for Learning: The NZC, Principles and Teaching as Inquiry May 2011
ERO Report - Teaching as Inquiry: Responding to Learners July 2012
Learning Media Report - Coherence and Inquiry as Key Dimensions for Sustainability of Professional Learning
Teacher Professional Learning and Development BES Summary by Helen Timperley
Teaching as Inquiry: Understandings and Challenges Towards a Professional Being By Justine Driver
Lit Review 15-38
Learning from the QTR&D Programme by Lorna M. Earle Chapter 6 Collaborative Inquiry in QTR&D 44-62


Google Doc for Jigsaw Activity - feel free to make a copy and share!

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#GTASyd14 - It's Google Teacher Academy, but NoTosh you know it

Google Teacher Academy, Sydney 2014

Last week I was lucky enough to attend the Google Teacher Academy in Sydney, completing two days of workshops run by the NoTosh team and a group of fabulous GTA mentors. It was a jammed packed two days where delegates were taken through the design thinking process so as to realise our 'Moonshot Thinking' and make a plan for changing up education and us all to take our aspirations for education and multiply them by 10.

My Moonshot

So what did we do?

The first day was mainly about taking us through the design thinking (see NoTosh explanation of design thinking here) phases of immersion and synthesis, so as to explore and define our 'Moonshot thinking' - this was basically an issue or opportunity we saw for implementing change in education. We used strategies such as hexagonal thinking to connect/arrange our thinking about our issues and ideas before we then tried to capture our moonshot plan within a writing frame. We then adjoined to lunch in one of the many Google staff lunchrooms - a spectacular canteen, located in the 'penthouse' location atop the habour side building. After lunch we got to hear from a range of GTA mentors about how they used a range of Google tools and apps in and beyond their classroom, loosely connecting these to the design thinking process by linking them to the concepts of creativity and curiosity. The day then was rounded out with an inspirational talk from muru-D co-founder Annie Parker who shared her insights into the awesomeness that is the world of start-up incubators and accelerators.

Hexagonal thinking

On the second day we continued to explore the design thinking process to develop our moonshot plan, moving through ideation, prototyping and feedback. To encourage ideation we partook in the 100 ideas challenge where we tried to come up 100 ideas to help realise our plan in 10 minutes. We then selected three ideas - one we considered a safe bet, one we considered our darling or favourite and one that epitomised moonshot thinking. This was followed by a silent gallery where we could survey and feedback on the others' thinking. Then it was time to hear from Google Educational Evangelist Suan Yeo and a Google Programmer whose name escapes me. This was followed by a decent chunk of time to work independently in hope of entering the implementation phase, where we could start putting our plan into action, with celebratory party poppers being let off to highlight any GTA peeps that reached the display phase and put their moonshoot thinking into some kind of action. We ended the two days with a mentor group award ceremony to celebrate our new Google Certified Teacher status.

Officially certified

So what were the highlights?

NoTosh taking over the reigns was definitely a highlight for me. Tom Barrett and Hamish Curry leading us through the design thinking process was fabulous, their tools and strategies supporting each phase, encouraging both depth and rigour. The location and 'being at Google' was awesome as well, and whilst there was no slide (disappointing), there was a spectacular jungle relaxation room and monorail carriage serving as an office within an office to be experienced. In terms of presentations Annie Parker was a stand out - I loved her passion and also love the whole incubator concept and culture (in fact it is something we need to do more of in senior secondary school - I would love to explore the idea of making the whole final year of formal schooling an incubator model for students). The main highlight as always was the people - it was awesome to meet Tom and Hamish in person and lovely to spend a little more time with Google's Suan Yeo and Adam Naor as well. Then of course there was also our team - Team < x >. This was the team I worked with in the lead up to GTA and will continue to work with over the coming months as we develop our moonshot plans. I loved the conversations we had and look forward to ongoing discussions with them - Chris Harte is proving a great mentor, getting the balance of warmth, humour and challenge just right.

Team < x >- photo by Tom Barrett

And what were the challenges?

This was the first outing of the NoTosh led Google Teacher Academy and whilst it was (based on what I have about past Google slam type GTAs) definitely a big step in the right pedagogical direction it was not without it's challenges. I felt like we could have had the whole vision for the new NoTosh GTA articulated a little more clearly up front - I got the sense that some delegates were disappointed at the lack of Googliness - maybe someone like Suan explaining the reframing up front might have helped?? Timing was also a challenge - attempting to immerse in short bursts was challenging at best and bloody frustrating at worst. Whilst we did have immersion activities provided in the weeks leading up to the GTA it was hard to engage when still immersed in other things like teaching. This did improve on the second day, which meant we did get a little more time to dive deep...ish. The mashing up of NoTosh and Google was a little like oil being blended with water at first, with the workshops going from design thinking to Google slam sessions and back to design thinking again. Whilst we did use google apps throughout I did wonder if the NoTosh resources could have highlighted how and which Google tools might best support each phase of the design thinking process? I also wished we could have tried on some Google glasses and heard from Adam Naor about chromebook developments - surely this is what 'being at Google' is all about? 

Still, when all is said and done it was an awesome experience. It was a treat to be immersed in the NoTosh Google Teacher Academy prototype and I have no doubt that with a little feedback, ideation and further prototyping the implementation of NoTosh Google Teacher Academy London and Amsterdam will be all kinds of awesome. 

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Google Teacher Academy, moonshot thinking...and assessment

Tuesday morning this week I am lucky enough to be flying away to Sydney to join 49 other educators at the Google Teacher Academy. Below is the video I submitted as part of my application to be considered as one of the GTA Ambassadors for Change.

So why did I apply for the academy?

Whilst I am actually an advocate for educators to be as device and brand agnostic as possible, I have to admit, I do really like Google Apps for Educators. The reason GAFE appeals is simple. GAFE is a suite of tools that supports the pedagogical approach I value - co-constructed, sharing, transparent and supports student agency.

The other reason I applied was the company who was taking over the GTA. This GTA is the first academy to be run by NoTosh an international education consultancy "which challenges the status quo in schools, public services and creative companies. We work together with clients to improve the way people learn, the results of the organisation and the spaces in which people work, learn and play. Everything we do has learning at its heart." The fact that they were taking the academy marked an important change (at least it did to me), signaling a shift of focus from 'tools in education' to 'change in education'. This very much aligns with my values. Over the last 5 years as I have built up my profile as an e-learning/ICT in ed type leader-y person in NZ I have actually become less interested in e-learning and ICT in and of itself. Instead I am finding myself increasingly interested in leading change in education, albeit change at least partly facilitated by technology.

This is where the concept of moonshot thinking comes in as well. As Astro Teller in the Wired article  Google X Head on Moonshots: 10X Is Easier Than 10 Percent states "...when you’re working to make things 10 percent better, you inevitably focus on the existing tools and assumptions, and on building on top of an existing solution that many people have already spent a lot of time thinking about. Such incremental progress is driven by extra effort, extra money, and extra resources. It’s tempting to feel improving things this way means we’re being good soldiers, with the grit and perseverance to continue where others may have failed — but most of the time we find ourselves stuck in the same old slog.

But when you aim for a 10x gain, you lean instead on bravery and creativity — the kind that, literally and metaphorically, can put a man on the moon."

Put this in to an educational context and you have an interesting concept. What if we thought less about how to improve education through small a series of small incremental changes and thought more about how we might re-vision education from the ground up. This is moonshot thinking - terrifying, liberating, paralysing and awesome all at the same time.

Source

However, I am not just a dreamer or part-time visionary, I am a pragmatist. Whilst I believe we do need to re-vision and think big and blue-sky, we also need to consider how we might achieve change in the interim. This is where assessment comes in. Aside from being a foundation Deputy Principal at Hobsonville Point Secondary School, I am also involved in several national groups that are exploring how we might lead future-focused change across NZ. In the 21st Century Education Reference Group put together by Associate Education Minister Nikki Kaye we have made a number of recommendations in the Future-Focused Learning in Connected Communities report. I stand by each of the recommendations, all necessary and if we are honest, should have been implemented yesterday! Another group I work with is the NZQA Future State reference group put together by Steve Bargh. It is this group that is making me think more seriously about how national assessment change might actually be the way for leading pedagogical change - particularly as it is the mighty tail that wags the curriculum design dog...even if we don't like to admit it.

So I suspect my moonshot(ish) thinking may head in this direction - how would national assessment need to change, to change education...in the way we think it needs to change?

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