2015

Design Thinking in Practice

Rebecca Wittebols
MTH 323 at Grand Valley State University
1/1/2015

An Overview of the Design Thinking Process

Source: http://rawagency.se/design-thinking-as-a-strategy-for-innovation/

Pre-Assessment
Project
I worked closely with a team of my MTH 323 peers
to develop a pre-assessment aligned to the
Common Core 6.SP standards for Becky Steeles
6th grade class at Bursley Elementary in Jenison.

Empathize Entry: Pre-Assessment Project

Composite Character

White-Team Walter

Lacks confidence in Math

ability

Bad prior experience in

math

Empathize Entry: Pre-Assessment Project

Questionnaire

Empathize Entry: Pre-Assessment Project

Questionnaire Results

Empathize Entry Artist Statement:

Where does it fit in the process?
Before I could begin designing a pre-assessment for the students, I had to first empathize with the students to
try to understand how they learn, what their physical and emotional needs are, how they think about math
and the world around them, and to discover what is most meaningful to them.

Who did I collaborate with?

To create the character composite, I collaborated with Mrs. Steele by reflecting on her description of her
white team students. Then, I collaborated with a team of five of my MTH 323 peers to develop a
questionnaire to get to know the students, and also a separate questionnaire to get to know Mrs. Steele and
her teaching style.

How did I do the work?

Once both questionnaires were complete, we gave them to Mrs. Steele to disperse to her students for them to
complete. Then, Mrs. Steele created a graphic for the responses to the multiple choice questions and then
created a separate chart for the written responses, which she e-mailed to us to look over.

What did I learn?

From the students responses to the questionnaire, I gained some data to use for questions on the preassessment and the lesson. I also learned that most of Beckys students learn best by doing a physical
activity or watching a demonstration, and they favor playing math games and having discussions with their
peers.

Define Entry: Pre-Assessment Project

Help Wanted Advertisement

HELP WANTED
Supportive Pre- Assessment/Probe
Eager pre-service teacher seeks supportive preassessment that is willing to work for 30
minutes on a weekday. Must work well with
struggling students. Patience, flexibility, and a
positive attitude are a MUST!
Assessments with vague, open-ended
questions need not apply.

Define Entry Artist Statement:

Where does it fit in the process?
For this part of the design-thinking process, I was challenged to define what I wanted in a pre-assessment,
based on what I learned about the students needs from the empathize portion.

Who did I collaborate with?

I collaborated with my content partner, Sabrina.

How did I do the work?

Sabrina and I both discussed what we wanted in a pre-assessment for Mrs. Steeles students. We discussed
length of the pre-assessment (how long it should take for students to complete), what types of questions the
pre-assessment should have, and which of Mrs. Students we should design the pre-assessment for (White
team and Green team together, or separately).

What did I learn?

From our discussion, I learned that we wanted to design a relatively short pre-assessment for that wouldnt
take time away from instruction. We also wanted to design separate pre-assessments for the green team and
the white team, but we wanted to focus more on the white team. Finally, we decided that our pre-assessment
should not have questions that were vague or too open-ended, as those types of questions are too challenging
for white team students.

Ideate Entry: Pre-Assessment Project

Brainstorm- What Qualities do we want in a Pre-Assessment

Ideate Entry Artist Statement:

Where does it fit in the process?
This step in the design-thinking process was the most creative and imaginative step of the process, where I
brainstormed to come up with as many creative ideas for my design as I could.

Who did I collaborate with?

I collaborated with my teacher group (3 of my MTH 323 peers and myself).

How did I do the work?

We took five minutes to brainstorm ideas for types of questions or activities we could have for the preassessment. Then, we worked for about 10 minutes refining our favorite ideas and giving more thought as to
what they would look like for the pre-assessment.

What did I learn?

From this brainstorming activity, I learned that when you are coming up with ideas, anything is plausible
because the goal of the activity is to come up with ideas to later build on and improve. I also learned that it is
easier to come up with more ideas as a group, because you are not limited to only the ideas your own mind
can come up with. Also, some of the ideas my peers came up with are ideas that I would have never came up
with on my own.

Prototype Entry: Pre-Assessment Project

Developing Prototypes

Prototype Entry Artist Statement:

Where does it fit in the process?
In the prototype stage, I spent minimal time drafting a first prototype, which I later kept revising and rewriting into a better prototype.

Who did I collaborate with?

I collaborated with my content partner, Sabrina.

How did I do the work?

Sabrina and I selected 3 ideas from the brainstorming activity and spent 5 minutes on each item drafting
quick prototypes of what those ideas would look like in practice. We shared our prototypes with each other
and selected the prototype that we liked best. Then, we shared each of our prototypes in class, and I gave my
classmates feedback on each of their prototypes. In our small teacher groups, we discussed what we liked
about the prototypes and came up with a list of things we wanted our ideal pre-assessment to have. I used
these ideas to come up with a finalized prototype to share with Becky. After sharing our ideas with the class
and getting feedback from our classmates, Sabrina and I each went home and typed up another prototype
using that idea in our lesson, and brought that in to share with each other.

What did I learn?

From the prototyping process, I learned the value of feedback. Getting feedback from my classmates and
from Becky is what ultimately helped me create a better pre-assessment for the white team students.

Test Entry: Pre-Assessment Project

Developed Pre-Assessment

Test Entry Artist Statement:

Where does it fit in the process?
This is the final step before the design-thinking cycle repeats. For this step, my pre-assessment was reviewed
by other math experts and was then put to-the-test in the classroom.

Who did I collaborate with?

I collaborated with four of my MTH 323 peers to design the pre-assessment, and also with Mrs. Steele who
gave us feedback and advice to improve our pre-assessment and later administered the pre-assessment.

How did I do the work?

Each person in our group was an expert on a certain content standard of 6.SP. We all worked together, each
serving as a consultant for her given standard, to develop questions for our pre-assessment we designed for
the white team. We then consulted with Mrs. Steele who offered us advice on how to improve our preassessment that we designed for her white team students. After further revision, we handed our preassessment over to Mrs. Steele, who later administered the pre-assessment in her classroom.

What did I learn?

From this pre-assessment project, I learned that when you are designing a pre-assessment for students, you
must keep in mind that each student has different abilities. Some students may only be able to master content
from previous grades, while others may have a good understanding of the material that you will soon
introduce. It is also a good idea to ask for student feedback after each question, so you can gauge how
confident students are in the material.

Lesson Project
After reflecting on results from the pre-assessment, I
worked closely with a team of my MTH 323 peers to
develop a lesson aligned to the Common Core
standard 6.SP. A2, focusing on the concepts of
median and range, for Becky Steeles 6th grade class.

Empathize Entry: Lesson Project

Reflecting on Pre-Assessment Results

Empathize Entry Artist Statement:

Who did I collaborate with?
I did not collaborate with anyone else as I
empathized, but I did reflect on the questionnaire
that I developed with my peers.

What did I learn?

I learned that a lesson that incorporates direct
instruction, encourages students to share their ideas
with each other, and engages students through fun
activities would both engage students and help
them learn the material.

Define Entry: Lesson Project

Define Statement and Process

DEFINE:
We are looking for an engaging, integrated lesson for someone else to teach
that introduces the concepts of 6.SP and is designed to meet the needs of
both struggling students and students who need more of a challenge.

Define Entry Artist Statement:

Who did I collaborate with?
I collaborated with all of my classmates and together we came up with an idea of what we wanted our
unit lesson project to look like as a whole.
How did I do the work?
We held a class-wide discussion of (1) what we wanted to accomplish with our unit, (2) what we wanted
to introduce in our lessons, (3) who would teach each of the lessons, (4) when each lesson would be
taught and in what order, (4) which of Beckys groups we were going to design each lesson for, and (5)
how we would integrate each of the standards in 6.SP in our week-long unit.
What did I learn?
I learned that as a teacher, I really see the value in designing a lesson that integrates many concepts
instead of just focusing on one concept at a time. It takes more time to figure out in what order to
teach each of the concepts and how to integrate them together, but in the long run I think student will
really benefit from an integrated lesson that helps them understand how each of the concepts are
related to one another.

Ideate Entry: Lesson Project

Brainstorming Ideas

Ideate Entry Artist Statement:

Who did I collaborate with?
I collaborated with my teacher group (3 of my
MTH 323 peers and myself).

What did I learn?

From this brainstorming activity, I learned that
when you are coming up with ideas, anything
is plausible because the goal of the activity is
to come up with ideas to later build on and
improve. I also learned that it is easier to come
up with more ideas as a group, because you
are not limited to only the ideas your own
mind can come up with. Also, some of the
ideas my peers came up with are ideas that I
would have never came up with on my own.

Prototype Entry: Lesson Project

Range & Median Lesson Prototype

Prototype Entry Artist Statement:

Who did I collaborate with?
I collaborated with my content partner, Sabrina.

What did I learn?

From the prototyping process, I learned that your ideas can evolve. What may seem like a very simple idea
at first can stretch and grow and metamorphose into a grander, more complex and interesting idea after
repeated feedback and revision.

Test Entry: Lesson Project

Developed Lesson

Test Entry Artist Statement:

Who did I collaborate with?
I collaborated with my content partner Sabrina and also with Mrs. Steele who gave us feedback and advice to improve our
lesson. I also collaborated with one of our MTH 323 peers Cassey, who later taught our lesson to Mrs. Steeles students.

What did I learn?

From this lesson project, I learned that to create the best possible lesson for your students, you must constantly revise and
refine your ideas--often on-the-spot. The best teachers are those who can think and act on-the-fly and are constantly adjusting
their instruction to meet their students needs. Sometimes what you spend so much time on planning might have to change, and
thats okay. That is what teaching is all about.