Introducing a Shift in School Culture with a Focus on Design Thinking
A Memo to the Faculty and Staff of Saint James Academy
July 5, 2016
Dear Saint James Academy Faculty & Staff,
I want to thank you for another wonderful school year. I am continuously impressed with the amount of time, dedication and passion that each of you puts into your teaching each year. I feel lucky to work with a group of teachers and leaders who constantly seek to improve their teaching practice in order to better meet the needs of their students. With this growth mindset in mind, I would like to introduce to you a new concept that we will begin to adopt at Saint James Academy this next school year.
Currently, SJA is doing a phenomenal job at preparing our students for high school. The entrance exam scores and acceptance rates are off the charts. Our alumni continue on to excellent universities and beyond. You should all be very proud for playing a part in that. The ability to prepare our students for their next stage in education has always been a part of our reputation at SJA. Now, I would like to challenge you all to take it a step further.
It is clear that our students embody the study skills to achieve a good GPA and do well on examinations… but we must now ask ourselves the urgent question: are we preparing our students for life after school? Are we providing them with the skills that they need to be successful adults in our increasingly competitive job market? Educational leader, Tony Wagner, outlines Seven Survival Skills as defined by business leaders to prepare our students for 21st century careers and citizenship. Among them are the skills outlined in the P21 Framework for 21st century learning. We will become very familiar with these two resources as we adopt a new culture of learning for the 2016-2017 school year.
You may be wondering why I feel that making this change in the way we educate our students is so important. Why fix what’s not broken, right? It is important for us to understand the generation of students coming into our school system. We are educating a generation of learners who will work in jobs that do not even exist yet. Research by educational technology experts and authors, Lynne Schrum & Barbara Levin, tells us “We know life will be very different for our students in the next ten, twenty, and thirty years, given the pace of change in a technologically driven world. However, we fear that our current educational system is not adequately preparing all students for the kinds of jobs we cannot yet imagine and the situations or environments they are likely to encounter in their lifetime.” (Schrum & Levin, 2015 p.12) It is our job as educators to adapt to this new and changing world of education to prepare our students for the future. They need to learn the skills that will make them successful in their careers and as citizens of society. These skills include (but are not limited to): critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity. Tony Wagner explains that we need to graduate all students “innovation ready” to participate in our innovation economy. In the article How to Get a Job at Google, Senior Vice President, Lazlo Block, explains that GPA and test scores are not what a hiring team is looking at when hiring potential employees. Among the qualities that they are looking for are: learning ability, leadership, humility, and ownership. They want to hire team members that have the ability to fail, to relearn, to relinquish power and work well with others. Expertise in a specific area, is not high on their list. (Friedman, 2014) Coincidently enough, that is exactly how Monument Mountain Regional High School counselor, Mike Powell, describes young minds. “Young minds are resilient, creative and fearless... They’ll try anything!” Which is exactly why their innovative self directed learning program works. (Tsai, 2013) This is the reason why we need to take a good look at how we are delivering instruction at our school site. We need to tap into this creativity,fearlessness and resilience. We need to alter the way that content and skills are being delivered and learned.
Connecting to this idea, educators need to understand that the way that our students learn has changed drastically. Learning does not end when students leave school, because they are constantly plugged in. They are continually in communication with one another and regularly accessing information. Many of our students are already practicing these important skills outside of school when they engage with one another through their various technological outlets, platforms and devices. (Schrum & Levin, 2015) Because they are so technologically connected, this generation has different expectations for how they receive information. According the Schrum & Levin, these “Generation Zers” are bored when they come to school and have to sit down and listen all day. They don’t want to read outdated textbooks; instead, they want to read articles online; they want to access various sources of information. They are wired for fast delivery of content and are driven by graphics. “Gen Zs are constant multi-taskers. They like to have random access to information, love to explore using their own routes, need graphics, want it fun, and want instant feedback. Their digital world can be customized. They want their education customized, too.” (Schrum & Levin, 2015 p.40)
In order to meet the needs of our students, engage them in their learning and make their education personal and meaningful to them, we must shift our approach in how we teach them. Fortunately, the way to meeting these goals go together quite nicely. Preparing our students with the skills they need to be successful adults and empowering them through their learning can be achieved through teaching with a “design thinking” approach. This is the initiative that I hope you all will be on board with adopting next year.
Design Thinking is a process used for solving problems and developing meaningful solutions. The process requires the participants to go through a series of phases before developing a final solution. The process is designed to promote questioning, open mindedness, empathy, and divergent thinking. It requires the participants to employ communication, collaboration, creativity and critical thinking skills on a deep level. Often times, design thinking projects are centered around real world/community problems. Many schools have already experienced success with implementing a design thinking program into their curriculum. Emily Pilloton, a design thinking educator and leader, describes in her TedTalk Teaching Design for Change, how she and her partner transformed a shop class in a poor, small town school in Bertie County, North Carolina, into a design class that developed projects that made a positive impact on their community. Through the process the students were required to conduct interviews, work with a budget, create prototypes, make revisions and put their design into action. This was such an empowering experience for their students to utilize the 4Cs in solving a real world problem and making an impact on their community. (Pilloton, 2010) Other schools are having similar success stories. At Monument Mountain Regional High School, design thinking has been adopted through a self directed learning approach. Students participate in semester long projects that they have chosen and feel passionately about. They spend countless hours both in and outside of school implementing the 4Cs and design thinking into their learning. School principal Marianne Young explains the rationale behind the initiative by saying: “We have to stop trying to move every human through the same gate….I think the more options that we have in our schools, the more students we will help develop into the types of citizens that we need… And that it’s okay for students to need a little bit of a different approach.”(Tsai, 2013) Tony Wagner highlights the incredible design thinking work being done at a local school, High Tech High, in San Diego. I was so happy and impressed to know that a local San Diego school was doing something so innovative. It would be worthwhile for our staff to attend their exhibition next year! The learning going on at schools such as these is invaluable. I know that with our incredible staff and the abundant resources and parent support that we have at SJA, we could have a great deal of success with this initiative.
At our school site, I see this being a program that gives students both choice and a voice in their learning. Our School Wide Learning Expectations as highlighted in our mission statement, are to develop students that are: lifelong learners, effective communicators, globally aware citizens, responsibly individuals and faithful Catholics. (Parent/Student Handbook, 2015) By going through the steps of the design thinking process, the students will be required to meet all of these expectations in addition to the pillars of the P21 framework and Seven Survival Skills. While at the same time, students will have the opportunity to take charge of their own learning. It is my hope that the students will engage in learning that they are passionate about, and that connects to what they’re learning in school in addition to the outside world around them.
I understand that with any new program initiative, change can be difficult. I want you to know that although this is going to be a big shift in our school culture, I feel very passionately about it and I will be learning and growing right alongside you. “...leading in a culture of change means creating a culture (not just a structure) of change. It does not mean adopting innovations, one after another; it does mean producing capacity to seek, critically assess, and selectively incorporate new ideas and practices --- all the time, inside the organization as well as outside it.” (Schrum & Levin, 2015 p.6) In order to have success with this new program, as a staff, we must have a shared vision and clear and constant communication. “For starters, leading 21st century schools requires that planned change be driven by a shared vision and specified goals that everyone knows.” (Schrum & Levin, 2015 p.8) We will take time to study the design thinking process and begin to plan our implementation together. Professional development will be a huge priority. It will not be a one time occasion, but will be embedded into the culture of our school. Research shows that PD is more effective when it is made meaningful and accessible to teachers on an individual basis, so that it can best meet the needs of each of you. (Schrum & Levin, 2015) That is exactly what I plan to do. We will start slow, and we’ll work together.
I could not be more proud to be a part of this staff and a part of this beautiful community. I hope that each of you will be willing to open up your hearts and minds to a new and exciting way of educating our youth. I hope that you embrace this initiative with the same passion and enthusiasm as you share with your students every single day. I hope that you see the value and importance in this shift in learning and teaching. I have no doubts that bringing a design thinking approach to Saint James Academy is the right move for our school and that you all will do a beautiful job of implementing it.
I look forward to discussing this further with each of you as we get ready to start school again in the fall. Until then, have a wonderful summer full of rest and relaxation with your loved ones.
Sincerely,
Lexie Nielsen
I’m including a few resources in case you are curious and would like to read further about the design thinking approach.
Additional Resources
http://www.p21.org/our-work/p21-framework
Seven Survival Skills - Tony Wagner
Teaching Design for Change Video
Reinventing Education for the 21st Century - Tony Wagner
References
Brown, T. (2008, November 10). Tim Brown: Tales of creativity and play. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/RjwUn-aA0VY
Framework for 21st Century Learning - P21. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.p21.org/our-work/p21-framework
Friedman, T. L. (2014, February 22). How to Get a Job at Google. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/23/opinion/sunday/friedman-how-to-get-a-job-at-google.html
Parent/Student Handbook. (2015). Solana Beach, CA: Saint James Academy.
Pilloton, E. (2010, November 10). Emily Pilloton: Teaching design for change. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/aiIxdFBA0Sw
Schrum, L., & Levin, B. B. (2015). Leading 21st-century schools: Harnessing technology for engagement and achievement. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
Tsai, C. (2013, February 13). If students designed their own schools... Retrieved from https://youtu.be/RElUmGI5gLc
Wagner, T. (2008, October). Rigor Redefined. Retrieved from http://www.tonywagner.com/244
Wagner, T. (2014, January 17). Reinventing Education for the 21st Century : Tony Wagner at (co)lab summit 2013. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/54gzmxlPbsA
A Memo to the Faculty and Staff of Saint James Academy
July 5, 2016
Dear Saint James Academy Faculty & Staff,
I want to thank you for another wonderful school year. I am continuously impressed with the amount of time, dedication and passion that each of you puts into your teaching each year. I feel lucky to work with a group of teachers and leaders who constantly seek to improve their teaching practice in order to better meet the needs of their students. With this growth mindset in mind, I would like to introduce to you a new concept that we will begin to adopt at Saint James Academy this next school year.
Currently, SJA is doing a phenomenal job at preparing our students for high school. The entrance exam scores and acceptance rates are off the charts. Our alumni continue on to excellent universities and beyond. You should all be very proud for playing a part in that. The ability to prepare our students for their next stage in education has always been a part of our reputation at SJA. Now, I would like to challenge you all to take it a step further.
It is clear that our students embody the study skills to achieve a good GPA and do well on examinations… but we must now ask ourselves the urgent question: are we preparing our students for life after school? Are we providing them with the skills that they need to be successful adults in our increasingly competitive job market? Educational leader, Tony Wagner, outlines Seven Survival Skills as defined by business leaders to prepare our students for 21st century careers and citizenship. Among them are the skills outlined in the P21 Framework for 21st century learning. We will become very familiar with these two resources as we adopt a new culture of learning for the 2016-2017 school year.
You may be wondering why I feel that making this change in the way we educate our students is so important. Why fix what’s not broken, right? It is important for us to understand the generation of students coming into our school system. We are educating a generation of learners who will work in jobs that do not even exist yet. Research by educational technology experts and authors, Lynne Schrum & Barbara Levin, tells us “We know life will be very different for our students in the next ten, twenty, and thirty years, given the pace of change in a technologically driven world. However, we fear that our current educational system is not adequately preparing all students for the kinds of jobs we cannot yet imagine and the situations or environments they are likely to encounter in their lifetime.” (Schrum & Levin, 2015 p.12) It is our job as educators to adapt to this new and changing world of education to prepare our students for the future. They need to learn the skills that will make them successful in their careers and as citizens of society. These skills include (but are not limited to): critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity. Tony Wagner explains that we need to graduate all students “innovation ready” to participate in our innovation economy. In the article How to Get a Job at Google, Senior Vice President, Lazlo Block, explains that GPA and test scores are not what a hiring team is looking at when hiring potential employees. Among the qualities that they are looking for are: learning ability, leadership, humility, and ownership. They want to hire team members that have the ability to fail, to relearn, to relinquish power and work well with others. Expertise in a specific area, is not high on their list. (Friedman, 2014) Coincidently enough, that is exactly how Monument Mountain Regional High School counselor, Mike Powell, describes young minds. “Young minds are resilient, creative and fearless... They’ll try anything!” Which is exactly why their innovative self directed learning program works. (Tsai, 2013) This is the reason why we need to take a good look at how we are delivering instruction at our school site. We need to tap into this creativity,fearlessness and resilience. We need to alter the way that content and skills are being delivered and learned.
Connecting to this idea, educators need to understand that the way that our students learn has changed drastically. Learning does not end when students leave school, because they are constantly plugged in. They are continually in communication with one another and regularly accessing information. Many of our students are already practicing these important skills outside of school when they engage with one another through their various technological outlets, platforms and devices. (Schrum & Levin, 2015) Because they are so technologically connected, this generation has different expectations for how they receive information. According the Schrum & Levin, these “Generation Zers” are bored when they come to school and have to sit down and listen all day. They don’t want to read outdated textbooks; instead, they want to read articles online; they want to access various sources of information. They are wired for fast delivery of content and are driven by graphics. “Gen Zs are constant multi-taskers. They like to have random access to information, love to explore using their own routes, need graphics, want it fun, and want instant feedback. Their digital world can be customized. They want their education customized, too.” (Schrum & Levin, 2015 p.40)
In order to meet the needs of our students, engage them in their learning and make their education personal and meaningful to them, we must shift our approach in how we teach them. Fortunately, the way to meeting these goals go together quite nicely. Preparing our students with the skills they need to be successful adults and empowering them through their learning can be achieved through teaching with a “design thinking” approach. This is the initiative that I hope you all will be on board with adopting next year.
Design Thinking is a process used for solving problems and developing meaningful solutions. The process requires the participants to go through a series of phases before developing a final solution. The process is designed to promote questioning, open mindedness, empathy, and divergent thinking. It requires the participants to employ communication, collaboration, creativity and critical thinking skills on a deep level. Often times, design thinking projects are centered around real world/community problems. Many schools have already experienced success with implementing a design thinking program into their curriculum. Emily Pilloton, a design thinking educator and leader, describes in her TedTalk Teaching Design for Change, how she and her partner transformed a shop class in a poor, small town school in Bertie County, North Carolina, into a design class that developed projects that made a positive impact on their community. Through the process the students were required to conduct interviews, work with a budget, create prototypes, make revisions and put their design into action. This was such an empowering experience for their students to utilize the 4Cs in solving a real world problem and making an impact on their community. (Pilloton, 2010) Other schools are having similar success stories. At Monument Mountain Regional High School, design thinking has been adopted through a self directed learning approach. Students participate in semester long projects that they have chosen and feel passionately about. They spend countless hours both in and outside of school implementing the 4Cs and design thinking into their learning. School principal Marianne Young explains the rationale behind the initiative by saying: “We have to stop trying to move every human through the same gate….I think the more options that we have in our schools, the more students we will help develop into the types of citizens that we need… And that it’s okay for students to need a little bit of a different approach.”(Tsai, 2013) Tony Wagner highlights the incredible design thinking work being done at a local school, High Tech High, in San Diego. I was so happy and impressed to know that a local San Diego school was doing something so innovative. It would be worthwhile for our staff to attend their exhibition next year! The learning going on at schools such as these is invaluable. I know that with our incredible staff and the abundant resources and parent support that we have at SJA, we could have a great deal of success with this initiative.
At our school site, I see this being a program that gives students both choice and a voice in their learning. Our School Wide Learning Expectations as highlighted in our mission statement, are to develop students that are: lifelong learners, effective communicators, globally aware citizens, responsibly individuals and faithful Catholics. (Parent/Student Handbook, 2015) By going through the steps of the design thinking process, the students will be required to meet all of these expectations in addition to the pillars of the P21 framework and Seven Survival Skills. While at the same time, students will have the opportunity to take charge of their own learning. It is my hope that the students will engage in learning that they are passionate about, and that connects to what they’re learning in school in addition to the outside world around them.
I understand that with any new program initiative, change can be difficult. I want you to know that although this is going to be a big shift in our school culture, I feel very passionately about it and I will be learning and growing right alongside you. “...leading in a culture of change means creating a culture (not just a structure) of change. It does not mean adopting innovations, one after another; it does mean producing capacity to seek, critically assess, and selectively incorporate new ideas and practices --- all the time, inside the organization as well as outside it.” (Schrum & Levin, 2015 p.6) In order to have success with this new program, as a staff, we must have a shared vision and clear and constant communication. “For starters, leading 21st century schools requires that planned change be driven by a shared vision and specified goals that everyone knows.” (Schrum & Levin, 2015 p.8) We will take time to study the design thinking process and begin to plan our implementation together. Professional development will be a huge priority. It will not be a one time occasion, but will be embedded into the culture of our school. Research shows that PD is more effective when it is made meaningful and accessible to teachers on an individual basis, so that it can best meet the needs of each of you. (Schrum & Levin, 2015) That is exactly what I plan to do. We will start slow, and we’ll work together.
I could not be more proud to be a part of this staff and a part of this beautiful community. I hope that each of you will be willing to open up your hearts and minds to a new and exciting way of educating our youth. I hope that you embrace this initiative with the same passion and enthusiasm as you share with your students every single day. I hope that you see the value and importance in this shift in learning and teaching. I have no doubts that bringing a design thinking approach to Saint James Academy is the right move for our school and that you all will do a beautiful job of implementing it.
I look forward to discussing this further with each of you as we get ready to start school again in the fall. Until then, have a wonderful summer full of rest and relaxation with your loved ones.
Sincerely,
Lexie Nielsen
I’m including a few resources in case you are curious and would like to read further about the design thinking approach.
Additional Resources
http://www.p21.org/our-work/p21-framework
Seven Survival Skills - Tony Wagner
Teaching Design for Change Video
Reinventing Education for the 21st Century - Tony Wagner
References
Brown, T. (2008, November 10). Tim Brown: Tales of creativity and play. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/RjwUn-aA0VY
Framework for 21st Century Learning - P21. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.p21.org/our-work/p21-framework
Friedman, T. L. (2014, February 22). How to Get a Job at Google. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/23/opinion/sunday/friedman-how-to-get-a-job-at-google.html
Parent/Student Handbook. (2015). Solana Beach, CA: Saint James Academy.
Pilloton, E. (2010, November 10). Emily Pilloton: Teaching design for change. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/aiIxdFBA0Sw
Schrum, L., & Levin, B. B. (2015). Leading 21st-century schools: Harnessing technology for engagement and achievement. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
Tsai, C. (2013, February 13). If students designed their own schools... Retrieved from https://youtu.be/RElUmGI5gLc
Wagner, T. (2008, October). Rigor Redefined. Retrieved from http://www.tonywagner.com/244
Wagner, T. (2014, January 17). Reinventing Education for the 21st Century : Tony Wagner at (co)lab summit 2013. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/54gzmxlPbsA