Teachers' Perceptions, Experience and Learning

Woon Chia Liu, Christine C.M. Goh, Woon Chia Liu, Christine C.M. Goh

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9780815387282
• eBook ISBN: 9781351173261
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Teachers' Perceptions, Experience and Learning offers insightful views on the understanding of the role of teachers and the impact of their thinking and practice. The articles presented in this book illustrate the influence of teachers on student learning, school culture and their own professional identity and growth as well as highlighting challenges and constraints in preand in-service teacher education programmes that can impact teachers' own learning. The first article examined teacher experiences in the use of "design thinking" by Retna. Next, Hong's and Youngs' article looks into contradictory effects of the new national curriculum in South Korea. Lu, Wang, Ma, Clarke and Collins explored Chinese teachers' commitment to being a cooperating teacher for rural practicum placements. Kainzbauer and Hunt investigate foreign university teachers' experiences and perceptions in teaching graduate schools in Thailand. On inclusive education in Singapore, Yeo, Chong, Neihart and Huan examined teachers' first-hand experiences with inclusion; while Poon, Ng, Wong and Kaur study teachers' perceptions of factors associated with inclusive education. The book ends with two articles on teacher preparation by Hardman, Stoff, Aung and Elliott who examined the pedagogical practices of mathematics teaching in primary schools in Myanmar, and Zein who focuses on teacher learning by examining the adequacy of preservice education in Indonesia for preparing primary school English teachers.

The contributing authors' rich perspectives in different educational, geographical and socio-cultural contexts would serve as a valuable resource for policy makers, educational leaders, individual researchers and practitioners who are involved in teacher education research and policy.

This book was originally published as a special issue of the Asia Pacific Journal of Education.

Thinking about “design thinking”: a study of teacher experiences

Kala S. Retna

Schools are continuously looking for new ways of enhancing student learning to equip students with skills that would enable them to cope with twenty-first century demands. One promising approach focuses on design thinking. This study examines teacher’s perceptions, experiences and challenges faced in adopting design thinking. There is a lack of empirical research on the adoption and implementation of the design thinking process in educational context from the teachers’ point of view. This paper fills this gap and also provides insight on a recent initiative adopted in Singapore schools. Qualitative case study research was carried out in a school using teacher narratives. Data includes in-depth face-to-face interviews and participant observation. The findings show that teachers perceive that design thinking holds the potential for enhancing skills such as creativity, problem solving, communication and team work as well as empower students to develop empathy for others within and beyond the community. The research also highlighted several challenges such as inadequate resources, time constraints, fear of poor grades and the difficulty of shifting to a new way of teaching and learning that differs vastly from the traditional approach. The findings reveal that a piecemeal approach towards curriculum redesign for adopting design thinking may not provide the desired outcomes.

Introduction

Over the years, organizations have proactively sought and embraced strategies and techniques that put them in a good stead to compete in the changing, globalizing, digitalized world (Fraser, 2007; Stegall, 2006). “Design thinking” is considered as one of the most promising ways of transforming organizations and businesses in a competitive environment (Gloppen, 2009). Though design thinking has a long history in the fields of architecture and engineering, over the last two decades several organizations outside the field of design, such as those in education and information technology, have attempted to understand how designers think and work and, as a result, have understood its value (Bell, 2008; Brown, 2009; Kimbell, 2011; Martin, 2009). Using a case study of a public school in Singapore, this research seeks to understand the perception that teachers have of design thinking and its implementation. Singapore provides an excellent context to study the implementation of design thinking since its educational system is centrally-structured and coherent. Singapore is also an early adopter of new initiatives, so this case study can provide useful insights into the practical implementation of design thinking. Last but not least, Singapore shares attributes and challenges with a wide range of countries, but its differences are readily identifiable. Accordingly, it provides a microcosm from which lessons can be drawn.

Different types of design practice have spawned across various sectors and it is now considered an effective way for organizations to provide excellent products and services (for example see, Parker & Heapy, 2006; Verganti, 2009). In focusing on the educational context, several studies have been interested in the educational benefits for students when schools adopt design thinking (Philloton & Miller, 2011). Yet, there has been less examination of teachers’ experience and perspectives in implementing design thinking, whether in a specific subject or in the overall curriculum. Teachers are key players in education as they are directly involved in adopting and implementing the process of design thinking in the classroom. Accordingly, this study examines to understand the perceptions that teachers have of design thinking including its benefits and challenges in Singapore’s context. The findings show that teachers perceive that design thinking holds the potential for enhancing skills such as creativity, problem solving, communication and team work as well as empower students to develop empathy for others within and beyond the community.

The paper is structured as follows. First an overview of the literature on design thinking and its application in non-design organizations is provided. This is followed by a discussion of design thinking in schools, specifically the literature on its benefits for students. Subsequently, the paper outlines the methodology followed by the findings. Altogether, the study demonstrates that the implementation of design thinking in schools has both its benefits and its challenges.

Literature on design thinking and organization

The interest in design thinking for non-design organizations can be attributed to researchers (Rittle & Webber, 1973; Simon, 1973) who identified strategies used in design to address “ill-structured” problems. Particularly, design strategies that helped detect ill-structured problems were used to initiate changes in organizations. Designs that permeated through the nineteenth and twentieth century was based on enhancing material environment. However, the twenty-first century saw a paradigm shift from material to human aspects (user experiences and relationships). This shift of mindset to understand and interact with various stakeholders in the process of creating products or service was evident in various sectors such as law, health and education. The on-going interaction between end users (customers) and those involved in the production of goods and services underlies the essence of design thinking. Argyris and Schon (1978) claim that all actions by people is design. Related to this note, it is evident that design thinking is not a new concept (Lockwood, 2009; Wong, 2011). It has been around from the time design was used by engineers and architects. However, it was David Kelly, the founder of IDEO and Stanford’s “d.school”, who popularized design thinking in the business and education context (McCullagh, 2010; Gloppen, 2009).

The development of design thinking has been attributed to management publications such as the The Art of Innovation, The Tipping Point, A Whole New Mind and Creative Confidence. These books have served as stepping stones for understanding the basic principles and application of design thinking. Yet, why is there a resurgence of interest in design thinking even though it has been in existence for many decades? It is evident from the literature that the important theme in the emerging interest in design thinking is its claim of being a new way of thinking that is underpinned by the humanistic approach towards generating new ideas, services and products. This is because, historically, designers’ involvement was very much directed towards packaging, that is, they did not have much engagement or contribution towards the creation of products. Nevertheless, design played a crucial role in market growth, especially in the electronics and consumer packaged industries. Not only did design make new products attractive through advertisement and communication, it was considered to be a competitive asset by businesses. However, this situation changed towards the later part of the twentieth century when the role of design changed from one that made developed products attractive to one that created new ideas for products and services. It required a fundamental shift from seeing design as just “styling” to one of the core “activity”, crucial across all sectors and to the economy (Lee, 2011). One of the key aspects in this change-over was that of paying specific attention to human needs, the need of users of products or services. In order to do this, several theorists (for example, Martin, 2009) have put some processes in place that focus on customer needs.

Defining design thinking

Design thinking is interpreted by theorists in various ways. Lockwood (2009) refers to design thinking as an application of using designers’ sensibility and methods on problem solving. He has emphasized that design thinking must be viewed as a methodology and not a substitute for the professional craft of designing (2009, p. xi). Moreover, it is a way to explore the unmet needs of customers and to come up with new solutions. According to Liedtka (2011), design thinking is a process that requires continuous redesigning of a business, taking customers’ views and insights into consideration. It is basically an approach in examining the process and the business model of innovation (p. 13). Simon (1996) defined design thinking as the changing of existing conditions to preferred ones. This is explained as using designers’ way of thinking and methods to create new ideas or alternatives to meet the stakeholders’ needs. Here the essence of design thinking is considered to be abductive reasoning, not deductive or inductive alone. Moreover, he distinguishes traditional management thinking from design thinking in that the latter needs specifically three skills: cognitive, affective, and interpersonal. Furthermore, the main argument against traditional management thinking is the attitude of treating “constraints” as a barrier for implementation. He does caution users of design thinking that it is a rigorous process but a good pathway for approaching problems (Simon, 1996). According to Pink (2005), design thinking is a frame of mind for problem solving that is essential for the “conceptual age” where creativity and innovation are key contributors to higher productivity. Last but not least, Martin (2012) defines design thinking as one that involves both analytical and intuitive thinking.

The definitions above show that design thinking requires a distinct way of approaching and solving problems that entails a systematic process in order to achieve the desired outcomes. Understanding and meeting the users’ needs, a different way of thinking and innovation are the perceived outcomes of design thinking. Based on these definitions, innovation can take place in many forms such as service, product, behavioural and organizational culture through the practice of design thinking. Altogether, design thinking can be regarded as a thoughtful process and organizations could benefit from using design thinking to stay ahead in a competitive environment (Clark & Smith, 2008).

Design thinking in schools

Schools are continually looking for new ways of enhancing student learning and equipping students with skills that would enable them to cope with twenty-first century demands. One particularly promising approach is to utilize design thinking. Proponents argue that students must be nurtured to think like designers (particularly those who are involved in doing project-based work in schools), as it will enhance creativity among students and help them understand the process of innovation (Brown, 2008; Martin, 2009).

Clearly few pedagogical ideas are completely new or unique, and many aspects of design thinking echo concepts that have been advocated over the past century, particularly in the constructivist perspective. Maria Montessori, with her emphasis on student-centred discovery of knowledge, would have recognized an affinity with this approach. For instance, the Urban Montessori Charter School in Oakland, California, explicitly utilizes design thinking (http://www.urbanmontessori.org/design_thinking). There are also similarities with the problem-solving approach that was espoused by the educational theorist John Dewey (1910). According to Dewey, students learned most effectively by doing and the concept of experience plays an important role in learning (Dewey, 1938). Dewey’s concept of problem-solving is still popular and is used in schools in project work. However, Dewey’s work has been critiqued for abstractness of its recommendations on assessing performance. Design thinking surmounts the abstractness problem by being a human-centred process that offers opportunities for concrete recommendations for complex problems (Scheer, Noweski, & Meinel, 2012). It promotes the learning of social skills and solving problems to meet the “needs” of people. The focus is on people, and their articulated problems requiring solutions, rather than on abstract problems that exist independently of the social milieu.

According to Anderson (2012), design thinking skills are important for future workplaces in terms of innovative contributions. Increasingly, schools are adopting design thinking into their curricula and therefore understanding the distinct experiences of teachers becomes important. Research has shown that using design thinking as the basis for a pedagogical framework in schools is reaping positive benefits. Barseghian (2010) reported such work in North Carolina and stated that design thinking offers an “antidote” to the traditional method of teaching that is practised in most district schools. The practice of design thinking has achieved significant improvements in terms of overall students qualifying for state standards (Philloton & Miller, 2011). In another example, Krieger (2010) has successfully introduced design thinking in schools in India and Mexico. Some schools have used design thinking in specific subjects like science (Kolodner et al., 2003), mathematics (Goldman, Knudsen, & Latvala, 1998), technology (Kafai & Resnick, 1996) and religious studies (Tan & Wong, 2012). These studies have indicated that design thinking has the potential to enhance skills such as creativity and problem solving which also help students to build on their cognitive and social skills (Todd, 1999). These studies have repo...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Citation Information
• Notes on Contributors
• Introduction: Teachers’ perceptions, experience, and learning
• 1. Thinking about “design thinking”: a study of teacher experiences
• 2. Why are teachers afraid of curricular autonomy? Contradictory effects of the new national curriculum in South Korea
• 3. Exploring Chinese teachers’ commitment to being a cooperating teacher in a university-government-school initiative for rural practicum placements
• 4. Meeting the challenges of teaching in a different cultural environment – evidence from graduate management schools in Thailand
• 5. Teachers’ experience with inclusive education in Singapore
• 6. Factors associated with staff perceptions towards inclusive education in Singapore
• 7. Developing pedagogical practices in Myanmar primary schools: possibilities and constraints
• 8. Pre-service education for primary school English teachers in Indonesia: policy implications
• Index