Use the following sets of skills and dispositions to evaluate student readiness for a design-thinking based classroom experience. It is my hope that using these lists will help you to understand where your students are, where they need to go relative to design, and the gaps that exist. Using the two lists should also help you to prioritize your efforts regarding next steps.
Skills: these are the essential design skills required to successfully engage in a design-based thinking classroom and experience. As with any instructional methodology, it is essential for students to build the prerequisite skills necessary to be successful. Building a design-thinking classroom begins with developing these skills in experiences that are focused directly on skill-building. This should be done before a full design sprint is done with students.
Use the following response key to evaluate student dispositions:
Students do not exhibit these skills
These skills are emergent in my students
These skills are developing in my students
These skills have been mastered by my students
Skills associated with a design-thinking approach
Organization
Planning
Collaboration
Research
Listening
Asking questions
Probing/Redirect
Observing/Noticing
Recording
Managing Data
Finding Patterns and Trends
Synthesizing/Distilling Information
Developing, curating and representing Ideas
Developing representations of solutions
Using Technology
Communication (written and oral)
Dispositions: are ways of acting, behaving, and doing. Dispositions are linked to skills and represent the manifestation of a skill throughout the actions of a student. In my opinion, as educators, our goal should be to develop in students a set of learning dispositions that will not only enable students to learn throughout their life but build the capacity for the desire to learn throughout their life.
We all want students to read. The ability to read is a skill, which manifests at different levels across a student population. The desire to read is a disposition. In a perfect world, we want to help students to become capable readers (skill-based), that will give them the ability and confidence to read. But we also want to help them to develop a love for ready over their life (disposition-based). Teaching them the skill is getting halfway there and essential, providing experiences that enable them to become life-long readers is the next critical step.
Use the following response key to evaluate student dispositions:
Students do not exhibit these dispositions
These dispositions are emergent in my students
These skills are developing in my students
These skills have been mastered by my students
Dispositions that are present and visible in a student designer are:
Curious
Imaginative
Empathetic
Self-directed
Collaborative
Passionate
Persistent
Resilient
Non-judgemental
Perceptive
Generative
Reflective
Adaptive
Open and with a willingness to engage