Skip to content

Tag: problem solving

Published on Leave a comment on THE TEACHERS GUILD

Purpose/goal

  • To activate teachers' creativity to solve the biggest challenges in education today.
  • To help each other designing learner-centered approach to problem solving.
  • To build teachers' skills and confidence to design for the evolving needs of their students and schools
  • To share good practices.
  • To learn using Design Thinking.

Duration

It depends on what you want to do and the way yo take advantage of he community (guild).

Material

  • Toolkit : https://www.teachersguild.org/approach To catalyze creative leadership, The Teachers Guild builds off the methods and mindsets from the Design Thinking for Educators Toolkit. It’s a learner-centered approach to problem-solving that builds teachers' skills and confidence to design for the evolving needs of their students and schools.
  • Teacher-Designed Solutions: https://www.teachersguild.org/solutions The solutions are free for other teachers to use or adapt them in any sense. It could be a good idea to use them during lessons to implement them and see if they need any adaptation.

Description

It is a professional community that activates teachers' creativity to solve the biggest challenges in education today. In their collaborative learning programs they use Design Thinking, a learner-centered approach to problem solving. Teachers tap into their inner designer by trying new ideas and discovering what works and why for their students and schools.

Language

English

Published on Leave a comment on THE CREATIVE PLATFORM

Purpose/goal

  • To develop new ideas or thoughts - regardless of the task/problem.
  • The same process that leads to radical innovation will also enhance self-esteem and thus the joy of participation by the individual human. Therefore, the Creative Platform can both be used for innovation, development of job satisfaction through higher self-esteem and in any situation where new thoughts or ideas are needed. 
  • The Creative Platform can be used for teaching creativity, creative teaching in all subjects from primary school to PhD level, developing self-esteem, generation and development of ideas for new products, services, organizational setups, marketing plans, what to do in the weekend, where to go for holiday or any other context where a new idea or thought is needed in a group.

Duration

It depends on the modules and/or activities you decide to implement. There are activities for minutes or modules to be developed during weeks.

Material

The Creative Platform (University of Aalborg)

Other related links:

CECI Youtube channel.

CECI issuu

Description

The Creative Platform is a paradigm for unlimited application of knowledge in processes. It is practiced by a creative process in groups. Through the creative process humans develops an ability to be themselves - thus freeing them from limitations of disciplinary (academic/professional), social or cultural character.

The basic element of a creative process is the idea. An idea is a unique situation-specific representation of knowledge - and the process consists of ideas - on ideas - on ideas until the solution in the form of a product, project, procedure, an appointment, idea concept, a professional understanding or course of action is a reality.

The Creative Platform is an approach for teaching creativity and/or running creative processes. It is the idea of an ideal mental workplace for interdisciplinary, inter-social and intercultural groups. On the platform it is possible for professionals from all kinds of disciplines and cultural backgrounds to unlimited apply their knowledge for solving a common task/problem. Therefore The Creative Platform is a learning environment, where people apply their knowledge unlimitedly to create new knowledge constructions in terms of ideas for products, services or new perspectives on their thinking.

As a didactic approach the creative platform forms a shift in paradigm compared to most didactic approaches. While the core in traditional didactic approaches is about reflecting experiences
 or literature, the core in The Creative Platform is about engaging in the experience of creatively creating something together with other people. This notion builds on the premise that only through total engagement it is possible to let go of the dominating patterns of thinking that are bound by disciplines, social structures and cultural traditions.

Examples of application ranges from organizational development, product/service development, teaching creativity at all levels of education, creative teaching at all levels of education, cross disciplinary work, self-esteem development and much more. In the video below you can see an introduction to The Creative Platform.

6-PHASE MODEL

The process on The Creative Platform and the work done on it always follow the same phases - no matter what the purpose might be:

1. Preparation for facilitating the process, composition of participants, physical frames and writing down a minute-by-minute program of the process
2. The Red Carpet is a ritual in which participants get onto The Creative Platform and have the motivation, concentration and confidence to engage in the process
3. The problem/task is presented briefly and without professional/academic input of any kind
4. Idea development is where knowledge is applied unlimited in a creative generation and development of solutions for the problem/task

5. Professional/academic input is brought into the process when we have found a direction/an idea that we want to develop further
6. The Blue Carpet is a ritual in which participants are taken down from The Creative Platform and will be prepared for the ordinary world again

3D CASES

The process includes a number of 3D cases from the 3D Didactic. These exercises provide a change in behavior and thinking of the participants needed on The Creative Platform. The 3D cases are context independent. A process consists of alternating 3D case - working on task/problem - 3D case - working on task/problem, and so on. Therefore, the 3D cases are only used to create a specific behavior and thinking that is needed for the following work on task/problem – a bit like a training before doing. You can read more about 3D didactic in by following the link "3D Didactic" in the menu on the right.

PRINCIPLES

The entire process of The Creative Platform including 3D cases, the work on task/problem, the 6-phase model and everything else - are uncompromisingly following four fundamental principles:

All have the same kind of thinking and behavior at all times (parallel thinking)
One should only focus on the task (task focus)
There should be no experience of judgement (no experienced judgement)
Stimulating the use of all kinds of knowledge (horizontal thinking)

BEFORE USING THE PLATFORM

It would be a good idea to familiarize yourself thoroughly with it before you start. A good idea is to experiment with using it in situations where you have only little at stake. The more confident you become about using it, the more your participants will understand, feel it and eventually get onto The Creative Platform. In the menu "The Creative Platform" under "What is it" (https://www.uka.aau.dk/The+Creative+Platform/What+is+The+Creative+Platform/) you will find videos and literature to read before you start using it. The Creative Platform uses the 3D Didactic as an important part of the processes. It would be interesting to study this concept further. You can find more information on the 3D Didactic in the menu "3D Didactic" (https://www.uka.aau.dk/3D+Didactic/) .

There are process modules and tools for processes that are available in the menus "The Creative Platform" under:

* "Process modules": All processes (courses) on The Creative Platform are made by mixing standard modules in different ways. This means that one can make a course on creativity by mixing the modules in one way, an innovation process by mixing in a different way and a completely third mix can create a process for self-esteem development, and
* "Tools for processes": In the following you can find the tools needed for using The Creative Platform yourself. All materials are open source and you are allowed to print/copy as many as you would like for private/organizational use, however, you are not allowed to print/copy for sales.

See https://www.uka.aau.dk/The+Creative+Platform/

Language(s)

  • English
  • Danish

Published on Leave a comment on THE DESIGN THINKING TOOLKIT FOR EDUCATORS

Purpose/goal

To generate innovative and creative ideas that focus its effectiveness on understanding and solving the real needs of users.

Duration

Depending on the way in which the process is structured, the challenge that has to be faced, the information that the participants have, the number of people that participate in the process and the time that is available, the design thinking methodology could be worked out in a practical way in a minimum of two days. In any case, it depends on different variables.

This toolkit for educators will act as a reference to deal with this methodology and guide the educator and students.

Material

Description

This tool is based on the idea that "Design Thinking is the confidence that everyone can be part of creating a more desirable future, and a process to take action when faced with a difficult challenge. It is believed that that kind of optimism is well needed in education".
This tool is also based on the fact that Design thinking is a creative process that helps you to design meaningful solutions in the classroom, at your school, and in your community. The toolkit for educators provides you with instructions to explore Design Thinking and its 5 phases:

1. Discovery (empathize)
2. Interpretation (define)
3. Ideation (ideate)
4. Experimentation (prototype)
5. Evolution (test)

It is necessary to download the toolkit that contains: a workbook and the toolkit for educators. Click on the following link to download both resources.

You can download it in different languages.

Language(s)

English
Spanish
Portuguese
Czech
French
Korean