As teachers, we spend a lot of time trying to anticipate what our students need in their ‘toolbox’ once they have graduated, be it from primary school, secondary school or tertiary study. This makes entirely good sense. As discipline or subject matter experts, we are aware of the reality of the demands of the workforce and have a duty of care to equip our students appropriately. However, are we giving our students what they really want?
Design thinking is a product methodology that was first introduced in 1969 by Nobel Laureate Herbert Simon in his work The Sciences of the Artificial. In short, Design Thinking seeks to prioritise the human element and individual experience as the key element to problem-solving design problems. Design Thinking begins with the end users’ wants in mind, rather than their needs. Often, the design process begins with a problem statement such as: “how might we encourage consumers to choose healthy snacks”? In education, our perennial problem statement is: “how do we equip a student with the skills and knowledge to deal with a career that will span the next four or five decades”? Then, how do we ensure that our students enjoy their experience with us as they gain these skills and knowledge?
In a competitive educational market, educational providers must balance this long-term goal with the immediate desires of the students. Of course, we cannot simply give our students only what they want. That would be akin to feeding your child ice cream for every meal. So, how can we design a curriculum that meets both the students’ wants and needs? Can we provide a balanced meal and still leave room for dessert?
To answer this, a focus on experience, rather than content for curriculum, makes sense. Strong evidence shows that Millennials (currently aged 18-34) are likely to move from job to job at a greater rate than previous generations and are more inclined to seek fame, accolades and status. With this, comes a potential lack of commitment to a single employer and/or career path. And thus, over the last decade in the tertiary sector, we are seeing an increase of students withdrawing from courses and programs. The education system has been slow to adapt to the millennial students’ need for a flexible and dynamic program and curriculum.
So, how can we build an engaging and rewarding experience for our students? We cannot do it with great content alone or only awarding grades for achievements. Students need to feel that they are involved in their own journey and are discovering their path, as they progress through their course of study. This means that academic counselling has to listen to students and not simply check off subjects against a list. For some of the longer-term skills and knowledge areas, students may need to be supported to understand why subjects are important to them and be encouraged to find their own way through a course.
Students also have to be given the opportunity to fail and fail often. The very best designs have come from a series of trials, errors, and improvements and our students need to be supported in this approach. While it is critical to reward effort and accomplishment, it is also essential that students work on smaller, iterative projects that aren’t assessed for grades. This is where the students can be pushed beyond their comfort level and experience significant personal growth.
I encourage you to consider not just what you’re teaching in 2018, but how you’re teaching. Are you going to captivate your students and take them on an educational journey through the semester? Alternatively, are you going to focus on short-term rewards only? Designing your curriculum by focusing on the student experience, building engaging experiences that allow students to fail and succeed, and reduce the emphasis on content certainly has merit.
TW
