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Teachers need to consider 5 to 10 practical approaches that could be utilised by students during lessons. If we forced all commuters to push themselves to work on skateboards, you would find a sharp increase in working from home. There are many ways to get from A to B and people have many different preferences in how they travel. Create a garage of “HOW” learning vehicles Create a super strong WHY and the students will engage with the WHAT in their own time. Teachers complain they are forever having to repeat themselves and “hold the hand” of every student in the class, “dragging” them up to and through the assessment … and what about all those students who “can’t be bothered!” ?Ī serious investment in the WHY learn / carry out such and activity creates a purpose that encourages students to intrinsically do more of the learning legwork. When it seems that the reason for the moment is producing or repeating the WHAT, the Students quickly understand that this is just a compliance game and it becomes only a matter of how much they are willing to comply. What many teachers working in this way have not realised is that by only paying lip service to WHY and HOW we increase our workload and a less fun workload at that. This also means the HOW doesn’t really matter either, as the outcomes and targets seem to have been pre-decided and “we may as well just get through it” (as a teacher said to me in 2018). Let “WHY” do the workįor 100 years, standardisation of curriculum has removed a need to worry about WHY we learn things. So here I will attempt to explain the Design Thinking approach as general learning practice so as to embed more of the WHY and HOW into classrooms. The Golden Circle is a mindset, while Design Thinking can be seen as a practical approach to operating with the mindset.
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As a teacher, it’s always worth reflecting on the elements of agency you have in deciding what takes place during the day that makes your job tolerable.
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In fact, agency over the HOW is what makes any endeavour or work bearable. The HOW is vital in defining the experience. Properly exploring WHY creates purpose and in-turn a stronger connection with the issue leading to intrinsic engagement. Both Sinek’s Golden Circle and the worldwide topic of Design Thinking suggest this approach to learning might be wrong. I’ve tried and failed many times to find a student who can tell me “why they are learning this”. The WHY of the learning barely gets a fleeting mention. In high schools particularly, the WHAT is paramount and the consideration of HOW can be minimal, resulting in yet more reading and creating of Google slides and/or Word docs. It has been the staple of teaching for 100 years to first worry about WHAT you want the learners to understand and/or do. Here I want to look at Design Thinking as a scaffolded approach to all learning rather than a problem solving / product design process. This time I thought I would link it to Design Thinking and also consider it in regards to the approach teachers often take in planning their lessons and learning for students. I’ve written a post titled “Is your school an X or Why School?” about it in regards to whole school thinking and planning. Sinek states that Apple’s success lies in selling you WHY you want a phone rather than WHAT phone they can sell you. He discusses that successful people and organisations start with the WHY, then worry about the HOW, and only then consider the WHAT should actually be constructed / done. Simon Sinek’s golden circle is an oldie but a goodie.