A Product-Based Approach to Learning

Big changes take a lot of heart!

A problem I always noticed when I was at school was that work was inauthentic… and worryingly, it is still largely inauthentic today. Great progress huh? Kids sit around in classrooms working on general bureaucratic tasks (I use the word bureaucratic rather than clerical for good reason – clerical tasks have some end purpose which is understood by those performing it!) which never go anywhere – the work is incepted, created and is born into this world and at best it lands on the classroom wall, or in the corridor in a case where nobody really looks. Worst case, the kids file it and take it home at the end of the year. Not only is this disparaging for anybody, but it leads children to the rather existential question: ‘What’s the point?’ or ‘Why do we need to do this?’… well, good question…

Could a product-based approach hold the key?

After a worrying realisation (read more in previous posts!) I had begun to implement project-based learning. This was a huge turning point in my teaching career. Adding transparency and agile methods into the mix with PBL also meant that I had children working collaboratively on large projects, in which goals and stepping stones were clear and the learning was connected and meaningful. My classroom had been transformed – what I once thought of as a working classroom with children sat quietly at desks had become a horror story to me. I had been elevated from the “Sage on the Stage” to the “Guide at the Side”. But even after these alterations, I was still concerned about children really applying their learning in an authentic context. In what way can we create and know that someone will experience my work in a meaningful way?

At this time I was also becoming very interested in Design Thinking. This, in a nutshell, is a method of approaching designing in a human-centred manner – this is a terrible explanation. Ill devote a whole post just to this soon - until then a google search should suffice! Since this process has a rich history drawing from the scientific method through to the ICT world of programming and app creation, I realised it is a very valuable method which could be an effective scaffold within the minds of the children in my class. That way, they know that whenever we create something, they can implement this process or scaffold to ensure that it is a successful learning enterprise which addresses real needs.

I began to think about the possibilities of merging the approaches and dreaming of the great things that could be attained:

1. By coming at a project from a human angle and targeting a real problem or need we could really exercise the understanding of empathy within the children.

2. Having a product which meets an audiences needs means that children can collect meaningful feedback and adjust their prototypes/products - they see the fundamental purpose of their work!

3. By working in this way towards a ‘tangible’ end product, children are having to evaluate, analyse, reflect and create, hitting all of the higher order Bloom stuff.

4. Important key competencies can be exercised such as emotional intelligence, problem solving, critical thinking and creativity – more than this, we make it much easier to see the children flexing these skills and can celebrate their strengths.

5. Children create ‘their’ solution to the product, which often leads to children producing something within the realm of their interests and strengths which makes it more personalised and meaningful.

6. Children connect with society – by collecting user stories, talking with a real audience, children can make contact with people outside of their usual operating space.

Grade 5 Moon Rover controlled via Bluetooth

Convinced of the potential success of this approach, I spent the last year or so trying to implement it and the results have been really exciting… of course with dashes of failure and lumps of added frustration along the way. But as I have encouraged the children to think, if you aren’t breaking stuff and failing… you aren’t challenging yourself enough to grow! After revising, retesting, refailing often and asking for help, I can say for certain that ALL of the above dream scenarios have been reached. I am seeing a classroom where children can carefully consider their audience/user group before creating (even down to text level in literacy). Initial data was collected by going out and seeking those outside of our school community to interview or poll; we then seek feedback from our audience group and redraft, revise and alter our prototypes until we have a final product to deliver to our audience. We then seek ‘final’ judgements and feedback from our authentic audience to measure our success.

Wonderful Bonus Number 1 = we saw that we were able to identify gifted children who were never caught by the standard tests. Our gifted and talented programme was selecting good test-takers…not our elite creative types, our prime problem solvers and our budding entrepreneurs.

Wonderful Bonus Number 2 = the Design Thinking framework provides a multitude of opportunities to develop key competencies. Through the empathy stage, my students were developing emotional intelligence. In the ideation stage they were exercising what I call ‘appropriate creativity’, a creativity that is channelled towards an outcome rather than haphazard creativity during the prototyping time they were problem solving, critiquing and developing resilience. There is a real educational treasure trove inherent within each of those stages!

However, it is not all without its negatives…

It takes a certain amount of hard work at the start to get children used to working like this. The children in my class were not used to this way of working and needed encouragement and guidance. The teacher needs to put in time and be a model for the methodology – live and die by the sword so to speak. The teacher needs to lay bare their methods and speak honestly with the students encouraging them to provide feedback. If you as an educator aren’t adapting as a result of critique, then why would your students? This can be a frightening mind-set shift, but it is also very liberating. We aren’t infallible, but we can all aim to be and do things better!

This is not a panacea, it won’t cure all problems and I don’t believe it should be implemented purely – but a product based approach has revolutionised the way my children think – they no longer only look for solutions, they have begun to look for the problems that precede them too!

New Sports Hall design