Using our imaginations

During the past few weeks, we have continued our second project using the 'Design for Change' process of innovation. We have just completed the second step in this process, otherwise known as the 'Imagine' phase. This involved us thinking about a problem within a particular subject area, for a specific age group, that we could address through the development of a new initiative. Our group decided to focus on the subject of Mathematics for children around 11 years of age. We agreed that a particular problem concerning Mathematics is the lack of confidence and/or motivation that often exists amongst children when they are given a task to do. In response to this problem, we thought about how we could develop an initiative that would encourage children to work together on a purposeful activity in order to increase both their confidence and their motivation in Mathematics. We devised various 'How might we...?' questions using the 'D.school toolkit' (2016) concerning how to 'amp up' the good, use different adjectives and change the 'status quo'. We also wrote down numerous thoughts on post-it notes and subsequently organised them into questions and simple statements.  After completing this entire process, we came up with a final question which led us to think about different ideas that we could use and incorporate to try and solve our problem.

Initial pooling of ideas

Organisation of ideas into questions and simple statements

We decided to develop a whole-class Mathematics project based on the topic of Financial Capability. Students will work together in different groups to plan and budget for an overnight school trip at the end of their school year. The 'real-life' aspect of this task illustrates the applicability that Mathematics has to the students' lives and the fact that they are working towards their own school trip will serve to motivate them with the task at hand. Working alongside other peers should also increase the confidence of children who struggle with certain aspects of Mathematics. Before approaching the 'Do' phase, we will contact lecturers from our home universities, as part of our research, in order to gain more of an insight into the problems associated with children's lack of confidence and/or motivation in Mathematics. Upon collection of this research, we will move into the 'Do' phase and begin to develop our prototype by creating resources that the students will use during their project.

It was also interesting to consider the research of Brinkman (2010) whilst we were in the process of completing the 'Imagine' phase. Like many other researchers in innovation, he also asserts the importance of nurturing creativity in all students, something that we as teachers must always be mindful of.

Reference List

Brinkman, D.J. (2010) ‘Teaching Creatively and Teaching for Creativity’, Arts Education Policy Review, 111, pp. 48-50.

D.school toolkit (2016) Bootcamp Bootleg, available at http://dschool.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/BootcampBootleg2010v2SLIM.pdf (accessed 04/05/16).