Hey teachers, find your inner designer: stimulating reflection with a cultural probe approach

Abstract

This demo proposal builds upon recent research in the Netherlands were we try to gain insights into teachers acting as designers. A few years ago, we started professional learning groups around design and research with teachers in secondary education [8]. In a few sessions these teachers morphed into designers of (maker) education and so, they were able to (re)design maker education within and outside the lab. Not all teachers experience this 'freedom' to redesign education and most of them seem to have trouble with designing for courses around for example maker education. We developed a booklet with several exercises for teachers to gain more insights into their habits around design, specifically regarding making mistakes and celebrating successes. At Fablearn we would like to demo some exercises teachers (and designers) can directly interact with. Next to that, we would like to hand-out some booklets (instruments) to teachers to stimulate (and let them find) their inner designer.