Think, design, create – A design learning model

So the design learning model has three elements. The first element is te whakaaro which obviously is “to think”, so that’s where we start each learning sprint, or each kaupapa that we do. The think phase of our design learning model is about planting the seeds.

The second phase is Te Tipuranga which is what we call the design phase. So this is all about the design of the learning that we’re doing in the classrooms with the kids. Providing the right conditions for learning. What skills do we need to teach kids, what processes do we need to teach the kids is this part of learning. So sometimes that’s out of context because sometimes you just actually need to learn some basics before you actually can create the beautiful finished product in the end. So we’re quite comfortable with doing things out of context, as long as the context is being driven back in the akomanga through te reo Māori.

So the third part of our model is Te Puawaitanga which is about creating. We feel it’s important to have an outcome at the end. It gives a sense of achievement, a sense of coming together for all the tamariki that if they’re going to produce something, this is where we might think about the audience as well, like it’s actually more powerful if they’ve got somewhere, someone to share. Whether it’s sharing it online, whether it’s inviting the whānau in. It doesn’t always have to be a digital outcome. It can be one person producing something, it could be a group of tamariki producing something, or it could be the whole class.

The final layer of our design learning model is what we call Panekiretanga which is about metacognition, it is about the learner themselves. Central to our model is learning styles and learning preferences. This also helps us to bring a universal design for learning. What are our strengths? What needs do our kids have? So we have four colours that we teach the children. For example, kōwhai is about being creative, whero is about emotional intelligence, kikorangi is being accurate with what you do.

So throughout all of that design learning, we’re always talking about the colours in our learning. So okay what can I do next to help me to get that next phase. Oh I’ve had this wonderful idea so what do I need to do? Right, I need to think about who I’m producing this item for. So we need to talk to them about having our whero hats on. In a way, our design learning model is also an inquiry model. So we have learning sprints. That’s why it’s in a circle. Much like an inquiry would work through, you build all your base knowledge initially so those are our learning sprints, we want to be able to reflect in a good amount of time so that we can actually plan for the next learning steps where we’ve got to. So it’s a very responsive cycle. In a way it’s a design learning model which links into the digital [strands of the] technology curriculum as well as being our inquiry model. The current version of the model is by no means the final version. I don’t know if it’s ever going to get in its final stages because that’s all part of understanding how we learn and how we grow as learners, and how we learn to be self-regulated with our learning.