Creative Planning & Assessment

So you have a design brief in Home Economics and you are either

1. The student trying sort out what to do

2. The teacher knowing you have to assess this work!!

Like many things in life a little planning is important. Even more so is unpacking those tasks that require some good inspiration to have a one-of-a –kind piece of work to really showcase your talent and ideas.  While this quote is a succinct expression of what usually happens for complex tasks you are by no means a failure when it comes to being creative. Remember, ever experience is an opportunity for learning. However good planning takes the stress away from the fluid flow of ideas for students and for teachers, allows us that clear head to objectively work through a process to lead our students to learn as much as they can.

Remember this is good pedagogical planning that allows students to gain some knowledge and then USE IT and discover more for themselves.

There are many different ways to use textiles as a learning tool. In education it is embedded within the design technologies and through a critical enquiry approach, students solve a problem.

The focus for student learning then is understanding,  “Textile choices and practices within the textile industry impact directly on the wellbeing of individuals, families and communities”.  (Senior Syllabus 2010)

Students will acquire knowledge of, develop inquiry skills about and investigate issues relating to textiles.

So WHERE do you start? Most things start with a question so each year level will have a different focus and require a different set of skills. What doesn’t change is necessarily how you go about finding some of those answers…. By being a critical thinker!

Have you ever been with a group of friends and had a bit of an encounter (good, bad or otherwise). You come home and proceed to tell your parents and everyone has a slightly different version of the story. Which one is correct … or are they all just different views of the story. In the end you could say it’s a well-rounded version of the events because everyone has related their story from a different perspective.

Tackling a problem could be the same.

We start thinking about the process in front of us. What do I need to think about? What’s my plan of action? We find out the facts, organise ideas, think of more ideas and perhaps start the process.

Two great frameworks to help with unpacking ideas is Edward DeBono’s concept of the The Six Thinking Hats and a Thinking Skills Framework (Bloom’s Taxonomy) which identifies the steps to higher order thinking.

SIX THINKING HATS

This is really a mental metaphor of directing our attention in one direction at a time. With each direction we “put on a different hat”. That way we cover all bases a bit like our storytelling. It can be done in a group and each person has a different “hat” thought or everyone shares the same “hat” thought.

Six Thinking Hats is a powerful tool that facilitates productive: critical thinking, collaboration, communication, and creativity. It enables each person's unique point of view to be included and considered. (http://www.debonoforschools.com/asp/six_hats.asp)

Here is the framework. Consider how it could apply to a current piece of work?

The Thinking Skills Framework 
http://www.itcpublications.com.au/assets/files/thinking_skills_frame_guide.pdf

The Thinking Skills Framework (TSF) is a tool for teachers to help scaffold student learning with a particular task. This is particularly useful for embedded literacy and numeracy skills within different school subjects. This is particularly relevant to Design challenges which involves the highest order of thinking.

 

The thinking skills framework assists TEACHERS to guide students to identify the skills required to solve the task. It also assists teachers to understand the assessment they have set and if they are assessing the skills they are meaning to assess. Is the teacher assessing the effectiveness of the designs or a literacy skill? In most Home Economics assessment there is a written piece AND a practical piece. How equipped are students for answering the accompanying written? Are they struggling because of the literacy demand and can we scaffold this learning throughout the different grades by providing the appropriate (thinking skill) framework for organising thoughts.

 The Six Thinking hats enable STUDENTS to focus thinking from a different perspective.

Both are helpful little tools for different reasons and teachers will have success having knowledge of both processes.

SO WHAT DOES THIS LOOK LIKE IN PRACTICE

If for example,  the design challenge is to conduct a body and wardrobe analysis in order to then design a wardrobe to suit your body shape because research suggests we only wear 20% of our wardrobe 80% of the time….. what skills are required to complete this task? And how does that fit with De Bono.

The Blue hat is the organising thinking and managing the process. It’s often the first step in solving a design brief or assessment piece. Blue hats keep us on track and in group work may need the discipline of the leader.

TSF – I need to analyse my wardrobe. How do I do that? Depending on the year level, teachers may need to provide a framework to help guide that thinking.

Other blue hat thinking – planning for time management of assessment, daily tasks, keep on the main task and not get off task during group work

The White Hat is the facts thinking.

What facts do the students need and do they know how to organise them?

They are facts not opinions or speculation. My waist size is Xcm

This is necessary for research to compare eg sustainability practices in companies

The information may be crucial as well as secondary information

It also includes Information we have, would like to have, need, and sources for obtaining missing information

TSF – Provide formation on how to Create charts, Classify information

Green Hat is creativity thinking – ideas, alternatives, possibilities

Creative thinking would be a regular type of thinking in a textile environment so may stand alone or be part of a design challenge.

Five minute creative thinking activities could be a regular occurrence to encourage a culture of coming up with creative ideas or at the very least a different idea to the current one.

TSF – provides different frameworks to organise these ideas particularly for assessment (mood board designs, technical drawings) 

Yellow Hat thinking is values & benefits thinking of why something will work.

This is important for “ethics” discussions in textile production.

In design, the idea may be great but the execution needs tweaking (go back to green hat thinking). Such discussion is really the make-up of a process journal that would accompany the design and production of a garment in Home Economics.

TSF – Provides different frameworks to organise ideas for discussing the pro’s & con’s

Red Hat is the gut feelings – should last no more than 30 secs and could be described in words.

Examples – sticky notes with one or two words, may happen a few times in the whole process of problem solving eg after each wardrobe design, during production.

In a group, the feelings may be different so another hat may be involved to help resolve a decision.

Black Hat is caution thinking and considers the facts that don’t quite fit the situation or problems that need to be overcome to solve the issue.

Trialling and testing designs is one great way to use this type of thinking. Experimenting with different “techniques” in textile creation also raises problems that need to be considered and understood.

TSF – provides frameworks for collating this information for comparison

Pintrest also has great ideas of how teachers organise their room or have resources to facilitate these types of thinking. Here are some great ideas from pintrest I have pinned to my classroom ideas board.

Ideas include:

·      Organisation of tables

     Visual prompts with rules and routines for different tasks

 Thinking Skills Framework  visual prompts 
with sentence starts for assessment ideas (depending on the year level the support 
would be greater in the younger grades)

       

     

      Visual stimuli and activities to inspire creative thinking. I love this textile wall which would be a great group activity outside the Home Economics room.

 Specifically  identifying the types of thinking and embed it in everyday class life. This is great for developing the concept and helping students link types of thinking with a specific purpose.


Paper and Web 2 tools for engaging the skills eg blogs for sharing opinions or information about a group task

 Organising thoughts and conclusions about content presented in a teenage relevant way!

Individual and group work areas in the classroom

·      

·