📱Applying design thinking to homeschooling
Design thinking is a methodology used in product design that can also be effectively applied to homeschooling. This approach focuses on understanding human needs and creating tailored solutions, continuously refining them through observation and feedback. Here’s how the five stages of design thinking—Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test—can be adapted to a modular learning approach, ensuring an ideal education solution for each child.
1. Empathize: Identifying Problems
Families start by recognizing a problem through empathy. By listening to and caring about their child, they may realize that their child isn’t thriving in their current educational environment. Symptoms can include unhappiness, boredom, tantrums, or severe anxiety about school. This stage is often intuitive—parents sense that something is wrong, even if they can’t pinpoint the exact issue.
Initially, the problem might seem vast and insurmountable, related to the overall schooling experience. The decision to homeschool often comes after traditional schooling methods have failed, and families are at their wit’s end. As families progress, the issues become more specific, such as communication challenges or difficulties with particular subjects like linear equations. Over time, these problems should feel more like engaging challenges to enhance learning rather than overwhelming obstacles.
2. Define: Articulating the Problem
Once the problem is identified, the next step is to articulate it clearly. Families may determine that traditional schooling isn't suitable for their child or family due to academic struggles, boredom, bullying, or the exhausting daily routine. In some cases, children may be expelled due to learning or behavioral challenges, prompting a shift to homeschooling. The more detailed the problem definition, the better equipped families will be to generate effective solutions.
In traditional school settings, parents have limited options when faced with problems. However, modular learning offers limitless possibilities for solutions, allowing for a more customized educational experience.
3. Ideate: Exploring Solutions
This stage involves brainstorming and trying out various ideas. Families explore different curricula, socialization opportunities, and flexible childcare options to find the best fit. It’s essential to test one idea at a time to avoid overwhelming the child and the family. Each child is unique, with changing needs, and what works for one may not work for another. The goal is to maximize the potential of modular learning by providing tailored education solutions for each child.
4. Prototype: Creating a Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
Based on their observations and expertise about their child, families create a prototype—a combination of schedules, curricula, classes, teachers, social experiences, and childcare plans. This prototype is a hypothesis of what will meet the child’s and family’s needs best. Modular learning provides a direct feedback loop, allowing parents to adjust their approach based on real-time observations and feedback, rather than relying on periodic teacher reports or standardized tests.
5. Test: Measuring Success
Families establish metrics for success, consciously or unconsciously deciding what’s important and monitoring their child’s progress relative to those outcomes. At a minimum, they measure the child’s enjoyment and academic progress. The flexible nature of modular learning allows for continuous observation and immediate adjustments, preventing the buildup of significant issues.
Continuous Improvement
The design thinking cycle doesn’t end with testing. Families continue to evaluate and iterate, improving the user experience relative to their metrics by adjusting the curriculum, teaching strategies, and social experiences. Children are constantly evolving, and so should their learning approaches. New educational ideas, opportunities, and insights into future workforce needs emerge regularly, making it essential for learning strategies to be flexible and adaptive.
The cost of failing and adjusting strategies in modular learning is much lower than in traditional schooling. Trying a new curriculum or social opportunity is significantly less expensive and disruptive than changing schools or hiring tutors.
Applying design thinking to homeschooling through a modular learning approach allows for a highly personalized, flexible, and continuously improving educational experience. By empathizing with their child, clearly defining problems, exploring solutions, creating prototypes, and testing for success, families can create an ideal learning environment that adapts to their child’s evolving needs.
