Using Design Thinking to Reframe School Challenges
How Using How Might We Questions Makes You See a Problem in a Whole New Light
For my assignment, I chose to work on applying design principles to issues my niece is having with school. She’s finding it difficult to perform well at school, and it’s damaging her self-esteem and creating stress with her parents. My hope is that by applying the principles of design thinking, I can help my niece develop some strategies and tools to help her better manage her school work and get better outcomes on her assignments and exams. I am also hoping that by working through the design thinking process with her, she will learn the principles herself and be able to use them as a problem solving strategy for herself and future problems she might have.
Before I started talking to Zelda (not her real name; changed to protect her privacy), and based on conversations with her mom, I initially thought the problem might be more organization based — i.e., she just needed some tools to get herself organized, keep track of her assignments and due dates, and how to plan and schedule the work to complete her school work assignments. However, I knew going in with a solution already in mind might prevent me from understanding, and therefore solving, the right problem, so I decided to ask Zelda herself what the issues were.
Building Empathy
The first step of the design thinking process is to empathize with the end user. Dam and Siang (n.d.) identifies multiple ways to build empathy, including interviews, empathy maps, and journey maps. To better understand some of the challenges Zelda was having, I decided to interview her. Initially I was hoping to work through some of the templates in Mural, but because of some technical and scheduling challenges, we did an unstructured FaceTime interview instead. While we were talking, I was using the technique of The Five Whys (n.d.), asking Zelda what the issues were, and then why she thought they were happening. I was hoping together we might get some new insight into the source of the problems. I also encouraged her to answer for herself, rather than letting her mom, who was eavesdropping on our conversation, answer for her.
Meet Zelda
Zelda is a sixteen year old who just completed Grade 10. She is a bright, happy young woman with a sardonic sense of humour. She has a teacup Chihuahua named Lilly whom she loves dearly, and she enjoys spending some of her time playing video games with online friends.
Zelda’s Challenges
Zelda’s primary challenge is school. She found it challenging before the COVID-19 lockdown, and going virtual in her learning only exacerbated the problem. Zelda and I spent some time talking about the various challenges she has, which I’ve summarized below.
Anxiety
Zelda often feels anxiety about her school work. This can manifest itself during a test, when she feels like she doesn’t have enough time to think through the problems and complete the exam. She feels anxious when she needs to ask a question about something she’s learning. She fears looking stupid or revealing that she doesn’t understand something in front of her classmates or the teacher. She feels that when she asks a question, she gets weird looks from her teachers, which makes her feel like there’s something wrong with her, or she must be stupid. Anxiety also manifests outside of school, like when she has to place an order at a restaurant.
Comprehension
Zelda feels like she has trouble understanding assignments or word problem statements. Sometimes she’ll ask the teacher to explain the problem to her in a different way, which is sometimes successful and sometimes not. She finds it difficult herself to find words to explain the problem she’s having. Zelda finds she doesn’t really enjoy reading, and that she doesn’t really understand or retain what she reads. Because she has difficulty understanding the instructions, she procrastinates on her assignments, as she hopes that taking some time away from the problem will help her understand it better.
Confidence
Zelda feels like she’s the only one having problems, and like she’s being judged by peers and teachers when she asks questions about things she doesn’t understand. When she’s writing an exam, she will try to start with the questions she feels she knows the answer to first, so she has more time to focus on the harder problems. However, as she works through the test, she starts questioning herself and her answers, which leads to more anxiety and panic. She feels like she tricks brain into thinking she’s wrong about everything.
Getting Started
Zelda finds it sometimes difficult to get started on her assignments. She finds writing essays challenging because she’s not sure how to organize her thoughts, and she doesn’t remember all the content she wants to include based on her notes.
Online School
Zelda has found online school even more challenging. She has found teachers sometimes don’t respond to her questions and because of the time delays between asking a question and getting a response, it’s even more difficult to keep up. When she gets a response she doesn’t understand, she loses even more time asking for additional clarity to the question. Her former strategy of asking classmates for help is also not working well, as her classmates often aren’t online at the same time she is, and it’s harder to ask them for help.
Zelda’s Existing Learning Strategies
Zelda finds it helpful to watch other people work through a problem and explain their problem solving approach. She feels that once she has seen someone solve the problem, she can then replicate the problem solving approach. She finds that her classmates can often explain the problem to her in a different way, or use different words than the teacher did, which helps her better understand.
Mulling Over the Problem
After talking with Zelda, I spent a bit of time thinking about our conversation before I tackled the next step of framing the question. While we were talking, I suggested some tools I’d found helpful — like using Mind Mapping (Ayoa, 2015) to take notes, or using index cards to write down ideas for writing papers (FrenchToast Phillip, 2019). I spent some time looking at different YouTube videos to see if I thought they would be helpful to her. I also spent a bit of time researching dyslexia (Dyslexia International, 2014), which lead to some ideas about non-linear thinking, and anxiety (Robbins, 2017), which lead to the idea of reframing anxiety as excitement.
While I think it would be helpful to expand my investigation of the issue to include observing Zelda at school or while she performs her assignments, this was not a practical option at this time, as her school year has just wrapped up, and we are currently self-isolating due to COVID-19. I think it would also be helpful to expand my interviews to include some of her classmates and teachers, to either validate Zelda’s self-impressions, or identify other issues which may be worthy of further design thinking pursuits. Since this effort is about helping Zelda better understand her situation and design solutions to support her, and I have limited time to complete this assignment, I chose to limit the scope of my investigation to just the interview with her.
How Might We Solve The Problem?
To start solving the problem, I thought about each of the topic areas, and some questions I could use to reframe the problem. I started with just a basic “How might we …” questions (“How might We Questions”, n.d.) around each of the problem areas. Because I’m concerned Zelda is already carrying some very negative labels for herself, and I want to encourage her to think more positively, I tried to expand the questions beyond the basics, and use reframing for myself. Below are the questions I came up with, by drilling down from each of the summary topics identified above.
1. How might we reduce anxiety?
a. How can we help Zelda feel safe asking questions?
- Why doesn’t Zelda feel safe right now?
- How can we make it safe for all students to ask questions?
- Why does asking questions mean you’re stupid instead of smart?
b. Why is anxiety a good thing to feel?
c. How might we re-label anxiety? Can we call it excitement? Interest? Curiosity?
- How would re-labeling change or improve her experience?
d. How can we help Zelda calm her panic?
e. Does Zelda need some test taking strategies (e.g., knowing there are 10 questions and 60 minutes to complete means planning to allow 6 minutes per question, or perhaps 5 minutes per question and 10 min for a final review)?
2. How might we improve comprehension?
a. What’s at the root of the comprehension problem?
- Is the problem understanding the words (vocabulary), understanding the intent, or developing a problem solving strategy?
- Is there a learning disability that’s gone undetected?
b. Is it a comprehension problem or a memory (recall) problem?
c. Does Zelda need visual tools to understand problems? Rather than reading to learn, are there other tools she could use, like audio books or YouTube videos?
d. How does Zelda like to learn?
e. If Zelda is a kinesthetic learner, how can we help her translate the problems into something more real-world, tangible, touch-able problems?
f. Where does Zelda already excel at learning and comprehension?
-If Zelda excels at learning and playing video games, what is it about video games that works for her? How do we apply those concepts to school work and assignments?
3. How do we make reading fun and interesting?
a. Why doesn’t Zelda like reading now?
b. Has Zelda always disliked reading? If not, when did it change?
c. How does Zelda like getting information?
4. How might we boost confidence?
a. How do we help Zelda trust herself?
b. How do we help Zelda improve her problem solving abilities?
c. How do we help Zelda re-interpret people’s expressions when she asks a question?
d. How do we help Zelda prove to herself she’s competent at learning?
5. How might we improve note taking?
a. If Zelda struggles with taking notes and organizing ideas, is Zelda a non-linear thinker? What tools might support non-linear thinking?
b. Are schools designed for non-linear thinking?
- What would a school for non-linear thinkers look like? How would it be different from traditional schools?
6. How might we make it easier to get started on assignments?
a. Zelda likes playing video games. Can we use gamification to make assignments more fun to work on?
b. How might Zelda learn to design her own “games” for completing her school work or studying for exams?
7. How might we reframe these challenges into strengths, and then harness those strengths to improve academic performance?
a. Why is academic performance important?
- Is academic performance important for everyone?
b. What happens if we don’t improve academic performance?
c. How do we measure improvement beyond academic performance?
d. Is academic performance the only thing that matters?
8. How do we make online schooling more real-time during COVID-19?
a. How is online learning different from classroom learning?
b. Why doesn’t asynchronous learning work for everyone?
c. Are we leaving some learning styles out with an asynchronous approach?
9. How do we teach problem solving skills to students?
10. How do we teach self-confidence and self-trust to students?
Conclusion
As a result of working through the design thinking process, and asking myself a number of reframing questions, I’ve realized there are a wide variety of next steps I could pursue, depending on the question I want to pursue an answer for. I can choose to go wide with my solution, perhaps by questioning our existing educational model and whether it supports linear or non-linear thinking, the benefits of non-linear thinking, etc. Or I can choose to go narrow, focusing on just my niece and resolving her issues. I realize the value in asking reframing questions, and in asking myself why over and over again (what is the problem, why is this a problem, is this really a problem, what’s the opposite of this problem, what’s the strength of this problem, etc.). Through this process, I’ve shifted my perception of my niece’s issue as one related to organizational systems and tools, to one of self-confidence and self-trust. I can see my niece is carrying a lot of labels, one’s I suspect other people have given her (her teachers, her parents, and probably from me as well), and which are not really helping her solve the problem’s she’s facing. While I think she could benefit from learning some studying strategies, note taking skills and problem solving strategies, I believe the issue we need to work on is helping her trust her own judgement about her interpretation of a problem and how to resolve it. So, I would define the problem statement as:
How might we help Zelda trust herself when working through her school work, and in life in general?
I’m excited to share my thinking with her, to see where we might go next on this journey of discovery and prototyping. My next steps are to talk with her and her mom about how we might improve her self-confidence skills.
References
Ayoa. (2015, January 26). How to Mind Map with Tony Buzan [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5Y4pIsXTV0
Dam, Rikke Friis and Teo Yu Siang (n.d.). Design Thinking: Getting Started with Empathy. Interaction Design. Retrieved June 17, 2020 from https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/design-thinking-getting-started-with-empathy
Dyslexia International. (2014, August 9). The gift of dyslexia [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVseLzwxceM
FrenchToast Phillip. (2019, February 19). The Notecard System: The Key to Making the Most Out of Your Reading. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQmfB8v66hY
How Might We Questions. (n.d.) Standford D School. Retrieved June 17, 2020 from https://dschool.stanford.edu/resources/how-might-we-questions
Robbins, Mel. (2017, February 8). The Secret to Stopping Fear and Anxiety (That Actually Works) [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6n8i7ua0mSw&t=390s
The Five Whys. (n.d.) Design Kit. Retrieved June 17, 2020 from https://www.designkit.org/methods/the-five-whys
