1.
Design in the school
classrooms –
Applying Design tools to
improve quality of
education
Kshitiz Anand*
Director & Head of Operations (India Studio)
Jean Haag
Transcultural Design Masters Student
ICoRD, 8th January 2015

2.
Summary
1. Design needs to come out of its elitist image
2. Need to implant the value of design from a young age
3. Quality of education has to be improved across the country
4. Can we apply the tools of design to primary school education
TCD India Studio / ICoRD/ 08 January 2015 / Kshitiz Anand, Jean Haag

3.
My story of design
TCD India Studio / ICoRD/ 08 January 2015 / Kshitiz Anand, Jean Haag

4.
By luck to passion to vision
Story of Design
2015
no design know design ?
2001
design student with design students
in a design school heading a design school
TCD India Studio / ICoRD/ 08 January 2015 / Kshitiz Anand, Jean Haag

5.
14 years into design, around the world, 1 conclusion

6.
Design to school classrooms
TCD India Studio / ICoRD/ 08 January 2015 / Kshitiz Anand, Jean Haag

7.
Can Design Thinking help ?
TCD India Studio / ICoRD/ 08 January 2015 / Kshitiz Anand, Jean Haag

8.
Adopt a system-based thinking approach

9.
Keeping in mind each stakeholder

10.
Working with constraints

11.
Working with a methodology

12.
Design Intervention points
TCD India Studio / ICoRD/ 08 January 2015 / Kshitiz Anand, Jean Haag

13.
Existing classrooms and education environment

14.
Interactions in the classrooms

15.
What design tools do we use ?
Designerly ways of knowing / learning
TCD India Studio / ICoRD/ 08 January 2015 / Kshitiz Anand, Jean Haag

16.
Values and benefits
• No idea is a bad idea and it
encourages everyone to
participate
• Generate many ideas by
promoting Divergent thinking
• Doing things with time constraints
by having a deadline
• Learn to group together ideas and
build onto others’ ideas
• Encourage to speak up
Brainstorming
Design Tools / Designerly ways of knowing and learning
TCD India Studio / ICoRD/ 08 January 2015 / Kshitiz Anand, Jean Haag

17.
Values and benefits
• Promote drawing and doodling
• Artistic communication is key
towards overall child development
• Take notes by writing keywords,
making doodles, illustrations,
represented by arrow marks to
give a sequential processing of
information.
• It also allows the information to be
remembered for a longer time.
Visual Note Taking
Design Tools / Designerly ways of knowing and learning
TCD India Studio / ICoRD/ 08 January 2015 / Kshitiz Anand, Jean Haag

18.
Values and benefits
• Make textbooks information easy
to grasp.
• Understanding Visual Order and
fundamentals of typography
facilitate the learning process by
identifying what information is
important and needs to be
consumed first.
• Helps in ‘revision’ of knowledge
during examination
Visual Order and Information Processing
Design Tools / Designerly ways of knowing and learning
TCD India Studio / ICoRD/ 08 January 2015 / Kshitiz Anand, Jean Haag

19.
Values and benefits
• Building the ability to ask right
questions
• The teacher assumes ignorance
for a certain topic
• Help the children build the answer
by themselves and extract
knowledge out of it.
• Encourage children to ask
questions from early age.
• Playing the ‘Why’ game
Socratic Questioning
Design Tools / Designerly ways of knowing and learning
TCD India Studio / ICoRD/ 08 January 2015 / Kshitiz Anand, Jean Haag

20.
Values and benefits
• It influences their language
development and story
comprehension at a young age
• Provide appropriate occasions to
play with language, while gaining
an appreciation of the sounds and
meaning of words
• Enhances self confidence to be
able to present to larger audience
Storytelling
Design Tools / Designerly ways of knowing and learning
TCD India Studio / ICoRD/ 08 January 2015 / Kshitiz Anand, Jean Haag

21.
Values and benefits
• Kids actively generate and
capitalize knowledge
• Build a sense of competition to
push them forward
• More likely to develop strategy
elaboration, leadership and
teamwork skills
Gamification
Design Tools / Designerly ways of knowing and learning
TCD India Studio / ICoRD/ 08 January 2015 / Kshitiz Anand, Jean Haag

22.
Values and benefits
• Learning through hands-on
activity (prototyping) is more
appealing for the kids
• Equip classes with broad set of
stationery and other materials that
would help children prototype.
• Paper and cardboard, different
pens and pencils, raw materials
(clay, wood, fabric, plastic), paint,
scrap items (water bottles broken
household items).
Rapid Prototyping
Design Tools / Designerly ways of knowing and learning
TCD India Studio / ICoRD/ 08 January 2015 / Kshitiz Anand, Jean Haag

23.
Values and benefits
• Avoid focuses on accumulating
raw knowledge to do away with
rote learning.
• The curriculum should not be the
main motivator for the teacher
• This would allow knowloefge to
be retained beyond its short life
span as is today
Critical Thinking
Design Tools / Designerly ways of knowing and learning
TCD India Studio / ICoRD/ 08 January 2015 / Kshitiz Anand, Jean Haag

24.
Did we try these out ?
TCD India Studio / ICoRD/ 08 January 2015 / Kshitiz Anand, Jean Haag

25.
Design tool and methodologies driven
work at Happy Horizons Trust
Workshops in schools across India
Workshops with kids at conferences
and events
Partner with organizations like
Teach for India (Pune, Mumbai, Delhi,
Bangalore), Mantra for Change
(Bangalore), EduGenie (Guwahati)
TCD India Studio / ICoRD/ 08 January 2015 / Kshitiz Anand, Jean Haag

26.
Conclusion
TCD India Studio / ICoRD/ 08 January 2015 / Kshitiz Anand, Jean Haag

27.
TCD India Studio / ICoRD/ 08 January 2015 / Kshitiz Anand, Jean Haag

28.
Question the process of learning and what is
learning itself
Conclusion
TCD India Studio / ICoRD/ 08 January 2015 / Kshitiz Anand, Jean Haag

29.
Look at the stakeholders involved in the learning
process
Conclusion
TCD India Studio / ICoRD/ 08 January 2015 / Kshitiz Anand, Jean Haag

30.
Rethink the space in which the learning happens
and knowledge is delivered
Conclusion
TCD India Studio / ICoRD/ 08 January 2015 / Kshitiz Anand, Jean Haag

31.
Impart education that looks at overall
development of children
Conclusion
• Student’s cognitive ability: Brainstorming, Critical Thinking, Socratic
Questioning
• Student’s learning skills: Rapid prototyping, Gamification,
Understanding Visual order and Information Processing, Visual Note
Taking
• Student’s personality development: Storytelling, Presentations
TCD India Studio / ICoRD/ 08 January 2015 / Kshitiz Anand, Jean Haag

32.
Future Work
TCD India Studio / ICoRD/ 08 January 2015 / Kshitiz Anand, Jean Haag

33.
Taking the paper forward
Conclusion
• Design Thinking workshops in schools through the Happy Horizons
Trust
• Partner with more schools across India
• Promote design thinking from a young age
• Training of teachers to be able to conduct sessions on their own and
use the tools it in their teaching
TCD India Studio / ICoRD/ 08 January 2015 / Kshitiz Anand, Jean Haag

34.
THANK YOU
Kshitiz Anand
Director & Head of Operations (India Studio)
k.anand@lecolededesign.com
[twitter] @kshitiz
[m] + 91 95 35 20 68 28
[skype] kshitiz.a

35.
www.lecolededesign.com