Design Thinking Modes &

Mindsets

Ignatian Education
Methodology

(d.school Bootcamp)

Context:

Sample Activities

(Thon 2013)

Empathize:
Uncovertheneedsthatpeoplehavewhich
theymayormaynotbeawareof
Identifytherightuserstodesignfor
Discovertheemotionsthatguide
behaviors

Constructivism
(Lecture Presentations, Vygotsky & Piaget Primers)

Mindsets:
Focus on human values
Empathy for the people you are
designing for

Human experience is the starting point

in Jesuit education, and learning never
occurs in a vacuum.
Ignatius valued the richness of ones life
experiences and urged students to
become attentive to what they are
experiencing both within themselves
and the reality around them.

Inquiry & investigation / Articulation of prior

knowledge and preconceptions

In this stage, students are not handed a problem and are

learning about facts passively. They are rather constructing
knowledge by interacting with people from various
sociocultural backgrounds and constructing knowledge
based on their experiences.
This stage speaks to Vygotskian approaches to the
co-construction of knowledge and the dynamic potential of
learning within sociocultural contexts and
zones of
proximal development.
Vygotsky viewed learning as the result of interactions
between learners and their social environment.
According to Piaget, learners possess a set of internalized
schemamental constructs through which the world is
interpreted. In this stage students have the opportunity to
articulate and challenge prior knowledge and
preconceptions by being fully immersed and engaged in an
authentic environment.

Activities:

Observations
Interviews
Inquiry
Investigation
Collecting Data
Conversation
Engaging and
interacting with
others on a
compassionate
level

Define:

Experience:

Cooperative learning

Activities:

Providesfocusandframestheproblem
Providesareferenceforevaluating
competingideas
Empowersteammemberstomake
decisionsinresponsetothehighlevel
goalsoftheteam
Fuelsbrainstormsbysuggestinghow
mightwestatements
Capturestheheartsandmindsofpeople
youmeet
Savesyoufromtheimpossibletaskof
developingsolutionconceptsthatareall
thingstoallpeople
Yourevisitandreformulateasyoulearn
bydoing
Guidesyourinnovationefforts
Mindsets:
Craft clarity
Produce a coherent vision out of
messy problems
Frame it in a way to inspire others
and fuel ideation
Radical collaboration

Ignatius encouraged using imagination,

feelings, and the mind in looking at
ones experiences.
Ignatian pedagogy views experience as
any activity in which, in addition to a
cognitive grasp of the matter being
considered, some sensation of an
affective nature is also registered by the
student.
Students need to be attentive and
active in their comprehension and
understanding of the experiences and
reality that confronts them.
Educators have the opportunity to
create conditions whereby students
recollect and gather the material of
their own experiences in order to distill
what they understand in terms of the
facts, feelings, values, insights, and
intuitions that they bring to the matter
at hand.

Students in this stage are provided the opportunity to

develop higher mental functions through social interactions
with
More Knowledgeable Others
(MKO) through a process
called cultural mediation.
New knowledge is incorporated into existing schemas
through assimilation.
Vygotsky viewed the authority of the critical teacher as
dialectical; as teachers relinquish the authority of truth
providers, they assume the mature authority of facilitators of
student inquiry and problem posing. In relation to such
authority, students gain the ability to become self-directed
human beings capable of producing their own knowledge.

Brainstorm
Collaborate
Visualize
Conceptualize
Articulate
Classify
Concept Map
Define
Present

Ideate:

Reflection:

New schemas are constructed by students

Activities:

Thegoalofideationistoexploreawide
solutionspacebothalargequantityof
ideasanddiversityamongthoseideas.
Fromthisvastrepositoryofideasdesigner
canbuildprototypestotestwithusers.

Mindsets:
Communicate your vision in an
impactful and meaningful way by
creating experiences
Using illustrative visuals and
telling good stories

Ignatius viewed reflection as a

formative and liberating experience
which shapes the consciousness of
students - their habitual attitudes,
values, and beliefs as well and their
ways of thinking which may compel
them to move beyond knowledge to
action.
The Ignatian educational model insists
that reflection should always move
students toward greater appreciation of
the lives of others and of the actions,
policies, or structures that help or
hinder mutual growth and development
as members of the human family.
Educators have opportunities to
formulate questions that will broaden
students awareness an impel them to
consider the viewpoints of others.

New knowledge promotes the development of new schema

through accommodation.
Both Piaget and Vygotsky saw the value in interacting with
people of all ages. In this stage, student development
requires them to abandon old perspectives or schemas in
favor of new more complex ones. The various perspectives
that emerge from this brainstorming stage will be optimal to
bring about such change. The more different that these views
and perspectives are, the more rich and impactful experience
they will have in this mode.
In this stage, teachers provide the opportunity and
scaffolding to lead students to visually represent their
understanding of the problem and develop new schemas to
address these problems in creative and innovative ways.

Brainstorm
Collaborate
Visualize
Conceptualize
Articulate
Classify
Deduce
Concept Map
Define
Present
Communicate
Illustrate

Prototype:

Action:

Hands-on experiential learning

Activities:

Prototypingisgettingideasand
explorationsoutofyourheadandintothe
physicalworld.
Aprototypecanbeanythingthattakesa
physicalformbeitawallofpostit
notes,aroleplayingactivity,aspace,an
object,aninterface,orevenastoryboard.
Inearlyexplorationskeepyourprototypes
roughandrapidtoallowyourselftolearn
quicklyandinvestigatealotofdifferent
possibilities.

Mindsets:
Embrace experimentation
Bias towards action
Prototyping is not simple a way to
validate your idea; it is an integral
part of your innovation process
We build to think and learn

Ignatius wanted Jesuit schools to form

young people who could and would
contribute intelligently and effectively
to the welfare of society.
Ignatian pedagogy compels students to
move beyond knowledge to action and
choose the best possible course of
action based on what they have
learned. (i.e., Given what Ive learned,
how do I act differently?)
Educators provide opportunities that
will challenge the imagination and
exercise the will of students to choose
the best possible course of action that
flows from what they have learned.

Learning happens when new skills and concepts are on the

edge of emergencein the
Zone of Proximal Development
(ZPD).
Students need play, practice, and direct experience to
assimilate and accommodate new ideas.
Instruction requires assistance, or scaffolding, from a
More
Knowledgeable
Other

(MKO). The MKO is needed to develop

new skills and concepts (apprenticeships)
In this stage, the teacher is the MKO who will guide students
through prototyping using various techniques, software
tools, and media that are appropriate to each students level
or ZPD with regards to creating designs.
Students in this stage are engaged in hands-on experiences
and exercises to create a model study space. They will be
working with material and technology tools that they
probably have never worked with before, but with the
mindset of role play they are behaving like real designers,
using the tools of real designers and makers, to materialize
their vision for the study space.

Create
Design
Craft
Construct
Make

Test:

Evaluation:

Authentic performance based assessment

Activities:

Torefineyourprototypesandsolutions.
Testinginformsthenextiterationsof
prototypes.Sometimesthismeansgoing
backtothedrawingboard.
Tolearnmoreaboutyouruser.Testingis
anotheropportunitytobuildempathy
throughobservationandengagementit
oftenyieldsunexpectedinsights.

Ignatius stressed evaluation as a

significant and necessary follow-up to
reflection and action.
Ignatian pedagogy uses several
evaluative approaches for students
including: mentoring, journals,
self-evaluations, among many others.

In this stage, students have an opportunity to engage in

giving and receiving feedback on the prototypes with their
colleagues as well as teachers and other stakeholders.
The purpose of this assessment is primarily to gain new
insights and understandings and create new schemas to
propel iterations to the design.

Self assessment
Conferencing
Portfolio
assessment
Questioning

TotestandrefineyourPOV.Sometimes
testingrevealsthatnotonlydidyounot
getthesolutionright,butalsothatyou
havefailedtoframetheproblem
correctly.

Mindsets:
Feedback from the users you are
designing for is fundamental to good
design thinking

Evaluation is important in the Ignatian

five-step methodology because
re-evaluating ones process of reflecting
goes beyond I learned a lot.
The newly realized need to grow may
serve to launch the student once again
into the five-step cycle of the Ignatian
Learning paradigm.
Educators have many opportunities to
work with students in helping them
make good decisions and commitments.

Assessment is based on the process and not just the end

product. It is constructive and propels students into new
learning cycles.
The Testing and assessment is conducted with the context of
authentic tasks.