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‘The Dorm’: FNMI Design Space

Learning in High School

Vanessa Pavan

Education 45XX

University of Lethbridge

November 29, 2019

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Inquiry Question

One of my goals at the beginning of the semester was to integrate my Professional

Inquiry Project (PIP) as an applied study with my students. The vice-principal approached me

with an opportunity to explore a ‘design space’ project that would be completed in coordination

with the Aboriginal Education (AbEd) department. I collaborated with the AbEd support worker,

vice-principal, and district AbEd workers to create a ‘design space’ in a wing of the AbEd room.

The PIP was focused on the question: Does design space learning enhance student engagement in

the inquiry process? Additionally, the PIP investigated how the design space room would work

towards achieving reconciliation.

Rationale

Design space learning is empowering students to purposefully create a space using a

design thinking structure. This design thinking structure breaks down into three main phases of

the design process: ideation (what do you need to include), iteration (what do you do to

improve), prototype (what do you create and how to improve for next time) (IDEO, 2012).

Creating an experiential opportunity for students to explore Residentials Schools empowered

them to use these new design thinking tools, as opposed to creating a poster project or essay,

students were challenged to think about how a space or room can be powerful for viewers.

Ultimately, by choosing to do this project using this design thinking method, students were more

engaged in the inquiry process as they could visually see their ideation come to life. Further,

creating this project allowed our class to reach out to other students in the school and the

surrounding area. Approaching this project by completely transforming a space empowered the

students to apply their knowledge in a completely different way, thus making it a more valuable

learning opportunity. Moreover, the prospect of having other students visit the space challenged
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the students to ensure that their symbols and choice of quotes properly educated and evoked a

feeling in the visitors.

Method

To begin the project there were several steps involved in planning, scaffolding, and

executing the space. The original idea came from an exhibit the vice-principal had visited several

years ago, which focused on the impacts of Residential Schools in Canada. I took this idea and

created an inquiry united based on building a space that would help the students to develop an

emotional understanding of Residential Schools.

To develop this idea, I created a ‘design space’ inquiry project for my grade nine Social

Studies class, where students could explore their understanding of Residential Schools. The goal

of this project was for students to design a room that guests could walk into and further their

understanding of Residential School legacies. Therefore, I designed a unit plan using backward

design principles and encouraged students to consider how they could evoke an emotional

response from their audience when they entered the room and experienced the installation. The

focus was to engage students and empower their discovery within Residential Schools as there

was no “predefined outcome[s] but a general topic which students [posed] and [answered]

questions of their own making” (Gini-Newman, 2018, p. 40). Students were introduced to the

topic of the unit and using a K-W-L chart and began to unpack their understanding of Residential

Schools. From there, the students were divided into design teams and provided different topics to

investigate to help create a cohesive ‘design space’.

To compliment the unit, students participated in a field trip to the St. Eugene Resort,

previously a Residential School. The experience at St. Eugene provided the framework and

inspiration for ‘The Dorm’. St. Eugene, now a golf resort, has transformed their building into a
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hotel. During the tour there is little evidence of the Residential School framework left, however

some symbols do remain such as the original bricks, timbers, and some windows used in the

building. The students picked up on the physical temperature as well as the overwhelming use of

bricks throughout the building. Although the resort now does not replicate a Residential School,

it provoked further research both into the reconciliation process and the state of Residential

Schools. The field trip generated a lot of excitement within the students and once we reconvened

and debriefed in class, the students began the ideation phase.

After the students gathered a series of ideas from primary source research and the field

trip, they began to design the space in the AbEd room. Principles of the Thinking Classroom

teaching pedagogy suggests that there are several elements to “The Creative Dimension” one of

the pillars being “creations must be original or unique,” meaning there must be a novel element

in the development of something ‘creative’ (Gini-Newman, 2018, p. 50). The theory in The

Creative Dimension, is to engage students by constructing a novel expression of learning, and by

building a physical structure as a whole group approach to convey learning I achieved this goal.

The students were enthusiastic about having the autonomy to create and design a space to display

their learning and exhibit their understanding of Residential Schools.

The room came together over a period of fifteen classes with the help of my teacher

mentors, Selkirk staff, students, and AbEd support workers. While building the room, I used the

the ‘Attitudes’ strategies of Doorley and Witthof’s (2012) philosophy in Make Space. The

process includes six main values which are: “Collaborate Across Boundaries; Show, Don’t Tell;

Bias Toward Action; Focus on Human Values; Be Mindful of Process; Prototype Toward a

Solution” (Doorley & Witthof, 2012, p. 52).

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Doorley and Witthof (2012) recommend to “collaborate across boundaries” (p. 52). With

cross curricular learning at the forefront of education, my school team took the opportunity to

explore the importance of symbolism in English while discussing Truth and Reconciliation in

Social Studies. They took those skills from English and applied them by choosing purposeful

materials and artifacts for the design space room. During the ideation phase, students generated a

comprehensive display that incorporated questions in combination with symbolic objects

throughout the room. Building certain aspects of the projects allowed for students to personalize

their learning. This highlighted the student’s strengths in areas that are not traditionally

represented in a social studies class, such as, wood shop, metals, and art. Building these

collaborative connections horizontally amongst the students and vertically between staff and

students allowed the class to flourish not only in social studies, but in the larger Selkirk

Secondary community.

Once students were comfortable with collaborating, it allowed for success within the

second principle of the design template, ‘Show, Don’t Tell’ (Doorley & Witthof, 2012, p. 51).

One key aspect of the room was to create a space, unlike traditional museums, that evoked an

emotion. Doorley and Witthoft in Make Space (2012) discuss a design template for shaping

attitudes and behaviours in a room using a ‘show, don’t tell’ format (p. 52). The ‘show, don’t

tell’ format suggests that “conveying ideas through details rather than conjecture…and using

authentic emotion tension to build empathy in your audience” will help to create an impactful

space (Doorley & Witthoft, 2012, p. 52). So, students had to be thoughtful in elements such as

the choice of color, lightening, and contrast to ensure there was emotional tension within the

room. For example, the students choose to focus on the color of black for the different kinds of

emotions that are associated with this color. Overall, the students were cognisant of choosing
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elements that created a stark contrast within the room, successfully evoking dark, fearful, and

somber emotions for the visitors.

Students naturally are good at ‘bias toward action,’ “do something first…talk and think

about it later” (Doorley & Witthoft, 2012, p. 52). Throughout this process, the design portion

became a ‘just try it’ attitude between the students and educators, and as an educator, it was

exciting to see student’s problem solving, thinking creatively and critically during the design and

building process. Importantly, and as discussed in my results, students were invited to provide a

short video reflection on their experience, as Doorley & Witthoft (2012) identify as a key

component to an effective ‘bias toward action’ stage, of creating and designing the space in the

AbEd room (p. 52).

Most significantly, students engaged in “[focusing] on human values” where students had

to “challenge their own beliefs in an effort to engage and understand others” (Doorley &

Witthoft, 2012, p. 52). Understanding the perspective of Residential School survivors and the

plethora of information surrounding Residential Schools was crucial for the students. In thinking

about this stage of the project, as a class we had to unpack why we were doing this project in the

first place. As Sinek (2017) discusses in his book “Find Your Why: A Practical Guide For

Discovering Purpose For You and Your Team” once the class understands the why of their

contribution or project, their connection to the people on the team and in the worlds becomes

deeper and more meaningful. Therefore, once the students identified the legacy of Residential

Schools in Canada’s history, they were able to identify the purpose of this design space process.

The fifth principle is ‘be mindful of the process’ an area that due to many constraints was

lacking in the execution of the project. Although this process requires time to think and reflect on

possible alterations and improvements, the nature of traditional schooling environments does not
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permit extraneous amounts of time to be reflective and to try and recreate designs in the given

period of time. In this case that was a mere three weeks. Doorley & Witthoft (2012) note that

“being truly mindful of process [someone] can achieve a balance between knowing that [they]

are going to fail and the fact that the anticipated failure will make the next step more productive

and lead to better results” (p.53). Although this project was not a failure, there were elements

including the gathering of materials and allocation of tasks amongst the students that will have to

be improved upon with a different class. Ultimately with the installation of this ‘design room’

there will be future teachers, including myself, that can learn about the process and the failures in

doing such a project, and create an improved design in the future.

Results

Finally, the sixth principal “prototype toward a solution,” is where this project serves its

purpose. At Selkirk, there has not been an endeavor in developing a ‘design space’ like this, and

in doing so, it provided a framework, structure, and example for possible teachers to learn from.

For the students involved in this process, the creative and critical thinking aspects allowed them

to deepen their understanding of Residential Schools, but also of the ‘design space’ process. In

their reflection, students were enthusiastic about the project, and many commented on the fun

and exclusivity of the experience. Throughout the process, students would bring artifacts and

ideas to class every day, which demonstrated to me that they were thinking about this project

outside of class time. Compared to an in-class poster inquiry project from the previous unit, the

passion from the whole group was excellent. Below are several reflections from our experience:

“I thought it was fun because I got to contribute lots"

“This was a really good project”

“Awesome hands-on experience, not just research and an essay”

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“We got to get out and experience more”

“The researching was awesome, and I learned a lot of stuff, and I think the way we

display it was really cool”

“I like how we got to explore a new area downstairs and it was really fun”

“I didn’t know anything about residential schools before I came here so it was really

interesting to learn with my class”

“This project was pretty epic; it was fun to get out and create something like this”

Although this is a small selection of the feedback from the students, the entire class was grateful

for this experience as they were extremely proud of their accomplishments.

Perhaps the most rewarding aspect was when the room became open to the public and

other classes to come and experience the space. There was an overwhelmingly positive reception

of the room, in part because the aboriginal support workers at the middle school – who were part

of the ideation phase of the project and – were thrilled with the overall results when it was

completed. In addition, the teachers and students from the middle schools were thoroughly

impressed with the thought and effort put into the room, as many commented on how powerful

the space was for them and their students. One grade six teacher noted, “I thought it was really

powerful allowing students the opportunity to research and express their learning this way. It was

great for the grade sixes to see that a grade nine class made this effort,” after her visit to ‘The

Dorm’. Throughout the week, classes from the middle school and other classes within the Selkirk

community took the opportunity to incorporate the space into their current classroom curriculum.

Ultimately, ‘The Dorm’ became a prototype that was precious in nature, but the lessons that were

gleaned from it were even more important, both for students and educators.
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References

Case, R., & Balcaen, P. (2016). Supporting a Community of Critical Inquiry. In Case, R & Clark,

P. (Ed.), The Anthology of Social Studies: Issues and Strategies for Elementary Teachers

(pp. 100-109). Roland Case and Penny Clark: Vancouver, CA.

Doorley, S., & Witthoft, S. (2012). Make Space: How to set the stage for creative collaboration.

John Wiley & Sons Inc: Hoboken, NJ.

IDEO (2012). Design Thinking for Educators. Retrieved from

https://education.uky.edu/nxgla/wp-content/uploads/sites/33/2016/11/Design-Thinking-

for-Educators.pdf.

Gini-Newman, G. (2018). Creating thinking classroom: Leading education change for this

century. SAGE Publications: Thousands Oaks, CA.

Sinek, S., Mead, D., Docker, P. (2017). Find you why: A practical guide for discovering

purpose for you and your team. Penguin Random House: New York, NY.