Conditions That Support Teachers as Participatory Designers: Two Case Studies of Technology Design for Knowledge-Building Environments

• In Event: 60.028 - Teachers as Designers of Technology-Enhanced Learning

Abstract

Objective
Our poster investigates the design participation of teachers in the development of curriculum materials and software applications for knowledge building environments (Scardamalia & Bereiter, 2006). We investigated two research teams, one from Canada and one from Singapore. Both teams included teachers, researchers, and software developers. We examined how teachers contributed throughout our processes, from design to enactment of technology-enhanced learning applications.

Perspectives
Participatory design has emerged as an important methodology in several fields including architecture, engineering, public health, community development, and education (Schuler & Namioka, 1993). End-users are thus engaged in the design process in an effort to ensure the “use, usability, and utility” of a product (Shrader et al. 2001). More recently, educational researchers have engaged teachers as participants in the design of educational innovations, guided by the reasoning that such inclusion will yield more ecologically appropriate, viable, and resonant materials and activities.

Methods
Translating the principles of participatory design into practice is a complex process, requiring the careful management of multiple roles, group dynamics and tensions. We adopted a case study methodology (Yin, 2003) as an analytical lens to study a complex mechanism related to the structured (Brandt, 2006), yet situated and emergent (Barab, 2004) practices that characterize participatory design.
To address the theoretical understanding of teacher participation in co-design work, we answered the following research questions:
1. In what ways do teachers participate in the design process?
2. From the perspective of the teachers in our case studies, what are the conditions that support them in their design work?

Data sources
The Canadian case study draws on design documentation and interview data to understand the design participation of teachers and the conditions that supported them. The Singapore case study employs a discourse analysis of transcripts from design meetings and interviews to understand teachers’ design contributions and perspectives.

Findings
Our findings show that teachers participated in our design processes in four main ways:
1. Engaging in theoretical discussions; theoretical discussions grounded design work.
2. Collaborating with other stakeholders; teacher-input guided designs.
3. Reflecting about pedagogy and practice; teachers explored how the software would be implemented with their students.
4. Experimenting with different enactment scenarios.

Our findings showed that the following three conditions supported teachers in our design processes:
1. Allowing for emergent design processes; teachers shared in the ownership of the direction and responsibility for the outcome.
2. Designing with context in mind; the design process was situated in the context of implementation.
3. Cultivating an atmosphere of trust and inclusion.

Scholarly significance of the work
Findings from our case studies underscore the need for research teams to include teachers throughout the design process, prioritizing discussions of theory within design activities, and allowing opportunities for contextualized investigations. Finally, it is important to make room, within the design process, for teachers to elaborate and reflect on how they will implement the designed curriculum and technology innovations with their students.

Authors

• Rebecca M. Quintana, University of Toronto

• James D. Slotta, University of Toronto

• Esther C.L. Tan, Singapore Ministry of Education

• Hyo Jeong So, National Institute of Education - Nanyang Technological University

• Karen Könings