The Strengths, Challenges, and Lessons Learned About Co-Design: An Equity-Based Approach to Designing Instructional Materials

Session Type: Conversation Roundtable

Abstract

Designing, testing, refining, and scaling effective interventions and classroom curricula is one of the most complex challenges in improving children’s academic outcomes. Among the many considerations that need to be taken into account during this process are content alignment, instructional effectiveness, teacher and school buy-in, and student engagement. Historically, those closest to implementation, sustainability, and instructional impact (i.e. teachers and students) have been excluded from the design process. Recently, a growing emphasis on inclusive research and development (co-design)–a development process where the knowledge and experiences of all partners are centered from the beginning–has been emphasized. Yet, this process is not without its own challenges. Co-design requires members of research and development teams (teachers, researchers, administrators, project managers, developers) to collaboratively construct a vision and shared goals. The focus of this conversation roundtable is on the strengths and challenges of engaging in co-design. Panelists (Andres Bustamante, Amanda Mayes, Lourdes Acevedo-Farag, Adam Smith) are members of teams co-designing mathematics and executive functioning interventions/curricula for real-world classrooms. The panelists hold a variety of roles across co-design projects (principal investigator, project manager, classroom teacher turned graduate student, and designing for equity manager). Moderated by David Purpura, the panelists will discuss their roles in projects aimed at improving math and executive functioning skills in traditionally underserved student populations. The session will address the role of inclusive and rapid R&D in project development, focusing on how educators, researchers, and developers work together on equal footing to create effective classroom practices and tools.

Sub Unit

• Education, Schooling

Moderator

• David James Purpura, Purdue University, West Lafayette

Panelists

• Andres Sebastian Bustamante, University of California - Irvine

• Amanda S. Mayes, Purdue University, West Lafayette

• Lourdes Michelle Acevedo-Farag, University of California - Irvine

• Adam Smith