Week 9: First Draft of the Abstract + 5 'supporting images'

Communication design can be used to improve student engagement by creating teacher resources that encourage a diverse and creative learning environment. (Secondary level)

A recent NCEA review by the Ministry of Education has highlighted a number of issues, the need for greater teacher support among them. It’s well known (and researched) that teachers can make or break classroom atmospheres, yet many NZ teachers are overworked, underpaid, and underappreciated. So how can we expect teachers to create positive learning spaces under this immense workload and pressure? 

The children of today, are the changemakers of tomorrow. But are New Zealand students being adequately prepared for the future? Teachers aren’t being given the opportunity to teach to their full potential. They don’t have the time to pay attention to individual students differing needs, meaning that many students are slipping through cracks in the system, being forgotten and left behind with handicapped futures compared to their peers.

If teachers are better supported, they'll have more time and energy to spend on their students, therefore students will have
a better classroom environment, which will lead to better student engagement and more effective learning overall.

I want to use experience and information design alongside play theory to change the way teachers make their class content. I want to support teachers in creating a diverse and inclusive curriculum, making the process easier in order to save them time while doing so.

I’ve conducted a number of surveys with a range of participants; teachers, parents, current students, and recent high school graduates. The responses both validated some of my previous assumptions about the NZ education system, and also raised ideas that I hadn’t yet considered. There was a clear underlying tone of dissent and frustration across all survey responses, with 87.7% of respondents having a mixed or negative tone about NCEA overall. New Zealand wants change, students need change

My initial research suggests that using a collaborative, creative approach to a teacher ‘resource’ will be the most effective. In response I’ve researched play theory to inspire a ‘gamified’ design. Early prototypes have been focused on content rather than appearance as I believe purpose is equally as important as technique. I’ve begun to create a small manifesto to support my own designs (pitched to teachers) that embodies all of my current research about challenging the traditional and outdated education system. This has allowed me to ‘go big’ and explore as well as ‘going deep’ with the more specified teacher resource deliverable.

I will develop these Ideas through a prototype- test- redesign- repeat- process over the 6 week break continuing into semester 2. These design outcomes will adapt and change as they’re informed by practice based research, but they will still achieve the same aim of improving student engagement through teacher support resources.

5 'Supporting Images':

Harris, Morgan. “Teaching High School Adolescents: Chapter 4 Intelligence Theory.” EDPR Morgan Harris, n.d. https://sites.google.com/site/edrpmorganharris/home/chapter-4-intelligence-theory

NZQA. “How NCEA Works.” New Zealand Qualification Authority, n.d. https://www.nzqa.govt.nz/ncea/understanding-ncea/how-ncea-works/

Jefferson, Lauren. “Corporate Zombies: Combat the rise of Unengaged Employees.” The Strategic, CFO, 13 Sept. 2017. https://strategiccfo.com/corporate-zombies-combat-rise-unengaged-employees/

LightfieldStudios. “Young Professional Group Working on new Business Project in Small Business Office, Small Business.” CanStock Photo, International, 3 Jan. 2017. https://www.canstockphoto.com/young-professional-group-working-on-new-48418061.html

“Need help getting started with gamification?” Learning Experts, n.d. https://learningexperts.com.au/need-help-getting-started-with-gamification/