June 2022

Thinking Made Visible Through Design By Mr Shane Skillen, Head of Learning Innovation and Design

As I reflect on Technologies as a teaching area, I cannot help but think how fortunate we have been on the School Wide Pedagogy journey. The concept of ‘making thinking visible’ has been explicit in our learning criteria and dimensions across our various junior and senior electives. The now discontinued Information Technology Systems (ITS) and the Junior Year 9 elective Innovative Design (ID) used Design, Develop and Evaluate , our current subject Design uses Exploring, Devising, Synthesis and Evaluation and Representing and Communicating . More than just a list of cognitive verbs, these dimensions require students to capture, collate and communicate the raw process of what each of these dimensions entails, rather than an abstracted, polished end product, reliant on both itself and drafting to ascertain depth, complexity of thought, and adherence to methodologies. These tasks provide the opportunity for students to develop confidence, and become comfortable with submitting work that is not polished, or in its final form. It is inherently raw, and emphasis is placed on them synthesising their ideas and justifying further development through critical evaluation as demonstrated in these snippets of Year 12 student work.

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Brisbane Girls Grammar School