The traditional school day, defined by a one-size-fits-all approach and a lack of physical activity, is hardly optimized for student’s intellectual and social-emotional development. In an era of mass standardization, schools must incorporate more personalization and physical activity into the school day to adequately support students’ social-emotional and academic growth.
“Children are by nature curious and playful. There’s a reason for that. Self-directed exploration and play are how they learn. Children were designed by nature to educate themselves by playing and exploring. And yet our schools shut off these natural ways of learning.”
-Peter Gray
Sedentariness:
As learning became more standardized, students became more sedentary. Students spend most of the day sitting with little time to explore, socialize and play.
In average, elementary school students in the United States:
Sit in a class for
8 hours
Are in recess for
20-25 min
We flipped the switch on the conventional education approach
How?
We found a teacher who wanted to try something new. She saw gaps in the South Bronx Classical Charter school system and wanted her students to experience more joy and creativity in the classroom
Engagements
Jar of Emotions
When we met her, she was teaching fractions, so we designed a hands-on activity to reinforce this material in a fun and creative way.
To do this, we built on previous research and theory about psychological well-being. We drew specifically on the work The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL). According to their framework, there are five core competencies of Social Emotional Learning:
Self - Awareness
The abilities to understand one’s own emotions, thoughts, and values and how they influence behavior across contexts.
Self- Management
The abilities to manage one’s emotions, thoughts, and behaviors effectively in different situations and to achieve goals and aspirations.
Responsible Decision Making
The abilities to make caring and constructive choices about personal behavior and social interactions across diverse situations
Relationship Skills
The abilities to establish and maintain healthy and supportive relationships and to effectively navigate settings with diverse individuals and groups
Social Awareness
The abilities to understand the perspectives of and empathize with others, including those from diverse backgrounds, cultures, and contexts.
For this activity, we focused on Self-Awareness. We wanted the students to reflect on their emotions.
We asked them to think of a time when they felt:
They estimate how often they felt these by filling a jar with different proportions of colored sand.
By the end of the exercise, the students left with a better sense of their feelings and their own personalized jar of emotions.
Insights
At the end of the activity, we asked the students how they felt doing the exercise and what they learned from it.
Our key takeaways included the following:
Students were overstressed and hyper-influenced by tests. They need less academic pressure.
They needed a break from the class routine and more time for hands-on learning
Movement allowed students to release energy, and reinforced a sense of community among students by working collaborative in the activities.
Students require a more stable source of confidence, not only focused on academic performance.
What educational programs are following a play-based/student based learning?
School of Wonder
School of Wonder did. It’s an after-school program that combines the holistic educational philosophies of Montessori, Waldorf and Reggio Emilia through programs that facilitate experiential learning and creative exploration.
Their underlying philosophy is a belief that children are naturally curious and capable of directing their own learning. They seek to preserve children's natural wonder by facilitating experiences that promote creativity, embodiment, community, autonomy and confidence. School of Wonder, along with its founder, Marta, seemed to embrace the exact approach we wanted to explore.
To gauge the impact of their work, we conducted ethnographic research by attending the after school programs for three months, observing their methods to support the whole child and instill social-emotional skills.
Findings
Our key takeaways from School of Wonder's approach include:
The way we ask kids to express creativity (ie. through speaking compared to performing a physical action) influences the degree of creativity in their responses.
To keep the kids engaged, it was important to give them just enough, but not too much structure
Allowing kids to take on communal responsibilities (ie. running the snack bar at the start of after school sessions and holding the hands of blindfolded friends to guide them safely to the park across the street) created a sense of ownership. After successfully completing these activities, they seemed to display greater confidence.
The way adults interact with the kids also influences their confidence. When the adults positioned themselves as fellow playmates rather than authority figures, they suspended hierarchies and helped the kids feel comfortable taking risks.
Shouldn’t the students in South Bronx also have some time for wonder?
Social Justice
Reflecting back on our experience with Nicole’s students, we were struck by the fact that they had no opportunities for this type of playful exploration - let alone to go outside during the school day. We had found ourselves in the middle of a socioeconomic chasm reflecting growing inequalities in the city.
Bringing elements of SOW to Nicole’s students carried greater significance than we had initially realized: It was an opportunity to share resources with a group of students who could benefit from SOW but would not otherwise have access to them.
Transferring SOW into the classroom
Clearly, we couldn’t replicate the entire SOW experience in a classroom. The after-school program and camps relied heavily on being in nature, running, climbing and often high levels of noise. Any activities designed for Nicole’s class would be restricted by space, time and noise.
We introduced Nicole and Marta and had weekly co-creation sessions to design activities that could transfer SOW’s methods into Nicole’s classroom.
Goal
Flip the Switch
A collection of immersive activities that Nicole could use to disrupt the school day routine and create space for Social-Emotional Learning.
These activities explored how different parts of the body can be used to calibrate emotions and increase self-awareness.
They focused on helping students feel grounded, increase confidence, release energy, express emotions, find their authentic voice, envision success and practice gratitude.
The seven switch were designed to help the 5th grade students go from…
Unstable
To
Balanced
Uninspired
To
Excited
Overwhelmed
To
Powerful
Detached
To
Connected
Inhibited
To
Expressive
Nervous
To
Confident
Unaware
To
Grateful
Results
What worked in Flip the Switch?
The activities helped students recognize and express their emotions, which allowed Nicole to connect with them at a deeper level.
Students created a greater sense of class cohesion and class identity.
Students stepped out of their comfort zones and experimented with new ways of expressing themselves
The activities helped the students feel more physically relaxed.
The consistency of the activities gave the students something to look forward to during a very stressful time.
Students were finding ways to use the switches in their daily lives. One used the anchor switch during the state test to center himself when he was experiencing a meltdown
What could we have done differently?
Instead of relying on audio recordings, we could have made the activities more open-ended activities to help the students learn through discovery rather than absorption.
Create more playful and physically active exercises rather than calm and reflective ones.
Research the cultural and religious backgrounds of students and design activities with a diverse population in mind.
Next Steps
Together with the School of Wonder, we are committed to collaborating with South Bronx Charter School and PS/IS 499 in Queens, extending our efforts to promote social-emotional learning (SEL) and inspire wonder among even more students.
Reflections
This project not only helped flip the switch on a classroom experience - it also helped shaped the way we approach our work as Transdisciplinary Designers.
Some of the ways this project has flipped the switch on our design practice:
1. Design as bridging
Partnering with two organizations, we served as the bridge between them – connecting the two with each other and facilitating win-win scenarios. We sought to create mutually beneficial relationships between Marta Nicole, and practiced this in our own relationships with each of them.
2. Designing as a healing process
Working with children has pushed us out of our comfort zones and invited us to step into their imaginative worlds. We have played a variety of roles throughout our time with SOW, including zombies, construction workers, a judge, a criminal who brought moldy cheese to the Wonder Village, a chef, a detective, a store-owner, birds – and the list goes on. The kids have become our teachers, helping us escape the gravity of adult life and for a few hours each week, reconnect with our inner child. This has also made us re-think the notion of expertise.
3. Designing ourselves out
We want this project to outlive our time at Parsons, so we have tried to make it self-sustaining by designing ourselves OUT of the project.
Part of this has involved generating a list of recommendations to improve the Flip the Switch program moving forward, and speaking with Nicole and Marta about where they see it going if we can’t continue working on it.
We will share a document consolidating our insights and recommendations with Marta, along with the design-led research tools we’ve used to facilitate co-creation workshops that Marta can use with future collaborators.
What does it mean to design ourselves out?
We’ll stay in touch with Nicole and Marta and let them know that we’re available for consultation if they need support. Designing ourselves out does not mean ripping off a bandaid and moving on. Rather, it’s shifting to a place where the continuation of the program is no longer dependent on our involvement.
