October 2023

People-Centered Design in Learning: Revolutionizing Education

The conventional methods for creating learning experiences have frequently fallen short in a society where education and learning are essential for children and adults.

The generic nature of these traditional approaches makes it difficult for them to relate to each learner’s unique interests and goals.

Disengagement occurs because they need to take learner input and feedback into account or adapt to it.

Here, “People-centered Design in Learning” (PCD) emerges as a game-changer, giving education a new lease on life. So, let’s dive deep into it.

The Power of People-Centered Design in Learning

What is People-Centered Design?

People-centered Design in education (PCD) is an innovative approach to creating learning experiences that prioritize the learner’s perspective, interests, and needs.

It goes beyond the traditional one-size-fits-all model of education and emphasizes empathy and engagement throughout the development of learning experiences.

Educational leaders in K-12 and nonprofit leaders who offer learning opportunities for youth and adults need to understand the potential of PCD in reshaping education.

Breaking Free From Cookie-Cutter Learning

The problem with conventional learning experiences is their cookie-cutter nature. They are often created with a standard curriculum, disregarding the unique qualities of each learner. This disconnect results in disengaged learners and limited retention of information. PCD, on the other hand, ensures that every learning experience is tailor-made, aligning with the learner’s interests, goals, and preferences.

People-centered Design in learning is all about understanding the individual. It recognizes that every learner has unique interests and personal goals.

By aligning the content and structure of educational experiences with these individual factors, PCD ensures that learners are engaged and motivated to learn. It allows them to see the relevance of what they’re studying in their own lives.

For example, a learner passionate about environmental sustainability embarks on projects that tackle real-world problems. A budding artist incorporates their passion into history lessons, creating an engaging visual representation of historical events.

This is the potential of People-centered Design in learning. Traditional education tends to confine learners to a rigid structure, but PCD reimagines the learning context, allowing each learner to thrive by integrating their individuality into the learning experience. This shift from uniformity to personalization is at the heart of the revolution in education that PCD offers.

Why Shift To People-Centered Design in Learning?

Traditional design approaches, which have been the norm for years, now face increased scrutiny due to their limitations. Shifting to People-centered Design (PCD) in learning offers many compelling reasons to transition from conventional methods. Let’s explore why it’s imperative to move away from traditional approaches and embrace PCD:

Addressing Individuality

Traditional approaches often treat learners as a collective, ignoring each student’s unique needs and interests. People-centered design for better learning acknowledges that every learner is distinct and that their educational experiences should reflect that individuality. This recognition of diversity and individual needs is vital for effective learning.

Fostering Engagement

Traditional designs frequently result in disengagement because they are disconnected from life experiences, leading to boredom and apathy. Learners need to see the relevance of what they’re taught to their lives. PCD, on the other hand, captures and sustains learner interest by connecting educational content to personal goals and interests.

Enhancing Retention

One of the primary goals of education is to ensure that knowledge is retained and can be applied effectively. Traditional methods often need to improve, as they fail to establish a strong connection between what is taught and how it can be practically used. PCD’s emphasis on relevance and personalization significantly improves retention rates.

Empowering Learners

Traditional approaches tend to be top-down, with educators or instructors making most decisions. Learners may feel disempowered and disconnected from their education. PCD actively involves learners in designing and improving their learning experiences, fostering a sense of ownership, agency, and empowerment.

Nurturing Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving Skills

The capacity to think critically and solve problems is more vital than ever in a rapidly changing society. PCD encourages learners to actively participate in the design process, making them more adept at problem-solving and critical thinking. This goes beyond just academic knowledge and equips them for real-life challenges.

The Phases of People-Centered Design in Learning

To fully appreciate the potential of PCD, educational leaders and nonprofit leaders should understand how this approach works in practice. PCD encompasses three primary phases that collectively revolutionize the learning experiences offered:

Phase 1: Empathy and Understanding

PCD starts with a deep dive into understanding the learners. This phase involves conducting interviews, surveys, and observations to grasp each learner’s unique needs, interests, and motivations. Empathizing with the learner makes the design process more aligned with their requirements.

Phase 2: Ideation and Collaboration

The next step is creativity, where educators, designers, and learners collaborate to generate creative solutions to learning challenges. This collaborative approach ensures that all stakeholders have a say in shaping the learning experience. The result is content that resonates with the learners.

Phase 3: Prototyping and Testing

In PCD, rapid prototyping creates preliminary versions of learning materials and experiences. These prototypes are then tested with actual learners, and feedback is actively collected. Based on this feedback, adjustments are made, making the learning experience more engaging and effective.

PCD doesn’t stop here; it emphasizes the need for continuous improvement. Feedback loops and data collection mechanisms are embedded throughout implementation to ensure that the learning experience evolves with the changing needs and preferences of the learners.

Adopting People-Centered Design in Education

The Design of learning experiences for children and adults is at a critical juncture, and traditional methods must be revised. A potent and revolutionary alternative has developed in learning: people-centered Design.

It’s time to embrace People-centered Design in education and transform how we learn and teach in this era of rapid change and growing diversity in educational settings. By enabling personalized, interesting, and successful learning experiences, we can build a more promising and inclusive future for learners of all ages.

To get your PCD sessions off to the perfect start, contact a “PCD expert” through Jonlieu’s website. Jonlieu has the expertise to help you navigate the PCD process and ensure your educational offerings are learner-centric. You can revolutionize how you teach and learn by embracing PCD and working with Jonlieu’s design specialists, paving the way for a better future for your learners, staff, and community.

With Jonlieu, your entryway to changing education, you can unleash the boundless potential of People-centered Design in learning. Start now and transform the way you teach and learn.

Safe Spaces, Bold Solutions: The Power of People-Centered Design

In the heart of a small school district, a new leader named Carol embarked on a mission that would come to redefine her career and the community she served. Bursting with enthusiasm and armed with a wealth of experience in steering special academic programs, Carol faced an immediate challenge: a longstanding issue that had torn the community apart. With a sense of purpose, she dove headfirst into the task, aiming to create bold, new solutions to the daunting challenge.

In the whirlwind of her arrival, Carol’s eagerness to fix things swiftly led her to unilaterally craft a comprehensive plan, with full expectation that it would earn unanimous approval from the school board and the appreciation and gratitude of the community. But what unfolded next caught her completely off guard. Her well-intentioned approach backfired dramatically.

A storm of fury swept through the district. Staff, parents, and community members, feeling excluded and unheard, unleashed their discontent in a torrent of impassioned emails, marathon school board public comment sessions, and a flurry of scathing Letters to the Editor in the local newspapers. Instead of bridging the divides, Carol’s actions widened the chasm, breeding resentment, plunging morale among the staff, and sowing seeds of distrust in the district’s leadership.

In the wake of this turmoil, the entire plan lay in ruins, like broken glass. Carol found herself at a crossroads, with the difficult task of picking up the pieces.

As much as she tried to course-correct, the damage was already done.

The truth was painfully clear: Carol’s good intentions cemented the path to deeper discord. The aftermath, bitter as it was, could have been avoided, if only she had understood the importance of creating psychological safety while developing solutions to challenges.

Psychological Safety: A Prerequisite to Solving Complex Challenges

So, what exactly is psychological safety? According to author Timothy R. Clark, psychological safety is a condition in which people feel included and safe to learn, contribute, and challenge the status quo. When people feel psychologically safe, they’re more likely to share their ideas, perspectives, and lived experiences. And these are vital to creating better solutions.

For educational and nonprofit leaders, psychological safety is the bedrock on which community and collaboration thrive. Without it, leaders don’t stand a chance of overcoming the persistent challenges impacting their communities.

But why do so many leaders neglect psychological safety and jump right into problem solving mode? Well, I can think of a few reasons. Many leaders cave in to the external (and sometimes internal) pressure to create solutions on their own. They want to be perceived as competent problem solvers. Some leaders see the urgency of the challenge and think they’re losing precious time by involving stakeholders. And then there are other leaders who have a deficit mindset, who don’t believe their communities have what it takes to solve problems that affect them. But all these leaders tend to reap negative consequences of such beliefs and attitudes.

In the end, they, like Carol, lose far more than time, face, and approval…they lose the trust of those they serve. And once trust is gone, the community is robbed of a sense of ownership, agency, and collective efficacy, some of the very things that lead to sustainable solutions.

People-Centered Design: One Framework, Two Goals

People-Centered Design is a solution-finding framework that helps leaders prioritize two goals: psychological safety and bold solutions. Here’s a quick overview of the five non-linear phases and how they help leaders achieve both goals:

Empathize to Understand

This initial phase involves developing an understanding of stakeholder perspectives and lived experiences, giving leaders insights into their strengths, challenges, and aspirations and making people feel heard, valued, and included as vital contributors to solution-finding.

Define and Reframe

Leaders then analyze the information gathered to define the core issues and challenges, ensuring a clear understanding of the problems to be solved. They reframe the challenges as actionable problem statements from stakeholders’ perspectives and identify solution criteria validated by stakeholders.

Ideate

Once leaders understand the problems to be solved and what their community desires, they bring diverse stakeholders together in a creative brainstorming process to generate a wide range of ideas. This phase promotes learner safety and contributor safety through fun, out-of-the-box thinking activities.

Create

With promising ideas identified, leaders can develop prototypes or mock-ups, transforming conceptual ideas into physical or digital forms that stakeholders can interact with, and providing them with a clear vision of the potential solutions.

Test and Refine

Leaders then try out small scale solutions in context so that stakeholders have opportunities to offer their valuable feedback. Stakeholders feel safe to challenge ideas and leaders make necessary improvements, ensuring that the final solution aligns perfectly with their community’s needs and expectations.

In Carol’s story there lies a powerful lesson in the importance of nurturing psychological safety while seeking solutions to organizational challenges. It’s a reminder that true progress is not merely about developing and implementing solutions but about weaving a tapestry of understanding, compassion, and collaboration. It’s a call to create spaces where every voice matters.