Teachers’ Designs for Learning Practices when Designing for Students as Learning Designers

Abstract

This paper contributes with elements of an emerging designs for learning-methodology and takes as its starting point the concept of Students as Learning Designers, which was developed by Sørensen and Levinsen and based on more than a decade of research-and-development projects in Danish primary schools (first to 10th grade). The research focussed on the integration of information and communication technology (ICT) in learning situations framed by the Scandinavian tradition of Problem Oriented Project Pedagogy (POPP), Problem Based Learning (PBL) and students’ production. In recent years, the research projects that provide the theory’s grounding have focussed specifically on designs for learning that constitute students as learning designers of digital subject related productions aimed at peers. These may be both multimodal communication productions and coded/programmed productions such as games and robots. This includes designs for learning that contribute to students’ empowerment, involvement and autonomy within the teacher-designed frameworks that simultaneously scaffold students’ subject-related inquiry, agency, reflection and learning. Research have documented that this approach constitutes arenas that support students’ deep learning and mastery of both transdisciplinary and subject matter, along with acquisition of digital literacy and 21st-century competencies. As this theory and its operationalization in practice have proven useful, it makes sense to move from researching the WHY of students as learning designers to look into HOW, that is the methodology of teachers practicing designs for learning. For this purpose, we use the lens of the concepts metaphor and metonymy and interaction design theory to explore our empirical studies and previous findings and identify aspects of designs for learning practice that teachers can apply as methods when creating designs for learning aimed at students as learning designers.