The idea that education is a one-way process is outdated, and it's time for us to start taking steps towards the future. In The Thinking Effect's fourth episode, Lili-Ann Kriegler and I continue the journey on how to create an environment where students own their learning. We discuss why letting students own their learning is essential. We talk about the importance of allowing students to learn independently and the benefits they can gain from this learning environment. Th

There is a lot of noise about getting girls into STEM. I see lots of article about it and countless posts on social media. So if there is such a desire to make it happen, why are we failing? I went to study computer science. Yep. I was one of those odd girls that studied technology in university. I could count the number of girls that studied with me on one hand. Throughout my years in uni, I was surrounded by boys. Then, I went on to start a career in the Hi-Tech industry. A

Mirror mirror on the wall, will I be able to see me at all? I discovered self-reflection as an adult. At first, I found it challenging to look at myself from the outside and apply critical thinking to my way of thinking, feeling and actions. It doesn’t come naturally to evaluate yourself as if you are looking at someone else. It is not easy to be completely truthful with yourself. It can get uncomfortable. You need to develop some distance from yourself, learn to let go of yo

This week, Edithvale primary school, who is working with Glittering Minds for a few years now, has presented one of their Design Thinking projects at Oxford university's #kidsConference2021. Hayden Callahan, Edithvale’s Project-based inquiry leader, talked about their Glittering Minds journey- “Glittering Minds has helped our school to learn all about Design Thinking. Due to this work with Glittering Minds, we have realised that we were missing this feedback loop and that the

Dare to think differently? If not, stop reading right now. To say the last two years were challenging is an understatement. Each one of us suffered and struggled. One area that got hit very badly is education. According to the UN, Covid-19 has wiped out 20 years of educational gain. This is a shocking and scary thought. However, we can choose to become victims of the circumstances or see it as an opportunity for growth. As an opportunity to drive a change. As an opportunity

Imagine you are telling your child to stop playing electronic games and the response you get is – I know you are not being mean now. I know you have my best interests at heart. How wonderful it would be to have such discussions around the use of electronic games at home? As part of Glittering Minds school programme, 9-year-olds worked on this question – How Might We design a computer game for children, that both parents and children are happy about? As Design Thinkers, these

If you ask five-year old children what is Design Thinking, what would they say? This week, I had the pleasure of attending a foundation class at one of the schools that participate in Glittering Minds programme. It was the children’s first session on Design Thinking. The teacher started by asking them – What do you think Design Thinking means? The children were happy to take a guess and some of their answers were – Thinking of designing thingamajig Using your brain Thinking o

Do you know that our education system is designed to turn children into obedient factory workers? Horace Mann was an American politician and education reformer. He was pushing for free, standardised, compulsory education for each child. Mann believed that a common learning experience would “equalize the conditions of men”. He also believed that schools should prepare children for future employment (At the factories) by instilling values such as obedience to authority, discipl

What impacts children mental health at school? In one of the schools we work with, year 3 and 4 students explored this question – “How might we create a positive and supportive learning environment at our school?” As part of their research, they interviewed their peers in order to understand the different perspectives on what a supportive ad positive learning environment is. They discovered there are three main areas impacting students mental health: · Feeling part of the sch

STEM is not enough. Our brain has two very distinguished ways of thinking: 1.     Convergent thinking – which is about critical, logical, narrowing down and evaluating options. 2.     Divergent thinking – which is about imagining, exploring possibilities, generating many ideas and having no boundaries. STEM (Science, technology, engineering and mathematics) has gained significant traction in recent years as a focal point in education. These four important subjects focus mainl

What impact do schools have on creativity? NASA wanted to test their engineers’ creativity. So they hired scientists to develop a test that measures creativity. After testing NASA’s engineers, the scientists were left with few questions. Where does creativity come from? Are we born with it? Do we learn it? They gave a group of 4-5 years old the same test. To their surprise, 98% of the children fell in the genius category of imagination. Now they were more curious to find out

Do you know what is the purpose of schools in Australia? If you answered "No", you are not alone... All the parents I asked about it, had no clue. For me, this speaks volume. The purpose of schools should be written at the entrance to each and every school, for everyone to see. I went on a search to see if I can find a defined purpose for our schools. I have found interesting things... You can read all about it in this article I wrote. Since we are in dire need to define our

COVID-19 hit our education system like a storm. It challenged how students learn, how teachers teach, the level of parents’ involvement in their children’s learning and the priority given to academic results vs students well-being. The remote learning experience highlighted the problems we have within our education system and the big need for transformation. It also showed us that when there is a need and a sense of urgency, our enormous education system can move quite quickl

What is creativity? When we start working with primary school students on developing their creative thinking, we ask them – what is creativity? We heard hundreds of answers to this question, during this term alone.  It is always interesting to see how young children understand creativity. This term we saw the most beautiful and creative way to explain creativity, written by a year 4 student – “We think creativity is a space at the back our mind! Past the library and the music

Last week we had the pleasure of hosting Victoria’s Parliamentary Secretary for Schools, Mr. Tim Richardson, at one of Glittering Minds sessions. Tim spoke with teachers about the impact of our program on students’ life-skills, how students develop resilience, problem-solving skills, empathy, collaboration, creativity and more. The teachers also shared their own transformation, as a result of our program, and how this positive impact flows to literacy, numeracy and other area

Have you ever seen children as young as 7 years old performing data synthesis? Last week, we facilitated data synthesis sessions with year 3 and 4 classes. They are working this term on the question – “How might we design a positive and supportive learning environment at our school?” The students finished researching this question, including interviewing students and school’s staff members, and it was time to make sense of the information. It is a pleasure to see young childr

At Glittering Minds, it is important for us to measure the impact of our Human Centred Design for kids program on the students and teachers. On analysing the collected data, we see that the positive impact is vast. The students quickly develop many important life skills – problem solving, critical thinking, collaboration, creativity, empathy and more. It is very rewarding to learn that the impact on the students continues well beyond their time in the classroom and impacti

In order to transform the pedagogy at schools there is a need to transform the teachers' thinking. We interviewed Hayden - a PBI leader and year 4 teacher, on the impact of Glittering Minds program on his students. Apart from the immense positive impact this program has on the student's skills and behavior, our program transforms the teachers thinking too and open their minds to new possibilities. #innovation #education #thefutureofeducation #glitteringminds #makeanimpact

At Glittering Minds we believe children learn best by doing, and we don’t stop there. Children learn better when they learn in a highly collaborative and playful environment. An environment that promotes exploration and hands-on learning. An environment which enables agency, where children take on ownership over their learning experiences. Through our learning environment, children develop resilience and an ability to cope as they try out different possibilities and test thei

It is always important to hear from your stakeholders what is the impact of your innovative program on the users. We recently finished facilitating a HCD for kids fundamentals course with year 3 students. We interviewed the class teacher in order to understand what is the impact of this 4 weeks course. Let’s hear from Ashlee her observations on the impact of Glittering Minds HCD for kids fundamentals course on her students. #futurism #hcdforkids #innovation #humancentreddesig