Vision
Design (research), design methods, and design-based pedagogies are being explored and applied in the field of education more and more. For example, Design-Based learning is being tested and used in primary schools and high schools. I believe people learn best by doing, playing, and constructively failing. Especially when people work together they can learn so much more than alone. A lot of the design methods, pedagogies, and the designerly way of thinking support people within organizations to work together, to play, and to learn in new ways.
Design methods challenge people to think in another way; A growth mindset, an ‘I am never done or there is always something new to learn’ attitude, and an open mentality. I have found that the design process, however substantiated or shaped, contains a lot of methods and ways of doing that reveal to people where their bottlenecks are. These bottlenecks can be either personal or team related and will appear throughout the use of certain design principles. I want people to engage with these bottlenecks through a growth mindset and I believe that using educational design pedagogies is one way to achieve this.
Furthermore, I see that design pedagogies have a strong positioning in the field of education and organizations, as it stimulates learning through all senses: talking, listening, making, feeling, and experiencing. The design process is built out of different main components (empathy/emotion and logical/systemic thinking). When these main components are put into a learning context, people can, through their senses, benefit enormously from this process.
In the end, the main purpose of the design process is to spark creativity in many areas. I believe creativity and certain degrees of freedom have to go hand in hand. That is why play (qualities) should not be overlooked when designing for organizations. In the future, I see a role for designers to use design, certain design methods, and design pedagogies as an integrated part of organizations, both education and businesses, so that creativity and playfulness will be at the heart of learning.
Professional Identity
As a person, I am structured, but I like to explore the regions of the unstructured and creative. I am an open-minded designer and I like to stay optimistic. I want everyone to feel comfortable, including myself, which makes me an empathic person. I also see strength in working together, but I do have my structure and points of view, which help me to focus. I am a soft person, but realize that I can be a bit more assertive from time to time.
As I am this structured person and designer, I like to use design research to come up with products, processes, and or services to introduce people to the designerly way of thinking. I furthermore try to inform and inspire myself through theory, which makes me a theory-informed designer.
Although there is already a lot being done in the field of educational design, I still see that educational designers are often not taking into account the point of view of the teacher or the professional. As a designer, I do not want to be pretentious toward these groups. This means that I will work among them, collaborate, spar, and test with these groups so that solutions will be tailor-made and do not come as a surprise.
In the future I see myself working in a team of people that use design pedagogies and methods to let organizations be more open and to encourage people to attain a growth mindset. In the end, I would like to help clients to be empathetic towards each other, while at the same time teaching them that there is always something new to learn.