Week Five Post

Futures Thinking

Futures Thinking promotes the knowledge, skills and understanding that are needed in order to think more critically and creatively about the future. 

According to David W. Hicks (2015) Futures Education:

• Enables students to understand the links between their own lives in the present and those of others in the past and future
• Increases understanding of the social, political and cultural influences which shape people's perceptions of personal, local and global futures
• Develops the skills, attitudes and values which encourage foresight and enable pupils to identify probable and preferable futures
• Works towards achieving a more just and sustainable future in which the welfare of people and planet are both important.

Pedagogy

To encourage preferred futures in my classroom, students will develop the skills necessary to anticipate the future, accept consequences, envision alternatives, make wise choices, and take responsible action. These skills will help students become active citizens of global change who understanding the need for foresight in this rapidly changing world and recognize the effects of their actions on the environment. This means identifying the impact of current community practices, like releasing carbon emissions into the air while driving etc. Essentially, these skills will then help students to make changes in their personal lives, uphold conversational practices and thus encourage preferred futures. 

Curriculum Links 

"Students need opportunities to consider the use and impact of technological solutions on equity, ethics, and personal and social values. In creating solutions, as well as responding to the designed world, students consider desirable sustainable patterns of living, and contribute to preferred futures for themselves and others"(ACARA, 2015).

Design Cycle Phase: Evaluation 
The evaluation phase refers to the judging, testing, reflecting, comparing of design projects. To encourage evaluation in my grade five class, students will be given the opportunity to trial and display their own solar ovens. The results revealed in this study would then be tested by students of various age groups using ‘feedback cards’ that responded to a series of questions like ‘how well are the snack food items cooked? How could the solar ovens be improved? This feedback will then be used by students to evaluate the effectiveness of their product.

Peer Assessment 

To carry out the Evaluation phase of the design cycle, my peer assessor and I exchanged an evaluation of our marketed products in the form of a feedback table .This process allowed me to use my newly acquired knowledge to critically analyse the manufacturing processes and eco-design strategies of a different project; thus determining its marketability. This consolidated my understanding of key concepts relating to sustainability and design learning.



References

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA]. (2015). Technologies.     

Retrieved from http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/technologies/

Hicks, D. W. (2015, Jaurary ). A Futures Perspective. Retrieved from Teaching for a Better World: Learning for sustainability: http://www.teaching4abetterworld.co.uk/futures.html