We are thrilled to have Dr. Brett Taylor as a featured presenter at the “Education = Storytelling” at the Rosen Centre, Orlando, November 15-16, 2019
Brett was the founding principal at the Patiño School of Entrepreneurship in Fresno, California, a public high school built entirely around entrepreneurship. He is an Assistant Professor at the University of the Pacific, where he designed the Education Entrepreneurship Master’s and Doctoral concentrations. He is also the CEO of NewSchool Innovation Consulting, a firm that facilitates the implementation of innovation frameworks for educational organizations.
Brett will be presenting on Design Thinking professional learning communities. PLCs are an established part of K-12 teacher collaboration, but have become compulsory, stagnant, and ineffective at many school sites. Dr. Taylor has worked with multiple schools to implement a design thinking framework into PLCs. This has led to increased innovation and attention to student needs. Attendees will learn about the process and framework for Design Thinking PLCs, how they change schools, and see evidence of real success. Equal parts of the presentation will focus on the theory and research behind Design Thinking PLCs, and how to support implementation with teachers.
A professional learning community (PLC) is a method to foster collaborative learning among colleagues within a particular work environment or field. PLCs are often used in schools as a way to organize teachers into working groups of practice-based professional learning.
In a way, this kind of collaboration is what made the Design Thinking process used by the world famous design firm, IDEO, so successful. IDEO starts the Design Thinking process with a team including anthropologists, sociologists, linguists, and others, along with their designers, to get a broader perspective on a design challenge.
A Think Tank is also a group which performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture.
The designation “Skunkworks” is widely used in business, engineering, and technical fields to describe a group within an organization given a high degree of autonomy and unhampered by bureaucracy, with the task of working on advanced or secret projects.
Professional Learning Community, Design Team, Think Tank, Planning Group or Skunkworks, in many ways, are all different ways of trying to make things work better by working together in groups.
All of this is why the Ensō Education Institute created the “Education = Storytelling” professional development conference. I’m so glad Brett Taylor is joining us to help us connect the dots between Design Thinking and PLCs.