Design for Transformative Learning: A Practical Approach to Memory-Making and Perspective-Shifting

The creative strategies in Design for Transformative Learning offer a playful and practical approach to learning from and adapting to a rapidly changing world. Seeing continuous learning as more than the periodic acquisition of new skills this book presents a design-led approach to revising the stories we tell ourselves, unlearning old habits and embracing new practices.

This book maps learning opportunities across the contemporary landscape, narrating global case studies from K12, higher education, design consultancies and researchers. It offers narrative context, best practices and emergent strategies for how designers can partner in the important work of advancing a lifetime of learning. Committed to driving sustained transformation this is a playbook of practical moves for designing memory-making, perspective-shifting, hands-on learning encounters. The book braids stories from design practice with theories of change, transformative learning literature, cognitive and social psychology research, affect theory and Indigenous knowing. Positioning the COVID-19 pandemic as a moment to question what was previously normalised, the book proposes playful strategies for seeding transformational change.

The relational practice at the core of Design for Transformative Learning argues that if learning is to be transformative the experience must be embodied, cognitive and social. This book is an essential read for design and social innovation researchers, facilitators of community engagement and co-design workshops, design and arts educators and professional learning designers. It is a useful primer for K12 teachers, organisational change practitioners and professional development facilitators curious to explore the intersection of design and learning.

The companion website for the book is a practical resource that connects to many of the projects, activities, methods, designers and stories introduced in the book. The site includes links to downloadable colour diagrams, templates for digital learning encounters, and additional reflective narratives on transformative experiences.

www.designingtransformativelearning.com

Lisa Grocott is currently a Professor of Design and the Director of WonderLab at Monash University, Australia where she leads the Future of Work and Learning research program in the Emergent Technologies Research Lab. A mother of two children raised in multiple countries, Lisa grew up in Aotearoa New Zealand with a whakapapa to Ngāti Kahungunu on her mother’s side and Pākehā from Waikato on her father’s side.