Design thinking in education
Material Creation and Design
September 2021-May 2022
The Problem:
Students with learning difficulties (such as dyslexia, dyscalculia, and other processing issues) were having a hard time reading multiplication charts in a grid format. They also struggled with the concept of multiplication as repeated addition.
The Prototype:
We created a rainbow-coded grid to make the rows more clear to students. Though they liked it, they didn't have an easier time reading it.
The Revision:
The Education Specialist team discovered that a more effective tool to read multiplication facts is actually a chart of each number's multiples, rather than the standard grid method.
We also found that providing the students with a number line from 1-100 was an effective method in showing integer groups (e.g. multiples of seven), which helped the students quite a bit.
The Result:
Kids really responded to seeing numbers in line, rather than in a grid form. During testing, they were successful at locating the correct multiples on the chart, easing stress in a fast-paced classroom. The number line (1-100, grouped in 5s on a whiteboard) got a major workout during our small group sessions. The students gained confidence and speed during testing, and they were finally able to conceptualize factorial thinking.
Tools used: Canva, Adobe Illustrator.
