Adapted from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Project Zero resource on 'I used to think - Now I think'.

Students create a new page for this reflective thinking technique. Teacher clarifies which stage of the Design Process will be the subject of the reflection. Teacher introduces the following two question prompts;

1. When you began your Research/ your Generation of Ideas/ Development and Resolution you had some initial ideas on how you could solve the communication need. Write down a couple of sentences to describe your initial understanding and some elements you thought would be important in a successful design solution. Start your paragraph with 'I used to think......'
2. Now that you have been researching/ generating ideas for some time, consider what has changed in your understanding of the product you are doing? Write a brief description of what understandings have changed. Do you remember when your ideas changed? When was it? What was it your learnt that caused your change and deepened your understanding? Start your paragraph with 'Now I think......'

The results are written up for Reflective Thinking. They can also be shared with the class to build capacity.

Students choose a subject for detailed Reflective Thinking. It could be done at the conclusion of each stage of the Design Process, or even after the Pitch in the SAT. They answer a series of questions based on these prompts (adapted from the Gibbs Reflective cycle).

1 Description
Outline and describe what you have done in this stage of the Design Process. Be specific with your description rather than say 'developed my design', explain how you have developed it, what materials, methods and processes have you used?

2 Feelings
Describe how you feel about the work you have done. Has it been a successful, rewarding period of work or frustrating?

3 Evaluation
Explain how effective the work you have done is? Do you think it has brought you closer to solving the communication need/s described in the brief? Did the period of work go as you had planned? Did it take longer or more/ less work than you thought?

4 Analysis
Identify some reasons that might have impacted on your design journey and made it more difficult or involved than you originally thought. Did you have to learn additional skills? Did you have to do some additional research? Did you have to reframe the way your thought about the design problem? Other factors?

5 Conclusion
Identify three skills or understandings you might need to develop to improve your process and refocus your work to ensure that it satisfies all of the constraints in the brief?

6 Action plan
Describe how you will be able to develop the skills or knowledge you identified in the 'conclusion' stage in the next week.

Students create a new page for this Reflective Thinking technique. They then as a class or individually respond to questions such as;

• How does your design relate to ones from the past?
• How would your design be changed in the future?
• How is your design linked with artistic (music, art, literature, etc) styles?
• How is your design influenced/ is it influenced by another designer or design style movement?
• Does your design relate to any local Melbourne (your city) design styles?
• How does your design connect with yours or others's cultures?
• How well would your design translate to another language?
• Would your design translate to another design field?
• How does your design demonstrate influence from any of the social, cultural, economic, environmental, technological, legal factors that shape design?

They write, illustrate and annotate diagrams to explain links they found.

Students create a new page for this Reflective Thinking routine. They then examine commonly held ideas around the designs they are making.

Write down all the ideas that you think apply to the design a student is doing. You may jump back to the R.E.D. Critical Thinking Routine routine to see examples of ideas that are commonly held for designs.

Red Zone = Identify biases shaping design
Write down any biases , evidence of self interest or global generalisations that affect the shape, look or function of the design.

Yellow Zone = Identify an generalisations that have been made.
Write down any generalisations about how the design should look or function you made.

Draw conclusions
Write a statement that acknowledges anything from the red or yellow zone you have identified and how you could overcome them in a more original design.