EDIT 785 was the capstone design research experience of the MEd, DDLS concentration: an opportunity to apply everything I had learned since Spring 2019. The design document artifact was the result of a collaboration with Mason Care Network Success Coach Nikki Harris. We created a design pattern that could be implemented in each of our contexts: PK12 and higher education.

Throughout the design research process, I discovered that meaningful change cannot occur without clear articulation of a problem of practice. I recognized that a problem of practice derives from a situation in which my doing practice was not aligning with expected outcomes. My attitude shifted from that of the passive do-er to the active designer. In order to make meaningful changes in my doing practice, I had to consider how I was going to make changes in my design practice.

For the past nine years of my teaching career, my doing practice has been based on what I learned from my teacher preparation programs, my own experiences, or what I am told is best practice. Design practice and the design research process is driven by the design researcher: they are the ones who initiate a problem of practice, formulate guiding questions, sift through relevant research, make design decisions, and create a framework that is based on each previous step.

A good problem of practice can be difficult to refine and will go through several iterations before it is ready to inform the action research literature review process. Nikki and I spent a few weeks adjusting our initial problem of practice and guiding question maps before we came to the final framework that would guide our research and design. We had to consider the relevancy of our problem: had others solved it before? Was it still a problem? The literature suggested that postsecondary readiness was indeed still a problem worth solving. When defining a problem of practice, we considered that it needed to be adaptable to several situations. For example, we considered designing for just a virtual asynchronous learning environment. Given that we will not always be in a pandemic, our design solution had to be applicable to multiple contexts.

Without guidance from the research of our literature review, we would not have been able to justify our design decisions to address our problem of practice. By combining the research design process with our own professional practice knowledge, we became expert problem solvers and created a design pattern that we could implement in either one of our contexts. The design research process is a codependent sequence; prior to moving from one step to the next, we needed to be able to clearly articulate our thinking. If we were unclear or wavering in our problem of practice, our guiding questions, our research, and our design decisions and consequences, how could we have created a design pattern that would meet the needs of our problem of practice and our target audience? If we were unclear as to how we were going to assess our design and student learning, how could we know how to revise and improve our design for future iterations?

Collaborating throughout the design research process greatly improved my understanding and implementation of the process. I was extremely fortunate to pair up with Nikki, a Success Coach within the Mason Care Network at George Mason University. Her doing practice overlaps with mine as an AVID teacher: we are both in student support roles. From the beginning, we shared personal and professional learning to construct our own understanding of the design research process. We collaborated synchronously and asynchronously in digital spaces. We also indirectly collaborated with other EDIT 785 course participants by observing and reflecting on their initial design research stages. Without sharing of knowledge and peer feedback, it is difficult to conduct meaningful revision. Finally, we collaborated with our course instructor through synchronous course meetings and Zoom mentor check-ins. Without that collaboration, we could not have engaged in the feedback loops that were necessary for the successful creation of our design solution.

It is very easy to let my department, school, or district guide my doing practice. There is always some new instructional strategy coming down the pike. When this happens, I have to ask myself whether integrating these new strategies into my practice is going to help me align my doing practice with the outcomes I want. This is where I can apply what I have learned as a design researcher: is there something in my practice that does not end in intended results? What is that problem, what do I need to know about the new instructional strategies and how they relate to the problem, what resources can I access to help me learn more, and how can I create a design pattern in which I can use such strategies?

The most valuable experience of this course was learning how to navigate the design research process. Educators always have to have a plan B, C, D, etc. in their back pocket when our doing practice does not go according to plan. The design research process is a way to extend my professional practice beyond my everyday doing practice. It is a way for me to take into account what is not working and make shifts in my practice based on best practice recommendations. As a designer, I have the agency to make these changes in my professional practice.