At the heart of a designer's iterative process is
recognition that we make shifts so we can make
possible. This is how we use critical making to craft
new habits, new futures, new ways of being.

meta analysis of education research concludes that increasing a
student’s perception of his or her own ability is one of the most
effective interventions for improving performance [6]. I ques-
tioned whether Carol Dweck’s research into how our mindset
limits us from leaning into challenges or putting in persistent
effort might inform the work required to prepare for real behav-
ior change [3]. Over the course of two years and multiple scrappy
pilots my lab collaborators and I explored how the human-cen-
tered, solution-seeking, and speculation-driven attributes of
design might contribute to the task of shifting mindsets and
promoting new behavior. One key insight that emerged from the
practice experiments was the importance of liberating our defini-
tion of making from the making of things [5].

MAKE TOGETHER TO MAKE KNOWN:
THE ROLE OF CO-DESIGN AND STORYTELLING

Early 2014 Riverdale Country School commissioned us to design
a professional development workshop that translated Dweck’s
research into educational practice. Typically in these workshops
the science behind the theory is introduced to advance a teacher’s
understanding. As designers we sought to use research from mul-
tiple disciplines to develop a theory of change that did not focus on
the science or the student.

Our storymaking, collaborative intervention focused on sev-
eral behavior change principles that harness bringing people
together to share experiences. We drew on research into the
power the stories we tell of ourselves have over us [4], and the
importance of limiting beliefs we might hold on to from our past
[7]. We embraced research that normalizes individual’s experi-
ences to help us understand that we are not alone [1], at the same
time respecting that our intrinsic reasons for doing something
are more powerful motivators than external, extrinsic incentives
[12]. The workshop underscored the value of co-designing (mak-
ing together) so we might collectively translate and surface (make
known) the actionable principles embedded within the psychology
research. This participatory approach to collective narration cre-
ated a space for the teachers to be vulnerable, share their stories
and envisage new ways of being.

MAKE TANGIBLE TO MAKE POSSIBLE:
THE ROLE OF IMAGINATION AND SPECULATION

This first project focused on the past we bring to the present, in
contrast the second project tried to avert and probable future for
a preferable one. Dunne and Raby describe speculative design
as a “catalyst for social dreaming” [2]. The B’twixt meta-learn-
ing record is a speculative artefact conceived to provoke debate
around the consequences of recording not what courses students

pass but surfacing what we can tell about graduates future capacity
for learning given their university performances. B’twixt operates
as a prop for engaging the collective imagination of a university by
speculating on a new way to make student learning visible.

The interviews at the outset of this project underscored how
hard it is for communities to imagine a radically different scenario
from what they know. People believed that “lifelong learning” and

“learning on the fly” reflect the dynamic professional landscape we
live in and recognized the lack of integrity that comes with rein-
forcing the misconception that a GPA is an indicator of individual’s
abilities. Yet unanimously interview subjects were not convinced
a learning record could meaningfully reflect the non-cognitive
skills highly valued by employers. However, people’s reactions to
the speculative prototype were profoundly different to the cyni-
cism held for the idea. The tangible prop draws people into debate
over the tradeoffs against the current model—the conversation
can shift from a place of pessimism to optimism. Tonkinwise
describes design’s relationship to making possible can be under-
stood as equal parts realistic and fantastical [11]. B’twixt does this
by addressing real concerns (minimizing the human burden cost
for gathering the data) and dreaming big (students only being able
to access grades once they had uploaded his/her learning from
failure moment video). B’twixt negotiates this tension by radically
disrupting the transcript as a “receipt” for a college education and
incrementally transforming current evaluation practices. The pro-
found shift in cynicism versus enthusiasm between the before and
after conversations shows how the tangible realization of an idea,
no matter how tentative, can expand people’s appetite for change.

MAKE SENSE TO MAKE SHIFT:
THE ROLE OF FRAMING AND REFLECTION

Putting into practice insights that had emerged from the previous
projects graduate students in the Transforming Mindsets studio
designed the Archipelago of Possibilities. The students conceived
of an early-phase workshop for K12 teachers as part of a 4-year
funded research project on teacher change. The medium-term
goal is to prepare teachers to rethink the mindframes they bring to
classroom practice [6]. But before getting to the preparation stage
the teacher needs to find an intrinsic motivation for letting go of
her current way of teaching. The workshop was designed to create
a space where the teacher could metaphorically take a vacation
from the everyday classroom experience and imagine the holiday
activities he would focus on if only s/he had the time to invest in
fostering deeper learning.

The teacher is shepherded through a sequence of framed activ-
ities to reflect on the mindframes he or she would be excited to
improve, questioning how they want to “travel” to the island

SOCIABILITY & COMMUNITY