Page 231 - Štremfel, Urška, ed., 2016. Student (Under)achievement: Perspectives, Approaches, Challenges. Ljubljana: Pedagoški inštitut. Digital Library, Documenta 11.
P. 231
The first step is identifying and defining the basic problem or challenge. 231
Problems may be to do with a wider society, for instance solving issues with re-
gard to minority ethnic groups, existential problems in underprivileged areas
or environmental issues. They can also be local problems, for example setting
up tourist products and services, equipping school premises, setting up envi-
ronmental clean-up campaigns or humanitarian fundraising events They can
also be economic in nature, for instance developing a new or improved prod-
uct or service for a local company. What is of key importance at this stage is
that these are real identified problems and that they are as widespread as pos-
sible, i.e. that the solution is useful for as many people or organisations as pos-
sible. The most common mistake made during the course of the first step is
searching for ideas about how to solve the problem identified. Ideas are name-
ly dealt with during the third step; the most important thing here is under-
standing the problem and at this point ideas may actually prove an obstacle to
gaining an emphatic and objective view of the situation.
Step two is understanding the problem, whereby an attempt is made to fa-
miliarise oneself with the people or organisations and their problem by means
of emphatic methods. A multitude of ethnographic and anthropological field
methods for user data collection are used and the data is then analysed with
the aim of developing an understanding of the true nature of the problem.
During the course of this step, one’s view on the problem is commonly altered,
the problem is then redefined and presented within the new context of ac-
quired information. One of the key elements of this method is nonlinearity,
which means that based on the data collected and the understanding devel-
oped, previous assumptions are quite commonly completely redefined.
The focus of the third step is creating ideas that could potentially lead to
solving the problem. Various techniques are applied to generate as many ideas
as possible, evaluate them in terms of how simple they are to implement and
the level of their impact, after which some ideas are selected and then tested
in practice.
Step four is testing ideas or prototyping. The selected ideas are demon-
strated to users by means of simple methods, such as drawing of comic strips,
role-playing or use of simple materials to illustrate the idea in a physical way;
users’ responses are closely monitored and critically evaluated. Subsequently
the original idea is changed based on users’ responses, and then improved by
means of a more advanced prototyping method; it is then tested for as long as
needed until we are convinced this is a workable solution and can be put in-
to actual use.
The essential characteristic of this approach is the integration of various
kinds of knowledge and skills and consequently cooperation with both the lo-
cal community and wider, as the final solution covers the user (i.e. human) as-
pect, as well as the technology and business-related aspects of the develop-
fostering student achievement on the development of enterpreneurship
Problems may be to do with a wider society, for instance solving issues with re-
gard to minority ethnic groups, existential problems in underprivileged areas
or environmental issues. They can also be local problems, for example setting
up tourist products and services, equipping school premises, setting up envi-
ronmental clean-up campaigns or humanitarian fundraising events They can
also be economic in nature, for instance developing a new or improved prod-
uct or service for a local company. What is of key importance at this stage is
that these are real identified problems and that they are as widespread as pos-
sible, i.e. that the solution is useful for as many people or organisations as pos-
sible. The most common mistake made during the course of the first step is
searching for ideas about how to solve the problem identified. Ideas are name-
ly dealt with during the third step; the most important thing here is under-
standing the problem and at this point ideas may actually prove an obstacle to
gaining an emphatic and objective view of the situation.
Step two is understanding the problem, whereby an attempt is made to fa-
miliarise oneself with the people or organisations and their problem by means
of emphatic methods. A multitude of ethnographic and anthropological field
methods for user data collection are used and the data is then analysed with
the aim of developing an understanding of the true nature of the problem.
During the course of this step, one’s view on the problem is commonly altered,
the problem is then redefined and presented within the new context of ac-
quired information. One of the key elements of this method is nonlinearity,
which means that based on the data collected and the understanding devel-
oped, previous assumptions are quite commonly completely redefined.
The focus of the third step is creating ideas that could potentially lead to
solving the problem. Various techniques are applied to generate as many ideas
as possible, evaluate them in terms of how simple they are to implement and
the level of their impact, after which some ideas are selected and then tested
in practice.
Step four is testing ideas or prototyping. The selected ideas are demon-
strated to users by means of simple methods, such as drawing of comic strips,
role-playing or use of simple materials to illustrate the idea in a physical way;
users’ responses are closely monitored and critically evaluated. Subsequently
the original idea is changed based on users’ responses, and then improved by
means of a more advanced prototyping method; it is then tested for as long as
needed until we are convinced this is a workable solution and can be put in-
to actual use.
The essential characteristic of this approach is the integration of various
kinds of knowledge and skills and consequently cooperation with both the lo-
cal community and wider, as the final solution covers the user (i.e. human) as-
pect, as well as the technology and business-related aspects of the develop-
fostering student achievement on the development of enterpreneurship
