The IDeSiGNmodel can structure the roles that children take when working on a project or solving problems. It works best with teams of seven members each representing a way of thinking. The responsibility of the person playing the role, their activities and what they produce is described below. When organizing a role playing session it is useful to put the information below on both faces of a tent card placed in front of the person who will play the role described on the card. The information on the card provides a quick reference for the role player as they are learning their role, and lets the others in the sessions, who see the other side of the cards, know which person is playing which role and what they should be doing. It is also helpful for each player to wear a hat, shirt or sign showing the symbol, letter or word that identifies their role so that other people can be more quickly reminded of the way of thinking they are responsible for. The information describing each role follows: Intender: Establishes the subject, need or project that the group will address; establishes circumstances and objectives and encourages input from other roles until success is acheived. The intender: Identifies need and situation Sets appropriate goals Guides effort The Intender produces: Problem statements Goal statements Priorities for action Definer: Identifies, specifies and/or provides the resources involved in a project. The Definer: Identifies what is involved Describes these items Locates or provides them as needed The definer produces definitions that describe: People, places and things Forms, features and qualities Situations, conditions and actions Explorer: Investigates, conceptualizes, and analyses possibilities. The Explorer: Searches for useful relationships Imagines possibilities Analyses ideas The Explorer produces: Similarities and differences Organizations and ideas Diagrams and sketches Suggester: Determines, presents and explains proposals and plans. The Suggester: Interprets and explains alternatives Communicates a plan of action Anticipates events and outcomes The Suggester presents: Interpretations Explanations Plans Innovater: The person who carries out the suggested plan of action to change the situation and produce the intended result. The Innovater: Implements what is proposed Skillfully does what is required Uses resources effectively The Innovater uses: Schedules, programs and methods Workplaces, tools and materialss Technology, techniques, and skill Goalgetter: The person responsible for evaluating whether the outcome of innovation meets the goals of the project. The Goalgetter: Monitors the process of innovation Measures its performance Evaluates its results The Goalgetter produces: Observations Measurements Judgments Knower: The person responsible for building knowledge and understandings of an experience for future use. The Knower: Reflects on experience Considers its implications Recognizes future potentials The Knower produces: Accounts of the experience Summaries of lessons learned Pointers to similar things in other areas These roles are best played by seven students acting together as a team to explore a subject, solve a problem, or execute a project, whatever it may be. The teacher might point out an area of concern in the curriculum, such as how to grow a plant, create a newsletter, or solve a social problem, to establish the nature of the project, then let the team think it through, each member taking responsibility for one of the roles. Because the students can see what their role involves, and the kind of information employed or produced, they quickly learn to focus on each role and the contribution it can make to the project. They also learn to help one another when difficulties arise. Students learn the roles by exercising them and seeing others do so. The teacher acts as coach, helping each player focus on their own responsibilities, and mediating the exchange between members of the group when individuals loose their way. The teacher instills principles that foster productive behavior and may introduce any one of several strategies to stimulate and redirect the group if it should become bogged down. The following policies to encourage good collaboration should be Introduced before the learning experience begins and gently reinforced throughout. Each player should: Recognize the best in each idea. Itemize responses to clarify their focus. Credit and build on the ideas of others. Relate and synthesize ideas. Listen - don't interrupt. Avoid expressing negative judgments. Re phrase what you hear to convey your understanding. Whenever the need arises or is felt within the team an appropriate idea generating excursion can be introduced. These include: Vacation: briefly forget about the problem; think about something else for a while. Brainstorming: list all ideas that spring to mind; do not edit or censor any of them. Free Association: spontaneously whatever springs to mind when a selected reference is mentioned. Form Synthesis: relate and integrate forms; play with different representations and ways of expressing and communicating an idea.. Empathic Analogy: pretend to be the object or person; act out and express what you feel the object or person might feel in a situation of interest. Contradiction: reverse the evaluation criteria; look for paradox and different values. Direct Analogy: consider something similar from another domain of experience. These techniques may be applied to the subject material associated with any role. However, each technique is directly related to a particular role and produces information related to it; Vacations relieve goal oriented pressures permitting regeneration. Brainstorming builds lists for greater definition. Free association explores relationships; Form manipulation explores the range of possible solutions, representations and interpretations. Empathic analogy extends the repertory of behavior. Contradiction forces examination of the validity of values and judgments, and direct analogy identifies other ways of understanding things. All provide opportunities for introducing new, creative ideas to stimulate a particular way of thinking.