DtM completes first CMES field study
The DtM field study consisted of three days of interviews at the CMES Service Center in Dhaka, two days of observations and interviews at the Tangail unit in rural Bangladesh, and four days of data synthesis both in the field and back at the local DtM office (converted from a suite in Dhaka's Eastern House hotel)--along with four days of round-trip air travel, including pit-stops to see Big Ben in London and the Oberoi Grand in Calcutta.
DtM's Service Center interviews focused on the percieved needs and opportunities among CMES staff, including director Muhammad Ibrahim, the Monitoring and Evaluation team, the director of the curriculum development program and many others. Our field visit to the Tangail unit included visits to the Suruj Rural Technology Center (RTC), hours of observations and interviews at regional Basic and Advance Basic Schools (BS and ABS), as well as student- and teacher-lead tours of the local community and school facilities. The data analysis and synthesis involved collecting and sorting the mountains of information into models and frameworks. We concluded the CMES visit with a presentation of our initial findings over dinner with Dr. Ibrahim and his staff.
The DtM field team identified three CMES objectives where we feel our collaboration could have a significant impact: attracting and retaining adolescent school drop-outs to the program, delivering an outstanding education to students in the program, and connecting CMES graduates with good, meaningful jobs.
Within these programs, key needs include:
+ reducing teacher workload in the CMES Basic School system
+ facilitating the process of student peer correction and peer instruction
+ helping teachers to establish "intellectual ownership" of the curriculum material and inspiring them to innovate and experiment with different methods
+ capturing and retaining student interest by providing a consistently stimulating and exciting environment
+ connecting the ends of the organization: helping CMES solve the hard problem of knowledge managements and the transmission of teacher and student innovation across the organization
The DtM field team consisted of Mekayla Beaver from IDEO, Adam French from the Stanford Design School, and DtM co-founder Timothy Prestero. Mekayla works as a Human Factors Specialist at IDEO, an internationally recognized design firm specializing in user-centered products, services, and environments. She has spent the last several years working to push the boundaries of design to facilitate people who are typically left to fend for themselves. Adam is currently a design fellow with Stanford's new d.school. Experienced in product design, appropriate technology and even boat-building, among other things Adam helped to launch the Xtracycle Access Foundation, a non-profit developing load-bearing bicycles for entrepreneurs in East Africa.
Design that Matters is enormously grateful to Mekayla and Adam for their hard work and consistent enthusiasm through monsoon heat and long hours. Their combined experience allowed us to quickly and efficiently dive into CMES's goals and needs from a variety of stakeholder perspectives, and present these goals and needs back to the organization in a sensible framework using CMES's own language.
We had a great time in Bangladesh, meeting the teachers and the students at the CMES schools, sampling the local food and careening through the Dhaka traffic in rickshaws. We can't wait to go back!
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