Learning Experience Design for Better Parenting Decisions
As a parent, navigating the endless stream of decisions can be overwhelming. What to feed your baby, how much screentime they can have, creating their morning and bedtime routines — the choices can seem endless. What’s worse is that you’re constantly questioning whether you're making the right decisions or if you have all the necessary information to do so.
In my quest to alleviate this anxiety, I stumbled upon Emily Oster, an economics professor at Brown University and fellow parent. She adopts a data-driven approach to analyze common myths around pregnancy and child-rearing. During our frequent road trips from Atlanta to DC to visit our family, my husband and I devoured her books, Expecting Better and Cribsheet. We were captivated by her ability to apply her economist's lens to craft an approach that empowered her to go against conventional wisdom and make choices that resonated with her own personal and family values.
So, in pursuit of my own intentional decision-making, I've leveraged my background as a learning experience designer to create a personalized approach that helps boost my confidence in making family decisions and ensure the decision truly aligns with the needs and values of my family.
Learning Experience Design for Daycare
As a learning experience designer, my work revolves around educational philosophy and creating content. I collaborate with subject matter experts to extract their knowledge to develop learning materials like case studies, workbooks, workshops, asynchronous guides, etc. to help audiences master skills. This process involves often research, conducting interviews, incorporating UX/UI design, and applying design thinking principles.
Now, how does all that come into play when making parenting decisions? Let me share an example.
My husband and I had to find a daycare for our daughter after relocating away from our in-laws, who had been watching her during the day. Here's how I approached this daycare challenge through a learning experience design lens.
Note: I must admit that as a busy parent, I can't apply this technique to every decision I make—it's not feasible. However, for decisions where I have time and are really important to me and my family, I find it to be a valuable tool.
Crafting a Learning Objective
There are many phases to developing a learning experience design project. However, the first, in almost all cases, is developing a learning objective.
I learned to approach these objectives by using the "From to" transition, which involves framing the objective as the transition from the learner's current capabilities to where you want them to be after the learning experience. Moreover, the objective should be focused and measurable. So let’s say you’re holding a workshop for product managers about running effective 1:1s.
Once I have an overarching goal, I prefer to identify the specific skills they need to learn to achieve this outcome. Then, outline exercises, templates, or documentation to help them develop those skills.
Once this is complete, I go back and revise the overarching goal into a learning objective; here, it can be framed as "Product managers will transition from not knowing how to run effective 1:1 meetings with their direct reports to developing a structured approach for conducting 1:1s, anticipate common 1:1 challenges, and implement a plan to ensure its effectiveness." Instead of a broader goal, this objective allows me to measure the success of the workshop through the skills that we would be developing that would contribute to the overarching goal.
Daycare Learning Objective
While learning objectives for parenting situations may differ, they can still adhere to similar principles. In the context of finding and enrolling Addy in daycare, I wanted to find a daycare where she could make friends and nurture her interests. Here’s how I outlined the skills and documentation needed to ensure I could achieve this goal.
The learning objective then becomes: "Our family will transition from not knowing about the local daycares to researching, evaluating, and selecting a daycare that demonstrates an interest in my daughter's socialization and interests by June 1st."
It's important to note that while I'm presenting this as a linear process, similar to learning experience design, these skills, and phases are not strictly sequential. Throughout the decision-making process, there was back-and-forth between different skills until the objective was achieved.
Meeting the Objective
In order to reach my objective, I had to tackle the outlined skills. The skills also became a part of my design thinking process, guiding me toward my final decision with more confidence.
Research and Evaluation
To ensure the selected daycare aligns with the learning objective, I assessed the daycares based on fundamental educational elements: social play, active/hands-on learning, real-world relevance, and personalization.
Here, I evaluated daycares’ daily schedules to ensure they allow sufficient time for interaction and play. Many of the daycares had curriculum plans (I know, I know what type of school already has a curriculum for a 1.5-year-old). But in the curriculum, I took note of the subjects, how they were teaching the subjects (if they highlighted projects and hands-on learning), and what examples they were using. I developed a template to analyze these factors during my in-person tour visits, which I discuss below.
Communication and Observability
In terms of communication and observability, I maintained a communication log to keep track of my interactions with each daycare. I made note of any flags, such as poor response rates or concerns about the administration.
I also scheduled tours of the daycare facilities. At the tour visit stage, I had a shortlist of about four schools and created a worksheet that helped me assess the schools during my tour visits based on the learning objective criteria.
Screenshot of daycare evaluation template: I took out the other three examples and anonymized the chosen daycare entry.
Expert Interviews and Analysis
When touring different schools, I encountered a common issue – each school presented its best image, making it challenging to gauge the true experience.
In my line of work, I frequently interview Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to gather practical information for creating content, templates, and slide decks. Drawing on this approach, I sought the input of a teacher from the top school on my list and a friend who had years of experience as a daycare teacher. Their insights were invaluable in analyzing what I had observed.
For instance, I was initially drawn to a Montessori school due to its child-led approach, which aligned with my objective of nurturing my child's interests. However, after visiting the school, I found the environment to be uninspiring. The social play appeared limited, and worst of all, the children didn't seem to be having fun!
My friend validated my observations. She explained that many Montessori programs group children of varying ages, which may hinder social play. Additionally, she highlighted the potential challenge of nurturing individual interests when children have diverse interests. During my tour, I noticed many children engaged in independent activities, which may foster their personal interests but limit interaction with peers.
I ultimately decided that a key benefit of daycare is that other kids are there. And while all Montessori schools are not alike, I didn’t choose the Montessori options I visited. Instead, I opted for a school that highlighted social and group play while trying to strike a balance between structured activities and nurturing individual children’s interests.
Final Decision
The school I chose fulfilled the criteria established in my initial evaluation framework, the tour impressed me, had a home-like and inspiring environment, and the administration exhibited excellent communication throughout. It also received highly positive reviews from other parents that confirmed my beliefs that it had the desired balance between social play and interest nurturing.
Post-Daycare Selection
Now, I’m currently navigating the post-daycare selection phase. As I mentioned in my previous post, it’s a challenging process to leave your child with someone else, no matter how much you think through the decision. But, at least with this lens, I’m a little more relieved that I made a comprehensive and intentional decision.
To help with the post-daycare skills, I’m using the tools mentioned above:
I stay informed about my daughter's activities through the school's provided apps and daily reports. They’re actually amazing.
I plan to incorporate engagement activities into our family calendar, ensuring active involvement from both my husband and me.
I reflect on the process through my self-coaching and journaling entries,
Learning experience design has the potential to positively shape parenting decisions. My intention is to continually refine and adapt this approach over time to enhance my overall ability to make intentional decisions in both my personal and family life.
