Who Knows What?

Who Knows What?

The aim is to highlight students’ knowledge diversity and the importance of this diversity in the innovative process.

1. The students form pairs and interview one another about their respective knowledge domains e.g. hobbies, part-time jobs, subject fields etc. They have 15 mins each to do this and should write each domain on post-it notes.
2. The students now form groups of six and draw four concentric circles on a flipchart.  The circles should look like a bullseye with A at in the centre and D being the outmost ring.  These should be labelled:

                A. Knowledge domains which all members of the group share.

                B. Knowledge domains which some of the members of the group share.

                C. Knowledge domains which only one member of the group possesses.

                D. Knowledge domains which no members of the group possess but are needed to solve the Challenge in question.

3. The students place their post-its on the appropriate circle and discuss which domains they have in common, what skills are found in the unique knowledge domains and how they might gain the knowledge in the outermost circle (D).
4. When all the post-its are added a mind map of the students’ knowledge domains are created on a flipchart. The students discuss how they could apply as many knowledge domains as possible to the Challenge.
5. The teacher discusses Susanne Justesen’s arguments that one often chooses group members who are most like oneself and possess the same knowledge domains. However, it may be beneficial to choose someone who has different knowledge domains as this can promote innovation. It should be stressed that group diversity strengthens the innovation process.

The activity could be done using online tools such as Padlet, virtual whiteboard and breakout rooms in Teams/Zoom.

Inspired by: Susanne Justesen