The Design Process is a Research Process: Students and the Ethics of Inquiry (original) (raw)

Interdisciplinary and collaborative design at the core of inquiry and scholarly research

The Journal of Public Space

In professional practice, design operates as both a research method and a final outcome. Academic researchers in design disciplines tend, however, to privilege process. 1 The same conflict is evident in the academic arena, where students often struggle to differentiate design as process from design as the end result. Design in this sense is an iterative process with a contingent endpoint. Pretty and McPherson's essay describes the conflict that results in the classroom when the word "design" is treated as both a verb and a noun. According to their essay:

Design and Co-design of Project- organized Studies

What. The chapter contributes to discussions on design processes in relation to education. Different notions of design research are presented. It is demonstrated how professors and students are involved together in designing innovative and constructive study processes that can help fostering students' engagement, self-awareness, mutual evaluation, reflection, and critical and creative thinking. The case to be presented and analyzed is the Master program ICT and Learning (MIL), where Roskilde University is partner in the cross-institutional collaboration behind the program. Why. It is a challenge for the educational system to meet the new needs for competencies, due to the change from an industrial society to a knowledge-based society. The problem-based approach can be seen as attempts to meet these challenges. Unlike a classic curriculum-oriented and teacher-steered model, project work is open ended and directed at handling unknown and dynamic processes. Where. Problem-based approaches are relevant for master programs with a need for collaboration, flexibility and implementation of technologies to overcome time, space and geographical limitations, and for study programs, where students are involved in self-directed study practices, and where there is a need for continuing reflective processes of how to learn. In relation to the Humanistic Technological Bachelor program at Roskilde University (Hum Tech), it is relevant to reflect on designs for learning in relation to both experimental use of and analytical dimensions of new technologies. How. The methodological approach deals with developing designs for learning that involves students as co-designers through problem-and project-based learning. The approach can be applied by professors and students who collaboratively wish to develop their study programs. In the situated context of problem-based learning, we discuss how students can plan and continually redesign their project work, how a balance of verbal and written activity can be maintained, and how social media can support group processes.

Clover, D., Sanford, K., & Allen, W.S. (Eds.). (2022). Academic project designs and methods: From professional development to critical and creative practice. University of Victoria.

2022

Academic project designs and methods: From professional development to critical and creative practice is the first textbook of its kind to address an important element or shift in fields such as education, arts, social sciences, and humanities. For many years, university professional and non-professional programmes have been moving away from an exclusive focus on traditional academic manuscript-based graduate theses towards practical, creative, and/or critically self-reflective, academic non-traditional non-thesis projects. Using the term project throughout this book is important as it recognizes and legitimizes the difference yet equal value of these alternative academic practices. The benefits of academic projects to students are many. They can be useful for students’ existing or future careers (e.g., workshop design, website creation, student leadership training curriculum); allow greater flexibility for highly imaginative and arts-based skill sets or work (e.g., zines, community mapping, visual learning materials, exhibitions or installations); or provide textual and visual analysis which is responsive to contemporary or working contexts (e.g., social media analysis, museum content explorations, policy analysis). While academic projects employ different structures to traditional or normative theses —and therefore offer different uses and values to graduate students—they are equally legitimate and important forms of scholarship.

DESIGN AND RESEARCH ACROSS THE CURRICULUM

University was initiated as a result of a $100 million donation in 1992 from the Rowan Foundation. The engineering faculty use innovative methods of teaching and learning to better prepare students for entry into a rapidly changing and highly competitive marketplace. To best meet these objectives, the four engineering programs of Chemical, Civil and Environmental, Electrical and Computer, and Mechanical Engineering have common engineering clinic classes throughout their programs of study, in which undergraduates work in teams on hands-on open-ended projects. The primary goal of Rowan University's engineering clinic classes is to immerse students in multidisciplinary design/research projects that teach engineering principles in both laboratory and real-world settings. While most traditional engineering schools provide students a taste of independent research well into their senior year in some form of capstone design, the Rowan engineering program experience allows students to be exposed to the intricacies of realistic open-ended engineering research and design as early as their freshman years. This paper focuses on the innovative engineering curriculum developed at Rowan University.

The Design Process–making It Relevant for Students

International Journal of Architectural …, 2010

THE DESIGN PROCESS–MAKING IT RELEVANT FOR STUDENTS Keith McAllister Archnet-IJAR, International Journal of Architectural Research Copyright© 2010 Archnet-IJAR, Volume 4-Issues 2-3-July and November 2010-(76-89) 76 Abstract Within ...

Incorporating Research Into Undergraduate Design Courses

It is well known and widely accepted that the integration of research and teaching in a problem-based educational setting helps to foster deep learning among students. In this paper, we describe how a patent on a rotary diesel engine, which had failed to work in practice, was used to link undergraduate research and teaching activities by orchestrating two design courses around this patent. Learning outcomes, course goals, content as well as assignments and projects were defi ned based on constructive alignment. Students' performance was assessed using so-called assessment rubrics, based on Bloom's taxonomy, which were specifi cally developed for both courses. After introducing the educational framework for this approach to enhancing student learning, we explain how both courses were designed and delivered in order to meet the higher-level educational outcomes envisaged. The paper closes with an overview of both our experiences and those of our students.