TRANSFERRING DESIGN SKILLS FROM FRAGMENTED TO INTEGRATED APPLICATION
Year: 2018
Editor: Erik Bohemia, Ahmed Kovacevic, Lyndon Buck, Peter Childs, Stephen Green, Ashley Hall, Aran Dasan
Author: Bekker, Dirk; Hulst, Bartel
Series: E&PDE
Institution: Rotterdam University, Netherlands, The
Section: Design and Engineering Education Practices
Page(s): 122-127
ISBN: 978-1-912254-02-6
Abstract
In the academic years 2016-18 we have been working on integrating various design skills1 in order to achieve deeper and more sustainable learning. In the past we taught our first and second year students these skills to achieve perfect drawings and beautiful prototypes. Most students passed these classes with great success. But when the classes were finished, students were still not able to apply these skills in a more complex context of a design project. By offering just in time (JIT) design skills workshops during integrated design assignments, students will be reminded of the isolated skills they have learned earlier in the semester and will know how to apply them in a meaningful context as outlined by Merriënboer, Clark & Croock [3]. This will lead to deeper and more integrated learning because students feel a higher level of urgency in using these design skills in a useful context. They then also need to figure out which type of skills are the most suitable for their assignment. In this way students will be more intrinsically motivated and reach a higher level of autonomy according to Deci & Ryan [1] and Dochy, F., Berghmans, I. Koenen, A. en Segers, M. [2]. The authors investigated how a higher level of integration of design skills can be achieved while preserving the control level for each individual skill.
Keywords: Design Education, Didactics, Deep Learning, Integrated learning, Intrinsic motivation