Dear Ken, Don, Derek and all,
For the last ten years I've had the pleasure and honour of working with Alun
Price, a member of phd-design. The last five years, Alun has guided the
successful development of national secondary course curricula in Design and
the associated 'end of secondary education' exams that qualify students to
enter university.
This secondary school Design program seems to move Design education forward
significantly, and the outcomes to date present some serious challenges for
university academics to improve future university design education and
research.
On completion of this secondary school Design program, students arrive at
university after two years intensive design education tightly linked with
their education in other subjects (maths, social sciences, history,
geography, physics, chemistry, English, art etc). Their knowledge levels,
theoretical understanding and skill levels in terms of design contrast
strongly with the rather more limited skill set of applicants to design
schools who are primarily assessed in terms of whether they show some
artistic skills and have a reasonable average of secondary education marks.
The curricula of this secondary course in Design covers much the same
material as a degree in Design. The evidence so far of exam outcomes shows
that these secondary students' level of knowledge and skill in design seem
typically towards the middle of the second year of a university design
degree. In their portfolios, however, the best of the students produce
portfolios that would be considered acceptable to good submissions for end
of degree grad shows. In effect, the best of these secondary students have
the skills, knowledge and competencies to enter the job market as designers
in direct competition with those exiting after completion of design
degrees.
This is the second year of this Design program being examined. Teachers are
still finding their feet with the program and we can expect outcomes to
improve. Around 1000 students are taking the exam, which is about the same
number as the total places in Design in the universities in the same
catchment.
These outcomes present some interesting challenges for tertiary design
education from degree to PhD.
Consider:
1. What should the degree curriculum look like that starts by assuming
that student entrants already have the skills to at least second year
standard? More importantly, perhaps, these secondary students have these
design skills integrated with and supported by the other subjects in their
school education. This opens up the possibility and space in Design degrees
significantly to increase the theoretical depth, breadth and standard of
design-related knowledge and skills from other disciplines such as
psychology, maths, management, the social sciences, business and
engineering.
2. The next sensible step educationally for the best of these
secondary students would be a Masters in Design rather than a design degree.
Current standards in Masters education in Design is predicated on students
having the skills typical of someone exiting the current Design degrees and
the best of these secondary students are achieving these levels of skill and
knowledge at school.
3. Assuming that undergraduate design education can now be extended to
included greater depth of theory from disciplines across social sciences,
business, science and engineering, anyone entering a Masters program in
Design could reasonably be expected to already have this level of
theoretical knowledge and skill alongside the skills and knowledge
currently taught in degrees in Design. This offers significant opportunity
to improve standards in taught Masters programs in Design and also to
increase the level of theoretical difficulty expected of Masters by Research
projects.
4. The new secondary Design curricula offers an approximately 2 years
of additional study - integrated with other disciplines. In effect this
also increases the standards of theoretical and conceptual difficulty
expected of research projects for PhDs to assume that candidates have this
extra 2 years of design-related education.
5. As Derek Miller commented recently, skills in sound reasoning are
both essential and one of the most obvious weaknesses of Design students
both in university and secondary school. From observation at school and in
Universities, skills in reasoning are, surprisingly, often taught least
well and less evident in Humanities areas. This embarrassingly makes hollow
the common Humanities claim that sound reasoning and critique is the
strength that Humanities brings to academia and professional practice. This
is clearly an area that needs improvement as lack of adequate critical
reasoning and thinking skills seems to be the greatest handicap to
advancement in students design theory and practice skills. Of concern in
parallel, is observation of design academics overlooking students' lack of
faulty reasoning and avoiding formally addressing the associated
educational and professional formation problems.
6. Undergraduate integration issues are evident for universities whose
undergraduate student intake combines students who have completed 2 years of
intensive secondary education in Design with other local and international
students who have no prior education in Design. At the moment, potentially
the only satisfactory educational resolution is to award 2 years
'recognition of prior learning' in the degree program for these secondary
school Design students. This use of 'recognition of prior learning' would
echo the approach used for students who have undertaken parallel design
education in vocational training colleges.
7. Originally, the secondary Design curricula was conceived (like
traditional university design courses) to be delivered and assessed in
separate 'contexts' (3D/2D design, photography, graphic design and technical
graphics). Alun, with the support of teachers, has guided the integration
of the four contexts into a single integrated program in which students and
teachers can specialise or not. The exam has a single set of questions
answered by all students, regardless of their context. The exam is
challenging for the examiners to write, it resolves, however, many
moderation and assessment issues.
8. This new secondary program offers a core element of a larger
program for radical improvement of design education and practices including
clarifying the theory foundations, improving PhD supervision, redefining
the roles and purposes of Masters of Design programs, extending the theory
foundation of design degrees to include degree level theory from other
fields, establishing standards for professional practice, integrating design
education across the Arts, Engineering, Business and Social Sciences, and
adoption of evidence-based approaches to design theory, education, research
and practice.
Alun is currently coordinating the national marking of the design
portfolios of this secondary school Design program. As soon as I return from
the UK to Western Australia, I'll be working with him coordinating the
marking of the written exams. The outcomes should give some deeper insights
into the potential for future improvements.
All the above is a long way of explaining and giving my apologies that I'm
unable to be at IASDR this year.
I hope it goes well, and look forward to hearing about it.
Finally, a small correction, from experience Aussies drink LESS than English
and Americans - advantage to Don.
Best wishes,
Terry
===
Dr Terence Love FDRS, AMIMechE, PMACM, MISI
<mailto:[log in to unmask]> [log in to unmask] Mob: +61 434 975 848
Coordinating and Chief Examiner, Chief Marker, DESIGN 2 and 3
Curriculum Council, Western Australia
Dept of Design,
Researcher, Social Program Evaluation Research Unit
Dept of Psychology and Social Sciences
Edith Cowan University, Western Australia
Dept of Design
Curtin University, Western Australia
Honorary Visiting Researcher, IEED
Management School, Lancaster University, UK
===
|
