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Dear Terry, H'mmm - strong words you choose - ehtical, preferable! Well yes, your suggestion is possibly also one way of "experimenting with students". I prefer to consider (your quote) "...to quess and experiment on lots of students..." as exploring new possibilities in "collaboration" with the students. As far as I know there are no fixed procedures for dealing with design education. Until there is a theory of design learning or an application of general learning theory to the field of design education that can help us towards a deeper understanding of what actually happens when one is coaching or tutoring design students, which unfortunately there isn't, then I really do think that it is our responsibility to "experiment" with "ways" of giving design students the best learning experience they can have. And this is possible - I have my experience and the experience of others to go by. If we didn't experiment we'd still be in the mental mode of the Bauhaus or in the grips of cognitive science doing usability testing. Maybe mistakes will be made - we are only human after all. But new ways "are" found. As longs as the students gain by learning something new that they can use in their design studies and in particular learn to develop in themselves, then I feel ok about that. Most of the students who I have had contact with have expressed a feeling of having understood design and design practice on a level that they can identify with and use. Many of them have also gone on to be well functioning professional designers. I prefer to take their word for it! Best regards, Chris. On Friday, August 29, 2003, at 01:37 PM, Terence Love wrote: > Dear Chris, > > Looking at the biology of physically creating the neurological bits > and > pieces associated with new learning one would expect a time threshold > ( I seem to remember around 2 weeks is typical). You might like to > check > journals such as Cerebral Cortex on physiology of memory. If you know > how long the tyoical is time required needed for the physical changes > that > are the actuality of learning then you can start designing > appropriate course and > curriculum using those insights. > > If it is possible to identify the typical learning time threshold from > the > physiological knowledge then this seems ethically preferable > than to guess and experiment on lots of students until you find out. > > Best regards, > > Terry > > ------------- from: Chris Heape Senior Researcher - Design Didactics / Design Practice Mads Clausen Institute University of Southern Denmark Sønderborg Denmark http://www.mci.sdu.dk Work @ MCI: tel: +45 6550 1671 e.mail: chris @mci.sdu.dk Work @ Home: tel +45 7630 0380 e.mail: [log in to unmask]