Dear All,
Firstly Chris Kemmett and Chuck, thanks for your responses, re:
learning experience.
Chuck, you very much confirm my own experiences with the students.
Namely that the students can be shown that they understand a lot more
than they realise - even if they've just started.
My own view is that once they can orientate their own human experiences
to the experience of the task, then their range of associations and
links to their imagination can give them an understanding that means
something to them at a far deeper level, than, say, if they'd just been
served up with some information. Hence, I suspect, the reason for the
quality of discussion afterwards.
Now if I may, I'd like to try and broaden this discussion.
I would really appreciate some input and challenges from the list
regarding the notion of "Design Learning".
In a mail to the list (18th August - re: Judgement and decision making)
I briefly explained my understanding of design learning as:
..."Just to make my interest clear, I would like to introduce the
notion of "Design Learning". I sense that design learning is an
attitude of mind that relates both to the context of design students
learning AND to the exploratory and experimental phases of professional
design practice. I consider design learning as a concept that covers a
broad range of activities, processes and methods used to gain an
understanding to make the necessary choices, decisions and judgements
with regard to a given design task..."
I see now that where I've written exploratory and experimental phases,
I should also have included enquiry.
So what I'd like to put up for debate is:
How is the term "design learning" understood?
What is it?
Is it, as I have suggested, linked to both design education and design
practice? Or is this an anomaly?
Or is it only something dealt with in an educational environment?
Can one approach an understanding of design as a combination of design
solution-producing activities and design learning activities?
Or can one describe design as essentially design learning, in that
there is an ongoing series of enquiry and experiment, the synthesis of
which is expressed as negotiated proposals that must ultimately reflect
the learning involved?
I feel that there is the potential for a rich discussion here and I
would very much appreciate any kind of input, be it theoretical or
examples of specific cases or contexts.
I need to broaden my understanding of the concept of design learning.
I look forward o your responses.
Best regards,
Chris.
-------------
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]
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