JiscMail Logo
Email discussion lists for the UK Education and Research communities

Help for PHD-DESIGN Archives


PHD-DESIGN Archives

PHD-DESIGN Archives


PHD-DESIGN@JISCMAIL.AC.UK


View:

Message:

[

First

|

Previous

|

Next

|

Last

]

By Topic:

[

First

|

Previous

|

Next

|

Last

]

By Author:

[

First

|

Previous

|

Next

|

Last

]

Font:

Proportional Font

LISTSERV Archives

LISTSERV Archives

PHD-DESIGN Home

PHD-DESIGN Home

PHD-DESIGN  October 2011

PHD-DESIGN October 2011

Options

Subscribe or Unsubscribe

Subscribe or Unsubscribe

Log In

Log In

Get Password

Get Password

Subject:

Re: Design Education: Brilliance without Substance

From:

"Derek B. Miller" <[log in to unmask]>

Reply-To:

PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design <[log in to unmask]>

Date:

Thu, 6 Oct 2011 15:00:35 +0200

Content-Type:

text/plain

Parts/Attachments:

Parts/Attachments

text/plain (113 lines)

Following up from Birger (then signing off the day!),

One thing that Birger and I have noticed in working together is the need to have a educator-level discussion about curricular development and educational objectives for at least some aspects of the design field.

As Birger teaches about systems, and the need to think about systems to design for, or into them, it is becoming evident that for students to move beyond mere metaphor into taking that effort seriously, they are going to have read something and do some writing to get their thoughts in order. I have no idea what the balance is that Birger is also seeking. Which is precisely why we're looking to get this conversation started in earnest.

But the experience of banging our heads — both against one another and against the problems themselves — have rattled some interesting things loose. Next step is to codify this thinking, get a white paper drafted, and start a conversation. Create what we sometimes call "a group of interested parties."

d.
_________________
Dr. Derek B. Miller
Director

The Policy Lab
321 Columbus Ave.
Seventh Floor of the Electric Carriage House
Boston, MA 02116
United States of America

Phone
+1 617 440 4409
Twitter
@Policylabtweets
Web
www.thepolicylab.org 

This e-mail includes proprietary and confidential information belonging to The Policy Lab, Ltd. All rights reserved.

On Oct 6, 2011, at 2:35 PM, Birger Sevaldson wrote:

> Sinse Derek mentiones the Oslo School:
> Here we are stuck in a way of teaching the two years of master level in an old fashioned way that has not cought up with what happens on our PhD level and in our nummerous research projects. There is a gap we need to bridge. It is not the design activities and various practices, even traditional ones, that are the problem. The problem is, we do not have any research training for the master students in addition and in interaction with the skills-building activities and design practices. This becomes a problem when master students are engaged in very complex tasks that are intentionally in the forefront of the design realm e.g. the design for disarmement projects Derek and I teach together here. 
> I do not think that replacing design skills with e.g. social sciences is a good idea. Designers must not become social scientists. The value of design research is found in the middle ground between design practice and knowledge production. Design brings something new to research. (We have become very recognized for this at the Norwegian Research Council). It is also not a solution to import research practices from other fields e.g. social sciences without a criticallity that is possitioned in design so to reshape research to become proprietary for design.
> Many of us have been working along this line of balancing the "import" of research methods, theories and practices with refining design practice as knowledge production. Unfortunately in many places we still need to fight for a shift of the design education where we are embedded and the disharmony between what some of us teach, and the surrounding systems and structures remain.
> Meanwhile we continue to throw imensly complex challenges at our students for which they are not prepaired. The strange thing is that they love it, and they feel that design can be relevant and important. So the students are ready, we need to catch up.
> 
> best
> 
> Birger Sevaldson
> 
> 
> ________________________________________
> Fra: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design [[log in to unmask]] p&#229; vegne av Derek B. Miller [[log in to unmask]]
> Sendt: 6. oktober 2011 10:54
> Til: [log in to unmask]
> Emne: Re: Design Education: Brilliance without Substance
> 
> A brief interjection on the design education thread:
> 
> I'm currently guest lecturer at AHO — the Oslo School of Architecture and Design — and through that experience I have started to get my thoughts in order. I'll stay far away from the artillery shells of the senior design specialists here as I am thoroughly out of my depth in addressing Design Education writ large. I'll say only this, and from my perspective as Director at The Policy Lab:
> 
> 1. There may be some value in aligning educational conduct (i.e. what we teach and how) with actual evolving design practice.
> 
> 2. That means, as designers (at least some designers) are pushing the boundaries of design practice into new areas (or are helping shape and re-conceptualize familiar areas), it seems pretty clear to me that they nevertheless lack some of the needed intellectual skills required to properly engage those new practices from a degree of professionalism.
> 
> 3. Mapping those gaps between the "know-how" and the "need-to-know" seems less a theoretical task than a pragmatic one to keep education both current and innovative.
> 
> 4. My immediate concern is that students are not really being prepared for the work they think they are going into, and more to the point, they don't know they aren't prepared because their education is so distant from the social sciences and other fields necessary to illuminate their own gaps.
> 
> As The Policy Lab is now cooperating with numerous design firms and schools in order to design new services, I can experience first-hand their skill sets in tasks such as interviewing, structuring research, differentiating research questions from interview questions, and rendering interpretations on findings. Among other things.
> 
> Just like undergraduates entering a first-year class on qualitative research methods, these students are totally unprepared for serious research.This is only one slice of the larger pie you are all discussing, to be sure. This would not be a problem if it were not for the fact that design schools are not establishing in their students the foundational intellectual skills needed to conduct the work they then assign to the students.
> 
> At The Policy Lab, we are increasingly convinced that the design juncture is the key nexus for attention in crafting policy and programming.
> 
> There is a brave new world to be discovered in separating "designing" from "decision making" in democratic processes in recognizing that design puts options on the table, while decision making removes them from the table. That small, conceptual shift (of both inserting design, and distinguishing design) could fundamentally alter how we approach major public challenges (almost all of which fall under the common design rubric of "wicked problems").
> 
> The challenge may be design. The question is whether designers will be the ones to contribute to that challenge. As of this very moment, I'm not so sure.
> 
> Derek.
> _________________
> Dr. Derek B. Miller
> Director
> 
> The Policy Lab
> 321 Columbus Ave.
> Seventh Floor of the Electric Carriage House
> Boston, MA 02116
> United States of America
> 
> Phone
> +1 617 440 4409
> Twitter
> @Policylabtweets
> Web
> www.thepolicylab.org
> 
> This e-mail includes proprietary and confidential information belonging to The Policy Lab, Ltd. All rights reserved.
> 
> On Oct 5, 2011, at 3:19 AM, Andrew J King wrote:
> 
>> Don Norman's abstract of his article for Core77 on design education seems to echo exactly the thesis of an article I read in the old UK Chartered Society of Designers journal, probably in the mid 80's.
>> 
>> Being currently on the other side of the planet, I don't have access to my paper archives, so I can't offer a reference. The article was mainly concerned with furniture design rather than product, but the general gist was similar: design education remains too much based in craft and craft skill, and not enough in education for industrial design. That this should still be an issue is profoundly worrying, but I think it goes much deeper: Since the collapse of the Modernist consensus, undergraduate design education seems to be mired in a crisis of theory: What to teach and how? This would be a happy and creative opportunity were it not that, too often, it seems to be an unrecognised crisis, or at least, one unrecognised by those who ought to be doing something about it. That it has been going on for so long, is a tragedy, and I sometimes feel we are in danger of 'losing design' altogether, in the sense of losing all recognition of it, in the specialisms of the academy and in public perception, as an integrative discipline, and not a mere collection of assorted industrial crafts.
>> 
>> With new technologies of manufacturing beginning to mount an assault on the last bastions of skill, it seems to be ever more urgent that design education re-invents itself and shows that it is something bigger and more important than the ever more fragmented specialisms that seem to be popular in many colleges.
>> 
>> Andrew J King
>> 
>> 
>> Sent from my iPad
>> 
>> On 5 Oct 2011, at 09:16, Don Norman <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> 
>>> For your amusement (or perhaps annoyance).  My latest essay on design
>>> education on the core77.com website:
>>> 
>>> Design Education: Brilliance without Substance
>>> http://www.core77.com/blog/columns/design_education_brilliance_without_substance_20364.asp
>>> 
>>> We are now in the 21st century, but design curricula seem stuck in the mid
>>> 20th century, except for the addition of computer tools . . .

Top of Message | Previous Page | Permalink

JiscMail Tools


RSS Feeds and Sharing


Advanced Options


Archives

March 2024
February 2024
January 2024
December 2023
November 2023
October 2023
September 2023
August 2023
July 2023
June 2023
May 2023
April 2023
March 2023
February 2023
January 2023
December 2022
November 2022
October 2022
September 2022
August 2022
July 2022
June 2022
May 2022
April 2022
March 2022
February 2022
January 2022
December 2021
November 2021
October 2021
September 2021
August 2021
July 2021
June 2021
May 2021
April 2021
March 2021
February 2021
January 2021
December 2020
November 2020
October 2020
September 2020
August 2020
July 2020
June 2020
May 2020
April 2020
March 2020
February 2020
January 2020
December 2019
November 2019
October 2019
September 2019
August 2019
July 2019
June 2019
May 2019
April 2019
March 2019
February 2019
January 2019
December 2018
November 2018
October 2018
September 2018
August 2018
July 2018
June 2018
May 2018
April 2018
March 2018
February 2018
January 2018
December 2017
November 2017
October 2017
September 2017
August 2017
July 2017
June 2017
May 2017
April 2017
March 2017
February 2017
January 2017
December 2016
November 2016
October 2016
September 2016
August 2016
July 2016
June 2016
May 2016
April 2016
March 2016
February 2016
January 2016
December 2015
November 2015
October 2015
September 2015
August 2015
July 2015
June 2015
May 2015
April 2015
March 2015
February 2015
January 2015
December 2014
November 2014
October 2014
September 2014
August 2014
July 2014
June 2014
May 2014
April 2014
March 2014
February 2014
January 2014
December 2013
November 2013
October 2013
September 2013
August 2013
July 2013
June 2013
May 2013
April 2013
March 2013
February 2013
January 2013
December 2012
November 2012
October 2012
September 2012
August 2012
July 2012
June 2012
May 2012
April 2012
March 2012
February 2012
January 2012
December 2011
November 2011
October 2011
September 2011
August 2011
July 2011
June 2011
May 2011
April 2011
March 2011
February 2011
January 2011
December 2010
November 2010
October 2010
September 2010
August 2010
July 2010
June 2010
May 2010
April 2010
March 2010
February 2010
January 2010
December 2009
November 2009
October 2009
September 2009
August 2009
July 2009
June 2009
May 2009
April 2009
March 2009
February 2009
January 2009
December 2008
November 2008
October 2008
September 2008
August 2008
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
February 2008
January 2008
December 2007
November 2007
October 2007
September 2007
August 2007
July 2007
June 2007
May 2007
April 2007
March 2007
February 2007
January 2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999
1998


JiscMail is a Jisc service.

View our service policies at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/policyandsecurity/ and Jisc's privacy policy at https://www.jisc.ac.uk/website/privacy-notice

For help and support help@jisc.ac.uk

Secured by F-Secure Anti-Virus CataList Email List Search Powered by the LISTSERV Email List Manager