State of Design Education in Singapore – Insights From Design Education Summit 2018

Abstract

This study aims to understand the main issues in design education and discuss solutions. We conducted two workshops on the state of implementation of design in the Singaporean education system at the Design Education Summit, a conference for educators. We found that the main issues were the inclusion of design education within curriculum and change of stakeholder mindsets. Several solutions were discussed, such as ways to introduce design as part of the organization culture. We summarize results into action items and recommendations.

Competent Designers: Inculcating Design Competencies Through Courses

“…In the second stage four design and four nondesign faculty were interviewed to gather their understanding of competencies and challenges and successes in fostering or assessing competencies. Valuable insights into required competencies were also obtained from design educators across other levels of education [20,26]. The third stage involved applying the set of competencies through workshops and interviews with 33 faculty involved in 28 courses at SUTD to evaluate the applicability of the set by faculty of different disciplines, to analyse the students' perception on the competencies they learned in those courses, and to analyse the coherence, links, and progression of design across the curriculum [29].…”

Stories of Design Education: An Analysis of Practices and Competencies

“…While competency-based education offers a number of benefits such as focus on the current and future individual, response to changing needs of the profession and effective bridging of curriculum gaps, there are common challenges faced by educators. An often mentioned challenge is competency-based assessment in design: how to identify competencies and assess their development (Silva et al, 2020) in a way that acknowledges the differences in experiences and accomplishments of different students. In the light of the recent pandemic, educational systems have had to evolve to allow digital and physical layers to coexist (Agasisti and Soncin, 2021).…”