Understanding design literacy in middle-school education: assessing students’ stances towards inquiry

Christensen, Kasper Skov; Hjorth, Mikkel; Iversen, Ole Sejer; Smith, Rachel Charlotte

doi:10.1007/s10798-018-9459-y

Cited by 25 publications

(66 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…Students need to employ the above-mentioned research activities in their design projects, in order to get grip on the ill-structured problems they are faced with, and to enhance the quality of the designed solution (Christensen et al 2018;Crismond and Adams 2012). This means that ideally, students initiate activities like clarification of the problem (by looking up information), idea generation (e.g.…”

Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This means that ideally, students initiate activities like clarification of the problem (by looking up information), idea generation (e.g. brainstorming) or research on users and stakeholders (Christensen et al 2018). However, Hjorth et al (2015) and Christensen et al (2016) showed that fewer than 3% of the participating students took this 'designerly stance towards inquiry'.…”

Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Connecting research and design activities is not yet self-evident in education (Kolodner et al 2003a;Van Breukelen et al 2016) and does not yet have a well-established epistemology (De Vries 2006;Doyle et al 2019). As the format of many modern education systems focusses on grading of 'right' or 'wrong' answers, it may be difficult for teachers and students to switch to more open and adaptive approaches of research and design, opposed to traditional, structured projects that have to fit into the requirements of assessment schemes (Bevins and Price 2016;Christensen et al 2018). Students tend to skip doing research and start working on design ideas immediately, a phenomenon that frequently occurs in beginning designers (Crismond and Adams 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Students tend to skip doing research and start working on design ideas immediately, a phenomenon that frequently occurs in beginning designers (Crismond and Adams 2012). However, students need to employ research activities in their design projects, in order to get grip on the ill-structured design problems, and to enhance the quality of their designed solutions (Christensen et al 2018;Crismond and Adams 2012). Scholars have suggested that students' tendency to treat a design project as a sequence of linear steps, without interference of scientific methods, indicates that they view the design problems as well-defined instead of ill-structured (Christensen et al 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, students need to employ research activities in their design projects, in order to get grip on the ill-structured design problems, and to enhance the quality of their designed solutions (Christensen et al 2018;Crismond and Adams 2012). Scholars have suggested that students' tendency to treat a design project as a sequence of linear steps, without interference of scientific methods, indicates that they view the design problems as well-defined instead of ill-structured (Christensen et al 2018). The STEM teachers that are expected to guide students through complex design projects, often have very little experience in combining research and design activities themselves (Love and Wells 2018;Vossen et al 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Student and teacher perceptions of the functions of research in the context of a design-oriented STEM module

Vossen

Tigelaar

Henze

et al. 2019

Int J Technol Des Educ

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Technological design is a core activity in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education. During the design process, students often employ research activities to enhance the quality of their design decisions and to rise above a mere trial-and-error approach to designing. There are many functions of research within the design process, for example theoretical research, user research, or testing a prototype. In this study, we aimed to examine student and teacher perceptions of the functions of research in the context of a design-oriented STEM module in Dutch secondary education. To do so, we first examined in what ways students and teachers who conducted or respectively taught the STEM module recognized functions of research within design. We also looked at the value students attributed to these functions, and how teachers described their facilitation of the functions of research within design. During the STEM module, students conducted a design project related to an authentic problem in biomedical technology, while using research activities to support their design decisions. Results from student focus groups and teacher interviews showed that they recognized several ways in which research activities contribute to a design process. Students valued the functions of research within design as important for the end product, although some students preferred to skip research and start building their design right away. Some teachers employed strategies to ensure students learned to do research steps, for example by a reverse design exercise. The results from this study raise the question whether all students should apply research activities in the same order during a design process, since different students seem to prefer different ways of designing. A design-oriented STEM module like this one is an appropriate way to start showing students the functions of research within design, however differentiation between different students' preferences could possibly enhance this learning process.

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Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%