Contents for a designerly research project

The complete essay/report is now online at: http://www.inspireslearning.com/portfolio

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I've written a plan for my thesis. It's in 3 parts.

The first part is an exploration of education issues and design, drawing from interviews and existing literature in the two fields. I have a bibliography to go with this (I'm just restructuring it to match the headings in the chapter plan). The first part is described in detail, as it represents the first third of the project in time terms.

The first part moves towards a detailed specification of "designerly" learning, and concludes with a methodology for studying it in the field, and a description of specific observations and experiments to be undertaken. Once I have written this, I'll move onto the actual field work, to be documented in the second part.

Finally, there is a concluding third part, summarizing my findings into a usable Handbook of Designerly Liberal Arts Education - with details of implications for learning spaces, technology, curriculum design etc.

I'll now be able to add to this details of the texts used in each part and section, details of who will be interviewed for part one (lots of volunteers already), and a rough schedule.

Learning is Design[ed]: on the vitality of designerly liberal arts education

Overview: My claim is that arts and humanities education acts as an essential breeding ground for graduates who are capable of solving seemingly intractable social, technical and political problems. This quality results from the blending, deep within the learning experience, of difficult contentions and challenges, powerful formal and informal techniques and opportunities, and an ethos that balances risk-taking with care and consideration. I argue that there are parallels with the increasingly successful “design thinking” movement (coming from business schools and commercial design companies). Through analyzing and refining these parallels, arts and humanities education can be enhanced further.

PART ONE: DESIGNING A DESIGNERLY METHODOLOGY - Completed July 2011

1. Introduction to a designerly research project: chance, necessity and design in learning

2. Learning and its contentions

• Contention, disruption and creation in Higher Education
  
• Surveying the scope of arts and humanities
  
• The state of play in: technology, creativity, learning spaces, curriculum design (including interdisciplinarity), globalization/glocalization, careers, student welfare
• The student as producer (Reinvention Centre)
• The student as performer (CAPITAL Centre)
  
• Contrasts and connections: schools, businesses, society

3. Design: theory into practice

• Defining design and design thinking
• Theories of good design
• Design and creativity methods

4. A methodology for studying design in learning

• Learning from the reflective practitioner
• Open-space learning in real world contexts
• Epistemic pluralism: models from cognitive science, cybernetics and sociology
• A blueprint for the activities and experiments to be undertaken
• Methods for recording and analysing data

PART TWO: OBSERVATIONS, EXPERIMENTS & DESIGNS - Completed July 2012

A series of observations and experiments to test, refine and expand upon the propositions made in Part One.

PART THREE: DESIGNERLY LEARNING, DESIGNERLY TEACHING - Completed July 2013

Summarising the findings from Part One and Part Two, into recommendations and guidelines forming a handbook of designerly liberal arts education.

Robert O'Toole : 15 Nov 2010 06:49 |  Tags: Implementation |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem