Communication in the Implementation of a Metacognitive Strategy for Learning to Design

Abstract

This paper describes an instructional communication strategy that makes use of time-based media techniques (story boarding and animation) in order to empower design studios with means to promote their students’ awareness on the acquisition of metacognitive knowledge and skills. This paper highlights the importance of including the communication of the design processes in the evaluation of learning outcomes. Moreover, the paper proposes that the students should be made constantly aware of their design processes and how effective are the methods they use. It is in this state of awareness that metacognitive knowledge is acquired: knowing how to learn to design. We can cultivate, exploit and enhance the capabilities of design learners, making them more confident and independent as learners as they understand what they need to know and what kind of strategies might work for different design problems and learning opportunities. In the development of an instructional strategy to accomplish this learning goal, the paper proposes it may be possible and potentially beneficial to transfer current metacognitive support strategies from a course on computer visualization techniques to the design studios. The paper elaborates on how these communication strategies could be transferred and implemented in a design studio setting. The results of a recent controlled experiment and considerations about the cognitive style of design students will be used in the preparation of recommendations for future full scale implementations in early design studios.