Design Education through Facilitating Student-Centred Learning

Abstract

Student disengagement in the architecture design studio is our research-focus. Design teachers complain that their multitasking students are not interested in learning, whereas the industry complains that the products of design schools fall short of their expectations. Having observed student disengagement in design studio as a cause for this schism, we tested ways to bring students back to learn-through-application. Among the reasons for their demotivation, we found, is the gradual drifting of design studio pedagogy towards stereotyping, moulding students to design a final product rather than inspiring them to fine-tune a design process. Our hypothesis is that if the design studio includes its participants in the learn-ing process, their engagement in the studio can be improved. We tested various methods of improving the design studio pedagogy, the most tested pedagogical tool in architecture school by providing an open forum for knowledge-construction and dissemination. Our major breakthrough came when the students were made to feel that they were included in shaping their learning exercises. Our quest is to test the strength of such learner-centred design studio, in which responsibilities to knowledge-construction and dissemination could be shared. Our qualitative research methods included observation and participatory observation of design studios and depth-interviews of teachers and students at several schools. We also conducted experimental design studios to test the hypothesis of collaborative studio, and found that more we include the students and more they learn. Keywords: Design-pedagogy; Design-studio; knowledge-construction; Learner-centred-teaching