http://smartech.gatech.edu/handle/1853/7435 Conferences sponsored or hosted by Georgia Tech Search the Channel search http://smartech.gatech.edu/simple-search http://smartech.gatech.edu/handle/1853/29150 Title: Beginning Design Students' Perception of Design Evaluation Techniques <br/> <br/>Authors: Seymour, Michael <br/> <br/>Abstract: Evaluating design students requires inherently different methods than existing models available in other disciplines; as such incoming students are required to adjust. The primary difference between design education and education in other disciplines is that design is not often achieved with a single correct solution (Roberts, 2006). The purpose of design studios is to aid students in exploring creative solutions, as opposed to finding the single correct answer. This type of process-based teaching often creates confusion for beginning design students who may not be exposed to this method at the secondary education level. Research suggests that a beginning design student's confusion associated with process-based critiques causes learning difficulties (Roberts, 2006). Beginning design students enter studios, are told by their instructors that in design studios there is not a single correct solution, there may be several solutions to fulfill design requirements - what matters is the process. After all, designing is more than an activity - if it were not instruction would be enough (Uluoglu, 2000). But instruction is not enough. As any student knows, in nearly every level of education, instruction and evaluation go hand-in-hand. Even the most elementary educational models require evaluation techniques as an indication of learning. So in design studios, critiques must be tailored to indicate the student's process-based learning. Not only are beginning design students asked to think creatively and intuitively throughout the design process, they are also evaluated with methods that are, in many cases, foreign. To further complicate the matter, for beginning design instructors, the evaluation techniques that most accurately reflect students' learning, like the design process, is not subject to a single correct method. While several recent studies have indicated the pros and cons of traditional design juries generally, few have analyzed design students' perception of the effectiveness of alternative or supplementary critique approaches available to design instructors. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate commonly used design critique methods based on student's perception, with particular attention paid to students' perception of the design jury as means of evaluation. <br/> <br/>Description: This presentation was part of the session : Pedagogy: Procedures, Scaffolds, Strategies, Tactics; 24th National Conference on the Beginning Design Student Wed, 27 Feb 2008 22:58:59 GMT http://smartech.gatech.edu/handle/1853/29149 Title: Profession Without Discipline Would be Blind <br/> <br/>Authors: Karczewska, Zuzanna <br/> <br/>Abstract: This paper explores two design studio projects developed and conducted at the School of Architecture at the University of Kansas. Through their pedagogy these projects posed the question of the engagement of the discipline vs. profession of architecture in the beginning design education. The profession and discipline of architecture differ in their primary foci. The profession focuses on the product and the ways of production. Discipline is concerned with the more philosophical questions of why and what we build and where the designer's inspiration comes from. In other words - what is the design process? The projects discussed in this paper were an attempt to address the question of design process as a part of the early design education. Both projects addressed most basic concerns of architecture. One of the projects focused on the understanding of the physical forces of a natural environment, a place of a person in that environment and the role of a built structure as a mediator between the natural world and an inhabitant. The second project was an attempt to offer students an intuitive understanding of structure, enclosure, light and shadow. Architecture as a discipline has a responsibility and privilege of searching for our place in the world. It is true that discipline of architecture without the profession would not exist but the profession without the discipline would be blind. What makes a great professional is not only the ability to put a building together, but most of all the awareness of the importance of architecture as discipline. <br/> <br/>Description: This presentation was part of the session : Pre-, Trans-, Cross-, Multi-Disciplinary; 24th National Conference on the Beginning Design Student Wed, 27 Feb 2008 22:58:59 GMT http://smartech.gatech.edu/handle/1853/29148 Title: A Curriculum Based on the Psychology of Skill: Collaborating with instructors with Disdain for Teaching Beginning Design <br/> <br/>Authors: Temple, Stephen <br/> <br/>Abstract: Many design curricula are structured to utilize instructors in beginning design who do not normally teach beginning design. These instructors frequently misconstrue core foundational pedagogical initiatives for student development of creative design processes by importing ill-suited pedagogical approaches either from advanced studio methods or from design practices with little educational objectives. Others misconstrue beginning design pedagogy as mere acquisition of basic proficiencies in the belief that these skills can only be creatively applied in advanced studios or that students should explicitly be taught what they will need to know for future classes that these very instructors teach. Still others believe they are lowering themselves in teaching beginning design studio curricula, or, in the extreme, that teaching beginning design is in some way a punitive assignment. Instead, it should be realized that teaching at the foundation level of design curriculum offers opportunities for fundamental explorations of creative practices, with students whose relatively unencumbered approaches allow for discovery and invigoration of fresh design inquiries. The difficulties outlined above expose a schism between the educational mission of what is called the "bottom" of the curriculum, with its beginning foundational learning experiences, and the so-called "top" of the curriculum, with more content centered courses. Though causes of this schism may be found in instructor biases, curriculum structure, and other systemic factors, reading these difficulties through the psychology of skill attributes the misconstrual of beginning design pedagogies to a failure of curriculum to support development of creative skill as an emergent attribute of design education. Research in the psychology of skill characterizes development of skill as a staged systematic process leading to the emergence of mature skillfulness. Thus, pedagogical and instructional methodologies that underlie curriculum structure must support psychological development of skill as a natural systematic correlate of student progress. This paper will present the learning of design skills as specifically structured to connect development of creative capacities to psychological aspects of learning skill. As such, schema will be given to pedagogical intentions and the experience of teaching as a means of overcoming instructors who teach out of context or who do not like to teach beginning design or who are more connected to the methodologies of design practice. To expose the effectiveness of the curriculum model in transforming instructional approaches, the paper will juxtapose developmental structures that support creative education with those that foster "professional education." The intention is to expose differences in pedagogical underpinnings that lead to ways to integrate the perspective of each into an operable set of conditions that can be successfully and appropriately shared among all means of beginning design instruction. <br/> <br/>Description: This presentation was part of the session : Pedagogy: Theories, Approaches; 24th National Conference on the Beginning Design Student Wed, 27 Feb 2008 22:58:59 GMT http://smartech.gatech.edu/handle/1853/29147 Title: An Integrated and Collaborative Approach: Integrating Technology in Beginning Design <br/> <br/>Authors: Wetzel, Catherine <br/> <br/>Abstract: Derived from IIT's historic model of integrating structures and construction in the design studio, the graduate degree in architecture's first year investigates relationships between material properties, structural typologies and space definition. The intention of the studio is to imbed integrated design methodologies in early learning experiences in order to prepare students for innovative and collaborative practices. Partnering with a guest structural engineer, students engage in a project-driven professional relationship. Students study prototypical structures through small-scale dynamic force models. The resulting project is an extensive design and construction problem. A number of projects are chosen for large-scale execution. Projects are chosen for construction based on their ability to test structural applications, variations of material exploration, design merit and construction viability. Beyond integrating structural and construction practices, the goal is to raise the students' awareness to opportunities in the complexity of contemporary practice, to provide leadership through research and informative collaboration, and to establish their role as a catalyst for innovation in the process. This partnership demystifies the separation of professional roles and situates the integration of architectural practice and material investigations within the beginning design experience. The studio appreciates the opportunity to lead the curriculum not necessarily with advanced problems but through early recognition of complexities in architectural thinking. Considering beginning design studios as something greater than a foundation has the potential of situating early learning in a larger context. When beginning design studios engage in issues of collaboration and technologically intelligent work, students are given the tools to advance their own education and the profession. <br/> <br/>Description: This presentation was part of the session : Pedagogy: Procedures, Scaffolds, Strategies, Tactics; 24th National Conference on the Beginning Design Student Wed, 27 Feb 2008 22:58:59 GMT