My First Six Months: Industrial Design Students Perceptions of their First Semester Experience of Learner-Centred Design Studios

Abstract

[EN] This paper reports on a learning and teaching project investigating the experience of Industrial Design students in their first semester of study in three initial courses that were reimagined to increase students’ agency in shaping their learning. In this five year project, My First Six Months (MF6M), teachers aimed to create a learner-centred environment by using facilitative, rather than directive, teaching strategies in a studio-based context.Students collaborated in small groups to investigate a project brief and produce an artefact outcome. They engaged in studio practices of research and prototyping, pinup presentations and peer review along with self-assessment. Most students had not experienced learning in these ways before. Focus groups with students explored their experience of the courses and unearthed valuable insight into students’ expectations about learning at university and the design discipline. Students were overwhelmingly positive about collaborating in their projects, while diverse expectations about learning and teaching roles and bemusement about the different emphasis on assessment featured prominently in students’ reflections. Recommendations arising from their perceptions include providing an ongoing narrative about independent learning throughout each course and ensuring support and expectations for independent learning are more explicitly designed into the course delivery.