Exploring Designerly Thinking of Students as Novice Designers

摘要

Few studies have attempted a detailed analysis of designerly thinking and actions of students as they solve design technology problems. This paper reports on a study that describes in detail, the design processes used by small groups of preservice teacher education students engaged in ill-defined, open-ended, self-selected design technology projects. A notation of symbols and connectors was devised and used to map the decisions, and the material and embodied actions of two groups of students throughout the course of their projects. The detail provided by the maps gives insights into these adult novice designers' design processes and provides information to assist teacher educators in planning courses to support future teachers of design and technology.