Teacher engagement with the process in Design: policies, problems and visions

Abstract

The South African Department of Basic Education promotes problem-solving as a key skill while acknowledging the design process from Grade R to 12 as the means to acquire such. There have been reforms and revisions in the South African curriculum since the advent of Design education, e.g., Curriculum 2005 changed to Revised National Curriculum Statement (RNCS), and currently functions as National Senior Certificate NSC-CAPS. In the CAPS Design policy, there has been a (re)focus on the design process from a linear or non-linear perspective through the taxonomies of Bloom and Williams as guidelines. During provincial moderation sessions by the Gauteng Department of Education (GDE), it was found that the quality of the Design products ranged from good, mediocre to poor. Similar results were seen during the national external marking process.

The success of a good design or product lies heavily on the design process as it allows for problem-solving activation of quick and decisive thinking in terms of creativity and critical assessment. This study investigates how Design teachers interpret the design process, the reasons for their chosen approach, the way they apply their conceptual views and the way their subjective interpretation influence their design process teaching. In a Design Thinking Framework (DTF), the study explores Grade 11 Design teachers’ views and their impact on teaching the design process at large. The research has taken place in Gauteng, South Africa (RSA), with selected schools offering Design as a subject. The selection was based on the past five years Grade 12 Design NSC results. Learners who participated were identified by the Design teacher based on their Grade 10 Design marks. A qualitative case study approach was used with purposeful sampling to obtain the participants for this study.

The objective of the collected data was explored with semi-structured interviews (Part 1) with the participation of eight Design teachers, data taken with digital photographs and assessment (Part 2 - Rubric A & B) of the Design Process (Topic 1) - Sourcebooks and the Design Products (Topic 2) of 42 Design learners. Eight Design teachers and 42 Design learners participated in the study. As a contribution to this study, a new model for the design process was developed through this study as South African specific for the Design classroom and for implementation from Grade R to Grade 12 in all aspects of the teaching and learning curricula of different subjects. The Van Deventer D+NQ Model serves as a South African Design Thinking model of the design process to assist learners across the board in acquiring effective problem-solving skills. The Model accompanying this thesis and study is a prototype of the Model. The study concludes that the design process approach enables teachers to focus on the various parts of the problem-solving process, giving learners more freedom and acquiring problem-solving skills to experiment proficiency. It would require that teachers develop a deeper understanding of the design process approach to teaching Design advocated by CAPS.

According to the findings, Grade 11 Design teachers have two main viewpoints of the design process: (a) a step-by-step approach that offers learners comfort throughout the problem-solving phase, and (b) the iterative method that provides learners with the freedom to explore endlessly. The findings have also revealed that teachers’ perspectives on the design process are a composite of their related art qualifications in Visual Arts and Design education, pedagogical subject knowledge, and prior teaching experience, mainly in Visual Arts. As a result, Design teachers’ interpretations and understanding of the design process have an unquestionable impact on their instruction approaches and how they teach it to their learners. The study has demonstrated how this fully assimilated, rich pedagogical experience of the South African arts teachers can be enhanced and better invested through adjustments, innovative teaching and learning approaches in the context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.