REFLECTIONS ON A COMMUNITY OF INQUIRY APPROACH TO DESIGN STUDIO EDUCATION: A CASE STUDY

Design studio pedagogy is the principal teaching method used in design education. The studio environment promotes learning through engagement with real-life projects that are typically ill-defined and supported by a design tutor. While learning is rooted in an experiential modality (learn-by-doing), the why of the designing (purpose, methods and tools) mostly remains implicit. The differing nature of design projects means that systematic approaches are seldom used, therefore students must understand the fundamentals of the discipline to succeed. This research paper presents a pilot case-study on the integration of a Community of Inquiry (COI) approach into the design studio aimed at subverting the implicit nature of design education. The COI framework is taken from Lipman and Sharp's 1970s reimagining of philosophy for children, in which inquiry through communal dialogue is used to explore the philosophy of a discipline. In the adapted version presented here, the discourse revolves around the principles of design and emerging artefacts (sketches or prototypes), the design tutor becomes the facilitator who labels design moves and models design skills, and the stimuli are democratically selected design projects. Survey results provide insights into students' experiences along with their challenges with this approach. Observations of students' design tendencies along with their design outcomes are also presented. In addition, the rationale for integrating COI, along with how it was adapted for use in a first-year product design module will be outlined, along with challenges, benefits, and learnings for future implementation.