In 2024 I gave a TEDxQUT talk titled Schools for the 21st century: A generation of brilliant designers.
The core argument is that our school systems are continually recreating the wheel in terms of trying to get design competencies into schools. I used the term 21st Century skills in the title (referring to creativity, collaboration, communication, critical thinking) because people understand it better than they understand design (which is a word that confuses people a lot).
Really do keep on trying to reinvent a design education within schools. Here’s an example of some of the buzzwords (with examples of how they get talked about) that have been popular over the years that are all talking about more a designerly education:
- 21st Century skills
- Here’s what the Australian Dept. of Education says about it: https://www.education.gov.au/australian-curriculum/national-stem-education-resources-toolkit/i-want-know-about-stem-education/what-works-best-when-teaching-stem/links-21st-century-learning
- Inquiry-based learning
- The Australian Dept. of Education talking about ‘what works for teaching STEM’: https://www.education.gov.au/australian-curriculum/national-stem-education-resources-toolkit/i-want-know-about-stem-education/what-works-best-when-teaching-stem/inquiry-based-learning
- Discovery learning
- David Hammer (1997) Discovery Learning and Discovery Teaching, Cognition and Instruction, 15:4, 485-529, https://doi.org/10.1207/s1532690xci1504_2
- Problem-based learning
- Project-based learning
- Design thinking pedagogy
The problem is that designerly education keeps being reinvented in schooling but is never taken seriously enough to lead to systemic change.
My TEDx talk was motivated by the question: What would it look like if we took design seriously in education?
I’m happy to say that I am now writing a book with Leighann Ness Wilson on this topic, with the title Taking Design Seriously in Education. It will be released by Cambridge later in this year in their Elements series.
The TEDx talk
Watch it here, and there’s a transcript function in YouTube these days if you just want the text. In hindsight, I wish I’d made the talk better suited to the medium by using more wit and less earnestness, but it’s where I was at the time. It really is a good reflection of where I’ve gotten to after 20 years of researching design and education.
References
Hammer, D. (1997). Discovery Learning and Discovery Teaching,
Cognition and Instruction, 15:4, 485-529, DOI: 10.1207/s1532690xci1504_2
Kelly, N., & Gero, J. S. (2021). Design thinking and computational thinking: A dual process model for addressing design problems. Design Science, 7, e8.
Wrigley, C., & Straker, K. (2017). Design thinking pedagogy: The educational design ladder. Innovations in education and teaching international, 54(4), 374-385.