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MEREDITH DAVIS • PETER HAWLEY • BERNARD MCMULLAN • GERTRUDE SPILKA

Design as a Catalyst for Learning

MEREDITH DAVIS • PETER HAWLEY • BERNARD MCMULLAN • GERTRUDE SPILKA

Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development
Alexandria, Virginia USA

Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development
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Copyright © 1997 by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Design as a catalyst for learning / Meredith Davis ... [et al.].
p. cm.

Papers based on research conducted by the OMG Center for

Collaborative Learning.

Includes bibliographical references (p. ).

ISBN 0-87120-284-0 (pb)

1. Creative thinking— Study and teaching— United States. 2. Design— Study
and teaching— United States. 3. Problem-solving— Study and teaching-
United States. 4. Active learning— United States. 5. Curriculum planning—
United States. 6. Educational change— United States. I. Davis, Meredith
(Meredith J.)
LB1062.D475 1997

370.15'2-dc21 97-43361

CIP

01 00 99 98 97 5 4 3 2 1

Table of Contents

Foreword

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3

Chapter 4
Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Appendix A

Appendix B

Appendix C
Bibliography
About the Authors
About the NEA
About ASCD

Learning Through Design

Lifelong Learning.

A Strategy for Excellent
Teaching

Design in the Curriculum

Opportunities and
Challenges for Schools

Conclusions and
Recommendations

Design Education in the
Context of Education Reform

Sources of Information
and Assistance

Schools Cited in this Study

The Design as a Catalyst for Learning project was funded through a
cooperative agreement (DCA 93-08) from the National Endowment for
the Arts, a federal agency. The initial project research was conducted
by Gertrude J. Spilka, principal researcher, Bernard McMullen, and Lisa
Nutter of the OMG Center for Collaborative Learning in Philadelphia, Pa.

Foreword

this book speaks directly to educators,
but I believe it holds insights that
will be of interest to parents and
business leaders as well. In his 1997 State
of American Education address, U.S.
Secretary of Education Richard W.
Riley reminded us that as we approach
the 21st century, "nothing should be
more important to us as a nation than
the actions we take now to help our
young people prepare for the future."1 As
a mother, I know what all parents want
for their children: to give them every
opportunity to reach their full potential.
We want our children to know how to
work well with other people. We want
them to feel competent in solving the

problems they may encounter at work
and in the community. Above all, we
want them to be happy and engaged
in life, to know how to keep learning,
enjoying, and contributing.

Goal Three of our National
Education Goals, endorsed by the
nation's governors and both parties in
Congress, summarizes these desires well.
After stating that all children should
graduate from high school with a firm
understanding of core subjects including
math, science, social studies and the arts
it continues ". . . and every school in
America will ensure that all students
learn to use their minds well, so that
they may be prepared for responsible

citizenship, further learning, and pro-
ductive employment in our Nation's
modern economy."2

The world into which students now
graduate is changing rapidly as global
competition increases and information
technology transforms the way work is
conducted. Where once the "three R's"
were sufficient for most young people
to gain entry into the workforce, today
they are only the foundation for a set
of higher-level thinking and perfor-
mance skills sought by employers. The
"knowledge worker" now in demand is
a person who works well in a team,

particularly with people from different
cultural backgrounds. Such workers also
know how to access, evaluate, interpret,
and communicate information in a
variety of media. They have the curiosity
and creativity to pose questions and to
innovate. They can grasp the dynamic
relationships among parts that consti-
tute larger systems. They know how to
allocate human and material resources
to get things done on time and to high
standards of quality.

We need these skills in all spheres of
our society: in government, business,
and the nonprofit sector. The quality of
everyday life in our communities as well
as the nation's economic vitality depend
upon people's ability to view problems
from many perspectives, to construct
creative approaches to solving them,
and to evaluate those solutions with a
critical eye. Such skills lie at the heart
of engaged, responsible citizenship.
They are also fundamental to the inno-
vations that stimulate entrepreneurship
and job growth.

How then do we develop these skills
in our children? What kind of schools
can nurture them? I am convinced —
and an increasing number of business
and civic leaders are too — that education
in the arts is an essential component.
This was illustrated last year in a spe-
cial education supplement published by
Business Week magazine.3 There, business

and civic leaders gave testimony to the
value of the arts in developing the kinds
of well-rounded, hard-working, innov-
ative performers they are seeking.

They know that, in any art form, the
artist is concerned with both process
and end product. Design, the subject of
this book, is a good example. Whether
the objective is a product, a building, a
city plan, or a graphic communication,
when children are engaged in the process
of designing, they are learning to
identify needs, frame problems, work
collaboratively, explore and appreciate
the contexts within which a solution
must work, weigh alternatives, and
communicate their ideas verbally,
graphically, and in three dimensions.

Design is also about making and
doing as a way of knowing, of really
understanding the abstract concepts
taught in schools. It's about putting
ideas to work in situations that allow
children to test themselves and the value
of learning in everyday life. Engaging
in periodic self-assessment and critiques
of work in progress, students come to
understand that performance testing to
high standards and continual improve-
ment are fundamental to the process, in
lifelong learning no less than in design.

Dance, theatre, music, and the visual
arts share many of these characteristics
and should be part of any comprehen-
sive educational program. Design is in

G o a

a unique position, however, because
the very "stuff' of design is all around
children: in the classroom, the neighbor-
hood, and even in the virtual worlds
available on the Internet. As the teachers
you will meet in this book reveal, the
very fact that the products of design are
so ubiquitous and so tangible makes
design itself an easy hook to capture
students' attention, a natural path on
which to set them exploring how the
world works and how they can make a
difference in it.

These teachers also will tell you
that design helps students integrate
knowledge from other disciplines and
motivates them to attend school. Given
that truancy costs the United States
some S228 billion a year and corpora-
tions spend an additional S30 billion
annually on the remedial education of
their employees, any pedagogical method
that invigorates students' learning and
keeps them coming back for more is
worth a close look by educators, parents,
and business leaders alike.

As President Clinton has stated on
numerous occasions, education is our
most important bridge to the 21st
century. It's one we all have a role in
building. In this book you will see that
design in education itself constitutes a

powerful bridge, both literally and fig-
uratively You'll see children building
and testing bridges as a means of learn-
ing math, science, and social studies.
You'll see how design helps teachers
bridge different subjects and connect
classroom learning with the larger
community. Ultimately, whatever the
type of design and its curricular context,
you'll see that the creative, problem-
solving process of design helps both
teachers and students achieve their goals.
In closing, I want to thank all those
who made this book possible both within
and beyond the Arts Endowment and
to thank ASCD in particular for recog-
nizing the potential of design to help
teachers all across the curriculum. If
what you see excites you, as I am sure
it will, consider how to integrate these
methods into your community's schools,
into teacher-training programs, and
into school-business partnerships.
You will find design a potent catalyst
for excellence.

Jane Alexander

Chairman

National Endowment for the Arts

Middle school students design
the ideal city of the future for
the annual National Engineers
Week Future City Competition.
Here, the winners show their
computer-designed city to
President Clinton.

1 Riley, Richard W. (February 18, 1997). Fourth Annual State of American Education Address. Washington, D.C: U.S. Department of Education, p. 2.

2 Goals 2000: Educate America Act. 0994). Public Law 103-227, signed into law March 31. 1994.

3 Business Vai. (October 28. 1996). "Educating for the Workplace Through the Arts "

*1 ' »"''" ■'■'■

Acknowledgments

Unless you are looking at this
book in the middle of a wilder-
ness, you are surrounded by
the designed world: the landscapes,
buildings, products, and graphic
communications that go together
to form the world humans have
shaped to their own ends — and are
constantly in the process of revising
and recreating.

Designing is an inherent human
capability. We see evidence of humans'
creative adaptation to the natural world
as far back as archaeologists, anthro-
pologists, and paleontologists can take
us. We also see daily, gleeful evidence
of design wherever young children are
allowed to let their keen curiosity and
inventive imaginations engage the
world around them.

The act of designing is so multi-
faceted — encompassing so many syn-
aptic flashes linking mind, eye, and
hands — that it is hard to convey its
dynamism, much less its pedagogic
potential, in the single word "design."
Our British colleagues are closer to
capturing its Protean character when
they talk of the "designerly way of
thinking, knowing, and doing."

It is that dynamism and potential
that this book attempts to capture and
present, to show that design belongs
in the curriculum not merely as a noun
or verb but as adjective and adverb too.
This book also attempts to show that
design belongs not only in the art studio
and industrial arts (now "technology")
classroom but in and among all the
disciplines.

PHOTO BY MARC YVES REGIS/
THE HARTFORD COURANT.

As the following pages will reveal,
dedicated professionals across the coun-
try— teachers, curriculum specialists,
and administrators — have seen the
potential of design at work. These
educators understand that thinking
about and "doing" design motivates
young people; helps them place what
they are learning in a larger context;
teaches them how to be both reflective,
self-directed learners and collaborative
team members; and, best of all, reveals
to them that they have both the innate
creative capacity and the civic responsi-
bility to manage change in the "built,"
or designed, environment.

As with any multiyear, multitask
project, profound and sincere thanks are
due to many people who contributed to
and influenced this book:

To Jane Alexander, Chairman of the
National Endowment for the Arts, and
to the National Council on the Arts for
approving the funds for this research
project, which was launched in late 1992.

To Mina Berryman, former director
of the National Endowment for the Art's
Design Program, for first suggesting
design in K-12 education as a topic for
exploration, and to Samina Quraeshi,
her successor, who supported the project
to its conclusion.

To the exemplary individuals who
generously gave their time and talent
to serve on our national advisory com-

mittee for this project. Drawn from the
worlds of education and design, they
challenged, encouraged, and blessed
this effort with confident patience
during its many twists and turns.
They are:

- Doug Herbert, Director, Arts in Education,
National Endowment for the Arts

- Meredith Davis, Head, Graphic Design,
North Carolina State University, Raleigh,
North Carolina

- Gioia Caiola Forman, former principal
of Dranesville Elementary School in
Herndon, Virginia, and now director,
Security and Risk Management, Fairfax
County Schools

- David Kennedy, Director of Educational
Technology, Office of the Superintendent
of Public Instruction, Washington State,
Olympia

- Gary Marx, Senior Associate Executive
Director, American Association of School
Administrators, Arlington, Virginia

- Hazel Robbins, teacher, Shawmont
School, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

- Alan R. Sandler, Senior Director,
Education Programs, American
Architectural Foundation, Washington, D.C.

- Julia Shahid, Academic Coordinator,
McKinney Independent School District,
McKinney, Texas

To Gertrude (Gerri) Spilka and her
colleagues at the OMG Center for
Collaborative Learning in Philadelphia,
who undertook the initial research for
the Design Program, cast the net for

teachers, explored the literature, and
placed the testimony of teachers in the
broader context of educational theory
and practice. The research team she
assembled included, at various times,
Bernard McMullan, Lisa Nutter, and
Mark Fraga.

To Meredith Davis, one of our
advisors with experience in both the
professional design world and the K-12
classroom, for accepting the challenge
of revising the manuscript to elucidate
the design methodologies that lie
below the surface of the stories told.

And to Ron Brandt, Assistant
Executive Director of the Association
for Supervision and Curriculum
Development, for first seeing the
potential of this subject to address the
needs of teachers and curriculum spe-
cialists in all discipline areas, and to
Nancy Modrak, Gary Bloom, Kathie
Felix, and Rene Bahrenfuss at ASCD
for shepherding the manuscript
through to publication.

Beyond this team, we have been
aided by a far-flung network of advo-
cates and practitioners of design-based
learning. Hundreds of them nominated
teachers for our initial survey. Dozens
assisted in identifying sites, resources,
and illustrations. Among them I would
like to acknowledge the enthusiastic,
unstinting support of the following
individuals in particular:

Ken Baynes, Professor of Design
Education, University of
Loughborough, England

Charles Burnette, Chair, Industrial
Design Department, University of the
Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Pamela Carunchio, Director of
Education, Foundation for
Architecture, Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania

Dorothy Dunn, Director of Education,
Cooper Hewitt National Design
Museum, New York City, New York

Ginny Graves, Director, Center for
Understanding the Built Environment,
Prairie Village, Kansas

Richard Kimbell, Head, Design Studies
Department, and Director, Technology
Education Research Unit, Goldsmith's
College, University of London, England

Laura London, Manager, K-12
Education, Autodesk, Inc., Sausalito,
California

Peter Lowe, Executive Director,
Worldesign Foundation, Inc.,
New York

Doreen Nelson, Professor, School of
Education and Integrative Studies,
California State Polytechnic
University, Pomona, California, and
Director, Center for City Building
Education, Los Angeles, California

Kendall Starkweather, Executive
Director, International Technology
Education Association, Reston,
Virginia

- Ronald R. Todd and Patricia Hutchinson,
TIES Magazine, College of New Jersey,
Trenton, New Jersey

- Anna Sanko, Architecture Resource
Center, Connecticut Architecture
Foundation, New Haven, Connecticut

- Anna Slafer, former Curator of Education,
National Building Museum, and now
Executive Director, Renew America,
Washington, D.C.

- Anne Taylor, Director, Institute for
Environmental Education, School of
Architecture and Planning, University of
New Mexico, and Director, School Zone
Institute, Albuquerque, New Mexico

- Adele Weiler, President, Building
Connections, Murray, Utah

Closer to home, I would like to
thank several interns and fellows at the
National Endowment for the Arts who
assisted with various administrative
aspects of the project, including Jean
Horstman, Rachael Smith, and Sarah
Ferguson.

Ultimarely my deepest thanks goes
out to all the teachers who responded
to our call for information and to their
many colleagues who take up each day
the challenge and excitement of the
most noble profession, that of nurtur-
ing and educating the next generation
of citizens. For as David Perkins has
said in Knowledge as Design: "A teacher
ideally conceived is a designer who
helps learners to design themselves."

It is the hope of all those who have
contributed to this book that you will
find inspiration in its pages for your
own work with young people and that
this introductory report will also be a
catalyst for further research, curriculum
development, innovative teacher prepa-
ration, and professional development.

— Peter Hawley, Project Director

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Introduction

In Seattle, Washington, 4th grade
students explore relationships
between culture and habitat as they
design and build Native American
housing. Social and environmental
studies come alive for them through
activities that pose real-life problems,
similar to those encountered by resi-
dents of the earliest North American
communities.

A kindergarten student in West
Linn, Oregon, struggles with making
a moveable hinge for a puppet she is
designing. She knows the performance
she wants and works backward through
a myriad of possible mechanical

solutions that might achieve the gestures
she sees in her mind.

In Lowell, Massachusetts, 7th and 8th
grade students apply their knowledge
in math, science, and environmental
studies to critiques of "environmentally
unsound packaging." They work in
teams to create more effective solutions.
As astute consumers of popular culture,
they find writing brochures and
designing advertising for these products
equally engaging.

A high school physics teacher in
Aurora, Colorado, reports the success of
his "Rube Goldberg Project" in moti-
vating students who normally show no

interest in physics. In designing, build-
ing, and operating their extraordinary
machines, students demonstrate their
understanding of physics principles
with an enthusiasm their teacher rarely
finds in traditional exercises.

And in Canyon Country, California,
6th grade students design and con-
struct a city of the future, acting out
the roles of the planning and trans-
portation boards and city council. In
addition to learning how civic groups
reach decisions, students confront the
difficulties of planning urban systems
while preserving the quality of com-
munity life.

Increasingly, innovative teachers
explore with their students the modes
of inquiry used by graphic designers,
product designers, interior designers,
urban planners, landscape architects,
Its.

These students and their teachers
employ an approach to learning in which
design is an integral part of curriculum
and pedagogy. Increasingly, innovative
teachers explore with their students the
modes of inquiry used by graphic
designers, product designers, interior
designers, urban planners, landscape
architects, and architects. They also
examine content related to the everyday
artifacts and environments of various
cultures, along with processes for making
decisions about visual communication,
consumer products, and the built
(manmade) environment. Finally, these
teachers employ active learning experi-
ences that model the cognitive and social
problem-solving demands of adult life.
Design-based learning offers genuine
promise for preparing students to be
thinking, informed citizens who can
shape progress in the next century. And,
for children, design experiences are

intriguing puzzles through which
learning comes alive.

The National Endowment for the
Arts has long supported the inclusion of
design in the K-12 curriculum.1 In'
response to growing evidence that design
is a powerful tool for transforming cur-
riculum and accommodating the variety
of ways in which students learn, the
Endowment's Design Program created a
special funding category for Design in
Education in 1991- Impressed by reports
from those who received grants and by
anecdotes from classroom teachers and
administrators around the country, the
Program commissioned a study in 1993
to gain further understanding of how
design in the curriculum helps students
and teachers achieve national educa-
tional objectives and to explore oppor-
tunities for expanding the role design
can play in students' academic lives.
To conduct this research, the Endow-
ment engaged The OMG Center for
Collaborative Learning, a public policy
research and consulting group based in
Philadelphia and Los Angeles. A national
advisory panel of K-12 educators, admin-
istrators, and design educators guided
OMG in its work during 1993 and 1994.

This book presents findings of that
research and reveals how the use of
design experiences in classrooms
provides teachers and students with a
learning construct for the next century.

How the Research
Was Conducted

the goal of OMG's research was to
show a range of what teachers and
students do in design and the promise
that design-based teaching and learning
hold for education reform, not to
identify the best examples of the use of
design in U.S. classrooms. Instead of
reviewing programs advocating design
in schools, OMG's research explored the
benefits teachers say design brings to
their practice and to their students.
Thus, this book summarizes descriptive
research that makes qualitative state-
ments regarding current practice and
identifies effective models for using
design in classrooms. The research team
selected an exploratory, hypothesis-
generating approach since the practice
is in the early stages of adoption and the
overall number of educators using design
in the classroom is small.

OMG's researchers tapped three
primary sources of data:

- a review of literature

on the use of design in classrooms,

- a national qualitative survey of teachers
currently using design with their
students, and

- site visits to 10 schools representing a
range in uses of design.

Researchers piloted a survey ques-
tionnaire and sent it to 900 teachers
nominated by their peers in a Call for
Information, which was distributed to

How the Book
Is Organized

educators and design professionals
through mailings to schools, professional
publications, and electronic networks.
The questionnaire probed the way
teachers use design: as subject matter
in the curriculum, as an experimental
means of integrating content across
disciplines, and as a thinking process
for learning subject matter in many
disciplines. It also asked how teachers
learn about design and requested sam-
ples of their classroom lessons.

More than 160 teachers responded to
the questionnaire.2 The research team
analyzed their responses for content and
scrutinized lessons for possible case
study development. A promising group
of responses showed the following:

- a range of ways in which teachers used
design,

- varying degrees of integration of design
into curriculum, and

- diversity in teachers' understanding of
the design process and its use as a
learning strategy.

With consideration of these factors
and additional attention to diversity in
geographic region, grade level, school
subject area, and scale of design prob-
lems (e.g., graphic, product, architec-
ture, environment), the research team
and advisors selected 10 sites to visit.

For each one- to two-day site visit,
the research team collected data to
supplement the teacher questionnaires
and lessons. The team members used
two methods.

Direct Observation. The

researchers observed classroom and
school activities — including design
activities and other relevant subject-
related work — and the school environ-
ment, seeking evidence of the way
design-based learning affects or is
affected by school culture and physical
facilities.

Qualitative Interviews. The

researchers conducted qualitative
interviews with principals, curriculum
coordinators, other school or district
administrators, teachers, teachers' aides,
students, and parents to gather anec-
dotal evidence on the role of design
in fostering excellent education. The
objective was to elicit viewpoints from
people with different perspectives on
education.

During the observations and
interviews, the research team used a
template for inquiry to focus the visit
and provide consistency from site to
site. Researchers asked questions con-
cerning program profile, curriculum,
assessment methods, teacher profiles
and training, pedagogical strategies,
administrative support, facilities, and
limitations on the use of design in the
classroom.

Following the field work, the
research team interviewed college pro-
fessors of education, state and district
curriculum specialists, and educators
with experience in other design-based
programs for additional information
and perspectives.

Due CO Congressional funding cues in 1996, separate discipline-based, grant-giving programs at the National Endowment for the
Arts were eliminated and reorganized into fout btoad divisions. One of these, Education and Access, still provides support for
pre-K to 12 projects, including those involving design.

Unless otherwise noted, comments and project descriptions attributed to individual teachers and students wete obtained through
questionnaire responses or followup interviews.

CHAPTER 1 presents a
description of the design process,
a brief history of the use of design
in classrooms in the United States,
and a summary of international
initiatives.

CHAPTER 2 discusses the
learning experiences and outcomes
for students who attend design-based
classrooms.

CHAPTER 3 focuses on what the
use of design in the classroom means
for teachers.

CHAPTER 4 summarizes the
relationship between design-based
approaches and mastery of content
in various disciplines.

CHAPTER 5 poses challenges
to schools and districts.

CHAPTER 6 discusses conclusions
of the research and makes recommen-
dations about teacher education,
changes to the support system in
schools, and resources to further the
understanding of design education
and strengthen its use in classrooms
across the United States.

APPENDIX A carries information
about the consistency of design-
based approaches to teaching with
goals stated in national reform
initiatives.

APPENDIX B lists resource
information for teachers and
administrators.

APPENDIX C providesa
comprehensive listing of the schools
that participated in this study.

LEARNING

Through Design

The future is not some place
we are going to, it is one we
are creating. The paths to it
are not found, but made, and
the making of these pathways
changes both the maker and
the destination.

UNESCO, "Qualities Required
of Education Today to Meet
Foreseeable Demands in
the Twenty-first Century,"
1989, p. 9.

this book addresses the study of
design as a subject of investigation
and a mode of inquiry that engages
a variety of student learning styles and
makes direct connections between
school subjects and problem solving in
daily life. The use of design that is
illustrated here applies to children at
many grade levels and in a full range of
disciplines, not just students involved
in precollege design, technical, or art
instruction.

Where design itself is the subject
of investigation, students focus on the
"goodness of fit" among the products
of designers' work (visual communica-
tion, products, and environments);

the people for whom such products are
intended; and the larger physical, social,
and cultural contexts of which they are
a part. Such design experiences may be
active (making something as a solution
to a design problem) or reflective
(thinking about or commenting on
designed objects or environments and
their contexts). In cases where designerly
modes of inquiry dominate, students
may apply design problem-solving
strategies to learning about something
other than design. In some instances,
teachers even may assess what students
know about disciplines other than
design by asking them to solve a
design problem.

Young people

comprise 20 percent

of the population,

but 100 percent of

the future.

RICHARD RILEY, Secretary,
U.S. Department of Education

The Design Process

ONE premise OF this book is that
there is great congruency between the
thinking and making processes in
which design professionals engage and
the demands today's students will •
likely face as adults. This congruency
argues for expanding the application
of design methods and the pedagogy
of design education to the teaching of
many subjects in K-12 classrooms.

It is clear that, to solve the great
challenges of the future, the United
States needs creative workers and citizens
who can overcome the limitations of
traditional ways of solving problems,
who can invent new strategies that are
appropriate to a given situation, and who
can adapt to change. To be successful,
employees must acquire and comprehend
new information and skills at rates pre-
viously unimagined. They also must
recognize that they are individuals within
broader systems and their actions have
consequences beyond the immediate
time and place. As citizens, they must
strengthen the fabric of communities
that are more culturally and socially
diverse than in previous times. When
participating in community decision
making, they must honor their own
values while respecting the values of
others through a well-considered
process of choice.

While such demands are likely to
characterize the lives of all citizens in the

future, they also define the environment
for which today's design professionals
trained. What serves designers well
in a climate of rapid change is their
problem-solving process. It is a creative
counterpart to the scientific method,
and it presumes there is more than one
right solution to any problem and many
paths to each alternative. Designerly
modes of inquiry place no hierarchy
among various physical and cognitive
skills. For designers, doing is a way of
knowing. They are as likely to analyze
a problem through models, diagrams,
walks through an environment, or
sketches as they are through statistics
or writing. Designers are fluent in
several vehicles of thought (images,
words, numbers) and methods of com-
munication, storing and recombining
experiences for future use. Their process
is iterative, always alerting them to
new problems and opportunities.

Nigel Cross, designer and educa-
tional researcher in the United
Kingdom, states, "The sciences value
objectivity, rationality, neutrality, and

a concern for the 'truth' [T]he

humanities value subjectivity, imagi-
nation, commitment, and a concern

for 'justice' {The designerly way

of knowing] involves a combination
of knowledge and skills from both the
sciences and the humanities" (Cross
1983, pp. 221-222).

A 1976 research report from the
Royal College of Art in London for the
British Secretary of State for Education
and Science, titled Design in General
Education, identifies design as "a third
area of education" (Royal College of
Art 1976, p. 44). Bruce Archer, former
Director of Design Research and the
Design Education Unit at the Royal
College of Art, cites education in the
sciences and in the arts as dominating
our social, cultural, and educational
systems. In summarizing Archer's
report, Cross draws the following con-
clusions about the natute of design:

- The central concern of design is "the
conception and realization of new things."

- It encompasses the appreciation of "the
material culture" and the application of
"the arts of planning, inventing, making
and doing."

- At its core is the language of modeling. It
is possible to develop students' aptitudes
in this language, equivalent to aptitudes
in the language of the sciences (numeracy)
and the language of the humanities
(literacy).

- Design has its own distinct "things to
know, ways of knowing them, and ways
of finding out about them" (Cross 1983,
pp. 221-222).

While basic sciences rely primarily
on the scientific method and the arts on
intuition, design is somewhere in
between; design activity is based on an
approach to acquiring knowledge, skills,

and attitudes that responds to the inter-
disciplinary complexity of life. Science
experiments succeed in labs and art
responds to personal, subjective criteria,
but design products must perform for
people. Those engaged in the design
process must understand and account
for a wide variety of audience and user
behaviors in an array of physical, social,
and cultural contexts.

There is growing attention to the
notion that a design education produces
problem solvers whose thinking skills
are in marked contrast to students
schooled in other disciplines. In How
Designers Think (Lawson 1990), Bryan
Lawson recounts his study of advanced
students majoring in science and archi-
tecture. Each group tackled the same
problem requiring the arrangement of
colored blocks in order to satisfy certain
known and unknown rules. Lawson
found contrasts in the problem-solving
strategies of the two groups. The scien-
tists tried to discern the rules from a
systematic exploration of all possible
combinations, while the architects
proposed possible rules and eliminated
them through experimentation with
various combinations. In other words,
scientists were problem oriented, while
architects were solution oriented; scien-
tists favored analysis, while architects
tended to synthesize. Lawson repeated
the study with younger students at the

beginning of their science and design
educations. The two groups showed no
significant differences in their problem-
solving strategies. He concluded that the
differences exhibited by more advanced
students must be the result of their
education (Lawson 1979)-

If society values the thinking and
problem-solving behaviors exhibited
by designers, there must be greater
investment in developing these skills in
all students across all subject areas. One
way to accomplish this is to involve
students directly in the design process.
The design process, although often
modified to fit specific circumstances
and individuals, generally includes
these aspects:

- identifying and defining problems,

- gathering and analyzing information,

- determining performance criteria for
successful solutions,

- generating alternative solutions and
building prototypes,

- evaluating and selecting appropriate
solutions,

- implementing choices, and

- evaluating outcomes.

Although practice is shifting, most
classroom procedures favor teacher-
driven assignments, criteria for
excellence, and assessments. Design
experiences, on the other hand,

Two additional common uses of
the term "design" appear in dis-
cussions of design-based teaching
and learning.

The first encompasses precollege
or technical education intended to
prepare students for either profes-
sional practice or employment as
technical support in fields such as
graphic design, illustration, product
design, fashion design, interior
design, or architecture. In this
instance, design is used in the
classroom to give college-bound
students a jump-start on career
education or to provide students
who are not going to college with
experiences that qualify them for
future employment in technical
service industries.

The second covers experiences in the
aesthetic arrangement of abstract
two- and three-dimensional form,
commonly referred to as study of
the "elements and principles of
design." Such activities and dis-
cussions usually form the basis of
introductory art classes and focus
on self-expression or technique
through painting, sculpture, print-
making, and other fine arts media.
While design disciplines share
with the fine arts a concern for
aesthetic principles, the design
disciplines focus primarily on
shaping communication, objects,
and environments as responses to
human problems.

Figure 1.1

Figure 1.2

THE INTERACTION OF MIND AND HAND

IMAGING ANO MODELLING
INSIDE THE HEAD

ID y . ""=^~T-^=—

Design Process

SPECULATING AND > . "~jT>-
EXPLORING | T^^1""!-^— ==».

CLARIFYING AND
VAUDATING

CONFRONTING REALITY
OUTSIDE THE HEAD

DISCUSSION. DRAWINGS.
SKETCHES, DIAGRAMS.
NOTES. GRAPHS. NUMBERS

1 MODELL _
TO PREDICT OR
REPRESENT REALTTY

-/ OR PROVISION
■^ SOLUTIONS

DTENTIAL OF MORE DEVELOPED THINKING TH

The Interaction of Mind and Hand

encourage students to think critically
and weigh options through participa-
tion in problem solving. In generating
alternative solutions to problems, the
design process urges iterative work in
which students test and refine multiple
solutions. Modeling and diagramming
share equal respect with quantitative
means of communication and evalua-
tion, often better revealing the true
relationships among ideas and allowing
students with differing learning prefer-
ences to work within their individual
strengths. While analysis has a role to
play in this process, the ultimate goal is
synthesis and determining a solution
that addresses the breadth of perfor-
mance criteria set forth by the problem.
Any discussion of the design process
runs the risk of failing to capture its
active nature. Investigating as an activity

is typically assessed through a passive
research report; the process is measured
through the product. Schools have a
tendency to convert active processes into
linear series of passive products. British
education professor and expert on edu-
cational assessment Richard Kimbell
sought an appropriate diagram to
express the dynamic aspects of the
design process to his Assessment
Performance Unit, a group charged
with evaluating the national design and
technology curriculum in the United
Kingdom (Kimbell, Stables, Wheeler,
Wosniak, and Kelly 1991). Kimbell's
interacting design loop in Figure 1.1
captures the divergent and cyclical
nature of the design process.

Kimbell goes one step further in
describing the design process by model-
ing the interaction between mind and

hand (Figure 1.2) to show why and how
students using the design process choose
to do things, rather than what they do.
Figure 1.2 also illustrates how design
activities develop fluency of thought
operations (i.e., thinking in both images
and words) in ways that solely reflective
activities do not. Kimbell describes stu-
dent involvement in the design process
as "thought in action," which challenges
the traditional schism between think-
ing and doing found in many school
curricula (Kimbell et al. 1991, p. 20).
The work of Dennie Palmer Wolf
reinforces the value of the design process
as a model for teaching and learning.
Wolf talks of the need to teach and
assess "enterprise" rather than "school
subjects"; to engage students in learning
activities that model the integrated,
synthetic problem solving demanded

of adults in their work; and to build
meaningful connections among skills
and knowledge that too often remain the
purview of discrete academic disciplines
(Wolf 1994).

Nigel Cross explains the unique
role design experiences play in helping
children make connections across
disciplines and to life: "Designing is a
process of pattern synthesis, rather than
pattern recognition. The solution is not
simply lying there among the data, like
the dog among the spots in the well
known perceptual puzzle; it has to be
actively constructed by the designer's
own efforts" (Cross 1983, p. 224).

Designers recognize that their
cognitive skills and use of nonlinear
processes are highly relevant to the
complex nature of contemporary work
and life. Many of these design profes-
sionals, as well as researchers who
recognize the relevance of design to
learning, have a fervent interest in
contributing to new teaching practices
that respond to natural differences in the
ways students learn best and promote
students' mastery of a full repertoire
of problem-solving skills. For the first
time in recent history, these interests
align with the common goals of
educational reform. (For further
discussion of design and education
reform, see Appendix A.)

Three Decades of Design
in U.S. Classrooms

teachers USING design in today's
K-12 classrooms build on a 30-year
legacy established by designers and
design educators. Past programs brought
designers into classrooms, trained
teachers to develop and conduct their
own design activities, established
professional networks that supported
teacher interest in design, and pub-
lished innovative curricula and learning
materials that broadened the influence
of design on teaching practices.

Developed in the 1960s to support
greater coherence between education and
changes in industry, early design pro-
grams were generally at the secondary
school level and encouraged practice in
the technical skills necessary for work
in design professions that served an
expanding economy. These programs
were largely preprofessional and tech-
nical, as defined in the margin note
on page 3 .

Other programs in the 1960s and
early 1970s professed a more activist
agenda, however, helping students
understand and participate in decisions
about the built (or manmade) environ-
ment. Designers of these programs
aimed at developing informed citizens
who demand and respect well-designed
products and buildings, who make
discriminating judgments about visual
communication, and who function as
full participants in the design of their

Designing and building a
prototype observation deck.

Design is too fundamental

to education as a process to

be separated out and then

engaged in occasionally...

Designing is what humans do.

WILLIAM PERRY, 8th grade art
teacher, Pittsburgh, PA

e si

communities. Some piggy-backed on
the growth in environmental education
programs that followed major environ-
mental legislation in the 1970s.

For example, architects Richard
Saul Wurman and Alan Levy, under
the title Group for Environmental
Education (GEE), developed a curricu-
lum for Philadelphia middle schools
that involved students in activities about
the city and its design. A curriculum
from the Cranbrook Academy of Art,
Problem Solving in the Man-Made
Environment, targeted 7th grade social
studies students in Michigan middle
schools with information that encour-
aged intelligent consumer choices about
the design of communication, products,
and places. Like many programs, these
efforts were short-lived and their publi-
cations are out of print.

Other programs that emerged during
this period continue, gaining national
attention and outreach. Among them
are Ginny Graves' Center for Under-
standing the Built Environment,
Doreen Nelson's Center for City Building
Education, the Salvadori Education
Center on the Built Environment, Anne

I Taylor's School; Zone Institute;, and
Sharon Sutton's Urban Network. While
these programs focus primarily on
architecture and community planning
issues, they have a broader purpose to
I educate young citizens who exercise

greater social and political control
over decisions throughout their every-
day lives.

Heritage education is another estab-
lished point of entry to the study of
design. Concern over the destruction
of important architectural landmarks
resulted in school programs aimed at
instilling in children a respect for the
past and their built legacy. Heritage
education programs focus "primarily on
older and historic manmade structures
and environments, promoting their use
in the curriculum as visual resources
for teaching knowledge and skills, as
artifacts for the study of a continuum
of cultures, and as real and actual places
that students of all ages can experience,
study, and evaluate firsthand" (National
Council for Preservation Education
1987). While experiences in which
students actually construct buildings
and environments enrich their under-
standing of their built legacy, heritage
education more often includes repli-
cation of historic designs than new
problem solving.

More recently, the availability of
low-cost computers and a shift in the
nation's workforce from product-based
to service-based activity has provided
the impetus for transforming tradi-
tional "industrial arts" instruction
into "technology education." Software
companies see opportunities to create

Scare young citizens wno exercise companies see opportumti

limine;

new, long-term users for their products
and provide resources to schools at low
cost. This sponsorship expands schools'
potential to integrate technology at all
levels of the curriculum and in a variety
of disciplines. Subjects that traditionally
had little visual content gain a design
dimension through software that
produces charts and graphs, models
structures, and opens up opportunities
for typographic experimentation.
Another stream of technology
education finds its roots in engineering
and design. While the emphasis in
these programs is on designing tech-
nology itself, rather than on the use of
computer software, proponents of this
approach still find confusion among
educators. The International Technology
Education Association (ITEA) defines
technology education as "the study of
the application of knowledge, creativity,
and resources to solve problems and
extend human potential" (Bottrill,
1995, p. 41). Yet there persists a lack
of recognition by many educators that
a special kind of thinking is required to
invent technology that solves a human
problem — and that this thinking is
quite different from the cognitive skills
necessary to use technology designed by
someone else or to design machines that
don't address the social context of their
use. Adequately preparing students to
exjJore and invent new relationships

between man and machine remains a
challenge. Among the program devel-
opers wrestling with this problem are
Project UPDATE and TIES Magazine,
based at the College of New Jersey in
Trenton.

Continuing unrest with schools
whose teaching practices frequently
do not reflect current research about
how children learn also spawns interest
among K-12 educators in using
design-based activities to teach other
subjects and to connect curricula with
students' lives outside school. In these
schools, teachers employ more open-
ended, active learning experiences that
foster creativity and expand the role for
design from object of inquiry to include
method of inquiry.

Two programs that use active learning
and the design process to help students
understand content in a variety of disci-
plines are the Design-Based Education
Program, developed by industrial
design educator Charles Burnette and
offered through the Art and Museum
Education Department at the Univer-
sity of the Arts in Philadelphia, and the
Education through Design Program,
developed by Meredith Davis and
Robin Moore at the School of Design
at North Carolina State University. In
both programs, as in Doreen Nelson's
City Building Education, the focus is
on educating teachers in design and

creativity rather than relying on
designers-in-residence or prepackaged
curricula. In some cases, these pro-
grams represent collaboration between
colleges of design and education.

Professional design associations and
institutions support this development
in K-12 design-based education. The
largest initiative is the Learning by
Design Program developed by the
American Architectural Foundation of
the American Institute of Architects.

In addition to publishing design lesson
plans in teacher magazines, multimedia
classroom kits on the White House
and U.S. Capitol, and a Sourcebook
of exemplary learning activities, this
program also has stimulated grass-roots
collaborations between teachers and
designers through small grants to
chapters of the American Institute for
Architects. Some local efforts, such as
the Foundation for Architecture in
Philadelphia and the Chicago Architec-

Experimenting with
linear design elements,
students construct a
toothpick tower.

museums

'esources

[Through design projects,]
my students gain a sense of
control over their lives
because they believe they can
solve any problem that con-
fronts them throughout their
lives. The students also have
more confidence in making
decisions and in presenting
their ideas to others. The
presentation and critique
process helps the students to
practice and gain confidence
in these skills.

PAUL DEVINE, 9-12 technology
teacher, Wilmington, DE

ture Foundation, also have developed
extensive school programs involving
workshops, team teaching, curriculum
materials, and student competitions.

The American Planning Association
encourages its members to work with
teachers, publishes a quarterly news-
letter devoted to K-12 education, and
highlights design-related curriculum
materials in its publications catalogs.
The Worldesign Foundation, an out-
growth of the Industrial Designers
Society of America, recently adopted
K-12 education in design as one of
three priorities for its national and
international efforts, along with advo-
cating greater awareness of the critical
links between design, environmental
quality, and job creation.

Design-related museums have been
particularly active in supporting both
formal and informal design education
programs for young people. The National
Building Museum in Washington, D.C.,
established its DesignWise program in
the 1980s to provide workshops for
teachers and students and to develop
curriculum materials. Similarly, the
education department of the Cooper-
Hewitt National Design Museum in
New York City serves as a resource
for teachers nationwide, sponsors
summer institutes for teachers, and
offers a wide array of museum- and
neighborhood-based design education

programs for students in the metro-
politan area.

The National Endowment for the
Arts also supported design education
through its Architecture-in-the-Schools
initiative in the 1980s and seed grants
for curriculum development projects.
Some state arts councils continue to
support designer residencies and the
Endowment provides matching grants
for K-12 projects through its Education
and Access Division.

Despite this level of innovation
during the last 30 years, the use of
design activities in U.S. schools remains
an isolated practice that has its strongest
support at the level of the individual
teacher. Documentation of teacher work
is spotty and many educators labor with
little more than moral support for their
efforts at district and state levels. The
individual initiative required to estab-
lish and sustain these programs within
a somewhat indifferent administrative
culture leaves little time and few
resources for the systematic and rigorous
assessment that would present convinc-
ing evidence for broader adoption.

Many of the programs mentioned
above focus study around the interests of
their initial developers and supporters.
For example, architecture and heritage
education focus on issues in the built
environment and are typically the
lenses through which many programs

The International Context

develop. Technology education, sup-
ported by software developers, frequently
focuses on the acquisition of technical
skills and the use of computers. Graphic
and industrial design programs are less
common and are often geographically
centered near their developers. This
focus on special interests results in a
rather fragmented effort to promote the
use of design in U.S. classrooms and
little collaboration among program
developers. Many successful programs in
schools disappear when their curriculum
developers or teachers move on to other
venues because school administrators
make no provisions for systemwide
teacher training and institutional
adoption of practices.

During the past few decades there
has been a lively exchange of infor-
mation between many proponents of
design education in the United States
and their counterparts abroad. This
includes sharing journals, studies, and
curriculum materials; attending inter-
national conferences; and visiting one
another's schools.

DESIGN APPEARS in educational
policy and practice around the globe.
Sometimes an explicit component of a
national curriculum, design more often
is implicit in the emphasis placed on
problem solving and the use of refer-
ences from the designed world.

While the use of design in education
is not the focus of any comprehensive
documentation, studies of international
trends in science, technology, and envi-
ronmental education reveal growing
acknowledgment by educators of the
need to change instruction in ways

ways that integrate design

problem solving as a X\ 3 t U X 3 L

Component of learning

Perhaps the greatest influences
on design-based teaching in the
United States come from the
United Kingdom, where design
and technology are subjects in
the national curriculum. Many
examinations in British schools
require students to design and
make objects. To the right is a
motorbike design created by a
15-year-old student who then
made a model of the bike (below).

that integrate design problem solving
as a natural component of learning.

A variety of economic, environmental,
and social imperatives fuel the inter-
national adoption of design-based
strategies. In industrial and developing
nations alike, public and private sector
leaders recognize that young people
must graduate from compulsory educa-
tion systems with strong, flexible skills
if they are to compete successfully for
jobs in the global marketplace. The
answer seems to lie in giving priority to
activities that build up students' prac-
tical capability in tackling realistically
complex problems with social and

( '

f. ^i^™

/JC#

■

human dimensions. Burgeoning popu-
lations, finite natural resources, and
unsustainable patterns of consumption,
manufacturing, building, and transpor-
tation are wake-up calls to educators to
revisit the underlying assumptions of
school curricula (Black and Atkin
1996, p. 90).

Within the context of these pressures,
certain principles of pedagogical reform
gain widespread support. Emerging
educational practices show remarkable
similarity with the tenets of design-
based teaching and learning: student-
centered classrooms, self-directed
learning, teacher collaboration and

reflection that result in curricular inno-
vation, student teamwork, increased
connection among disciplines, applica-
tion of learning to contexts outside of
school, and teacher modeling of the
behaviors they seek to instill in students.

Learning from the
United Kingdom

Perhaps the greatest influences on
design-based teaching in the United
States come from the United Kingdom,
where design and technology are subjects
in the national curriculum. Building on
a long history of training in the crafts
and increased interest in science, math,
and technology spawned during the
post-Sputnik era, the United Kingdom
began efforts to introduce technology
in schools as early as the 1970s. Funded
by the central government's Schools
Council, Project Technology made a
strong case for a national technology
curriculum, while the Design and
Craft Education Project sought
to revise existing
subjects with a
new emphasis on

design and technology. At the same
time, the government's Department of
Education and Science funded research
on Design in General Education at the
Royal College of Art in London. Led by
Bruce Archer and Ken Baynes, this
project analyzed the characteristics of
designing in an attempt to describe a
category of human endeavor analogous
to the sciences and the humanities.

By the late 1970s, design and
technology was a recognized part of
the curriculum in the United Kingdom
and in 1981 the Department of
Education initiated a series of studies
to develop and evaluate techniques for
assessing student performance in the
subject. The most comprehensive of
these was developed under the direction
of Richard Kimbell at the University
of London from 1985 to 1991.

In 1988, Parliament passed the
Education Reform Act, calling for a
national curriculum of required subjects
for all students ages five to 16. Informed
by the advocacy of the Design Council
(a quasi-governmental body established
to promote better design in British
industry, raise public awareness of
design's value, and promote design
education in schools), the National
Curriculum Council recommended
technology as one of 10 foundation
subjects in the compulsory national
curriculum, encompassing both Design

and Technology and Information
Technology. Parliament accepted
this recommendation and adopted the
curriculum for England and Wales
in 1990. A 1995 revision made
Information Technology a
separate subject and
modified some of the
content and assessment
requirements in
design (Eggleston
1996, p. 43).

Passage of the national
curriculum stimulated an
impressive array of curriculum
materials, teacher training,
demonstration programs,
and research, much of
which informs the work
of design education
proponents in
the United
States. At all
grade levels, the

British national curriculum calls for
students to design and make objects,
systems, and environments in response
to the needs and opportunities they
identify. Teachers encourage pupils
to look for problems to solve through
design in five broad contexts: home,
school, recreation, community, and
business and industry, progressing
from familiar to unfamiliar settings
in successive grades.

American
educators have
maintained a lively
dialogue with British
educators, attended their
conferences, and subscribed to their
publications. Leading British theorists
and practitioners also consult in this
country. Ken Baynes of Loughborough
University; Eileen Adams, at Southbank
University; Richard Kimbell at
Goldsmith's College, University of
London; and Peter Sellwood at
Westminster College, Oxford, have all
had a hand in shaping the thinking of
American curriculum innovators.

British teachers encourage
pupils to look for problems
to solve through design
in five broad contexts:
home, school, recreation,
community, and business
and industry. Here,
an 8-year-old student
has created a design
for protective clothing.

designing making and appraising at

very grade Level

nd in every content a rea

Students evaluate the integrity
of their design by adding
weights to a bridge spanning
two tables.

Design and Technology
for All Students

The United Kingdom is not alone in
its concern for all students' command
of design and technology. In its 1996
study of science, mathematics, and tech-
nology, the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD)
notes that many countries that once
separated students into vocational-
technical tracks at a relatively young
age now see the need to provide all
students with a grounding in techno-
logical competency (Black and Atkin
1996, p. 54). Examples from around the
world show that progress is being made
in achieving this goal.

In 1993, the Australian Education
Council, with the support of education
authorities at the state, territorial, and
Commonwealth levels, recom-
mended national curriculum
frameworks and achievement
targets in eight "key learning
areas," including technology and

In technology, the Council emphasized
that students should learn through
"designing, making, and appraising" at
every grade level and in every content
area, including information, materials,
and systems. The Council expects
students to "investigate issues and
needs, devise proposals and alternatives,
produce products and processes, and
evaluate consequences and outcomes."
Students should "take responsibility for
designs, decisions, actions and assess-
ments; trial their proposals and plans;
take risks when exploring new ideas
and practices; and be open-minded and
show respect for individual differences
when responding to technological-
challenges" (Cowley and Williamson
1995, pp. 2-4).

This ambitious agenda for Australian
children was tested at the
Lauderdale Primary School in the
seaside community of Hobart,
Tasmania, in 1994-1995. Projects

ranged from the design of shelter to

studies of the environment and society. studies of the movement of snails on

various surfaces. The OECD observed
hands-on student-centered learning,
collegial interaction among faculty, and
strong modeling by teachers of the same
behaviors they expect from students.
Teachers at every grade level made fre-
quent use of design briefs that "involved
the students in reflective processes;
whether they were being asked to
write a story or design a room, they
have to consider the purpose of the
work and the materials available, and
design, make, and continually appraise
the match between their product and
the required outcome" (Cowley and
Williamson 1995, p. 28).

Also in
1993, both the
Netherlands and Scotland
adopted technology as a required sub-
ject for students, ages 12-15 and 5-14
respectively. Dutch teachers emphasize
"functional knowledge" and research and
communication skills (Franssen et al.
1995, p. 5). In Scotland, where technol-
ogy is part of Environmental Studies,
OECD researchers observed that
"opportunities were made for students
to work on tasks which were practical,
which involved creativity, which
encouraged children to think within
the framework of the design process
and which were sustained by genuine
interest" (Kormylo and Frame 1995,
p. 12). In particular, they found that

design perspectives and
activities helped children
understand the relationship
between economic forces, the
ways in which people make
their living, and the resulting
changes to the surrounding
landscape.

Responding to
Environmental Concerns

While environmental education in
many parts of the world is little more
than nature appreciation, the United
Nations' International Environmental
Education Program (IEEP) believes
that the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio
de Janeiro brought about a "major shift
in international thinking" with its
emphasis on teaching for sustainable
development. Recognition that such
instruction must integrate issues of
environment, population, and social/
economic development is apparent in a
number of programs around the world.
Content in these programs addresses
not only the degradation of ecosystems
but the ways in which products, pack-
aging, buildings, and cities can be
made more "earth-friendly." (United
Nations Educational, Cultural, and
Scientific Organization, June 1995, p. 2).
A 1994 study undertaken for the U.S.
Agency for International Development
finds that redefinitions of environmental

...emphasis on developing students' problem-solving

skills and ability to respond actively

social change

programs in Latin America and the
Caribbean emphasize reciprocal rela-
tionships between individuals, society,
and the natural world. In Costa Rica,
7th through 9th grade students learn
how to protect watersheds through more
sustainable forms of human settlement,
while in Jamaica, 9th grade social
studies students weigh the impact of
industry and other human activity on
the environment (Arias-LaForgia 1994,
pp. 36, 53).

Similarly, a study of 13 nations in
Asia and the Pacific by the Tokyo-based
National Institute for Educational
Research (NIER) identifies a trend in
which nature study and the management
of natural resources are no longer seen
as the only issues of concern in envi-
ronmental education. Instead, topics
related to the quality of life (such as
housing, sanitation, transportation, and
recreation) appear as important compo-
nents of curriculum (National Institute
for Educational Research {NIER]

1993, p. 3). In Malaysia, Singapore,
and Thailand, environmental problem
solving permeates a variety of school
subjects. In the Philippines, where the
national curriculum emphasizes "totality
of coverage" including "natural, man-
made, technological, and social aspects
of the environment," teacher training
prepares educators to tackle these issues
(NIER 1993, p. 90).

Rapid industrialization in Korea and
Japan prompted increased curricular
emphasis on environmental issues.
Korean students at all levels investigate
the human, social, and natural dimen-
sions of the environment and develop
their own solutions to creating "a
pleasant way to live." In Japan, the
national curriculum calls for comprehen-
sive attention to environmental topics
in primary and secondary schools, with
particular emphasis on developing stu-
dents' problem-solving skills and ability
to respond actively to social change.
Environmental issues and hands-on

experiences span the full range of
school disciplines (NIER 1993, p. 68).

In Europe, many countries are
revamping curricula to emphasize links
between the built and natural environ-
ments. The OECD documents changing
national policies and innovative school
projects include two reports: Environment,
Schools, and Active Learning (Organization
for Economic Cooperation and Develop-
ment [OECD] 1991) and Environmental
Learning for the 21st Century (OECD 1995).

Belgium recently revised its cur-
riculum to encourage project-based
environmental education, emphasizing
problem solving, action-oriented forms
of learning, and a focus on the local
community. Interdisciplinary activities
range from the analysis of city housing
and traffic problems to comprehensive
environmental studies of entire regions.
Students present their findings in
public presentations, newspaper and
radio reports, postcards, and videos.

In Austrian schools, students
designed and established two parks,
developed more environmentally
friendly means for packaging products,
and crafted a development plan for a
small wine-growing village. German
students converted an abandoned
school into a nature center, while on
the coast of Italy, 12-year-olds engaged
in a one year study of the economic and
ecological impact of a new port facility.

OECD reports that these initiatives
demonstrate benefits of using the
community beyond the school as a
textbook in which the nature of
problems demands interdisciplinary
understanding: "... experience shows
that students can work with surprising
success in the local community, using
it both as a source of local knowledge
of their environment, as well as a field
for developing their skills in problem
solving, entrepreneurship . . . and
informing adults about local environ-
mental issues" (OECD 1995, p. 99).

At the same time, OECD sees "a
serious deficiency everywhere {in] the
lack of integration of economics, politics,
sociology, and other social sciences in
understanding environmental issues . . .
In order for a new 'environmental
education paradigm' to develop, there
is the need for the creation of a fresh
knowledge base that can master the
complexity of the interdisciplinary
nature of environmental issues" (OECD
1995, p. 88). The authors point to the
holistic design-based problem-solving
approaches of highlighted schools as
guideposts to the future.

Children in Sendai, Japan,
explore tension and compression
in structures using chopsticks,
rubber bands, and paper.

U.S. educators have responded
to overtures for exchange from
Japanese educators. Here,
Doreen Nelson from California
State Polytechnic University
leads a city building education
workshop for students, teachers,
and government officials at
Tohoku Koka Joho College in
Sendai, Japan.

Americans Reach Out

Since 1987, when a traveling exhibit
called the One Hundred Languages of
Children first introduced Americans to
Reggio Emilia's innovative early child-
hood education programs, numerous
educators from the U.S. have traveled
to Italy to visit the design-rich infant-
toddler centers and preprimary schools
established by Loris Malaguzzi. Count-
less more have discovered these schools
through the book of the same name and
subsequent conferences.

At the heart of the schools' success
is the creative, collaborative, project-
oriented work that children and
teachers undertake together. Unique

features introduced by Malaguzzi are
the atelier or studio and the full-time
position of atelierista. Placed in a
prominent, visible location in each
school, the studio is a workshop filled
with all types of tools, construction
materials, and art supplies. Though
trained in the visual arts, the atelierista
does not "teach" art, but instead serves
as a helpful guide to children and
teachers alike in the proper and possible
uses of materials. He or she also helps
teachers document and understand the
children's creative and cognitive
processes (Edwards, Gandini, and
Forman 1993).

Recently, U.S. educators have
responded to overtures for exchange
from Japanese educators. Anne Taylor,
Director of the School Zone Institute
and professor of architecture at the
University of New Mexico, invited
Japanese educators to attend the 1992
International Summit on Children and
Architecture held at the university.
Through exchanges organized by Taylor,
U.S. advocates and practitioners of
design-based education have lectured
at major Japanese universities and pro-
vided teacher training in Tokyo, Sendai,
Nigata, and other cities. Contingents of
Japanese teachers also observed design-
based practices in this country.

Japan's Ministry of Education
recently initiated research on the

benefits of a design approach to general
education at the University of Tokyo
School of Education. Responding to a
ministry call for more environmental
education at all levels, the Japanese
translated Taylor's Architecture and
Children curriculum into their language
and now use regional and vernacular
curriculum supplements to it. Under
the sponsorship of the Architectural
Institute of Japan, the American
Institute of Architects, and the City
of Matsubase, Doreen Nelson and her
colleagues in the Departments of
Education, Environmental Design, and
Instructional Technology at California
State Polytechnic University (Pomona)
are developing a Web site that will
enable children and their teachers in
both countries to engage in joint city
building projects on the Internet.

Formal acknowledgment of design
as important content, context, and
methodology for learning varies
greatly from one country to the next.
Yet, is clear that at both individual
and institutional levels, curiosity and
support for its use are increasing. As
the world moves into the 21st century,
it remains to be seen whether
educators in the United States and
other countries can overcome the
disciplinary, institutional, and cultural
hurdles to greater use of design in the
classroom.

References

Arias-La Forgia, A. (1994). Environmental
Education in the School Systems of Latin
America and the Caribbean, Working
Papers, No. 4. Washington, D.C.:
Academy for Educational Develop-
ment for the Education and Human
Resources Division, Bureau for Latin
America and the Caribbean, U.S.
Agency for International Development.

Black, P. and Atkin, J.M., eds. (1996).
Changing the Subject: Innovations in
Science, Mathematics, and Technology
Education. New York: Routledge,
with the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development
(OECD), Paris, France.

Bottrill, P. (1995). Designing and Learning
in the Elementary School. Reston,
Virginia: International Technology
Education Association.

Cowley, T. and Williamson, J. (1995).
OECD Report on Science, Mathematics
and Technology in Education (SMTE)
Project. Launceston, Tasmania:
University of Tasmania, School of
Education.

Cross, N. (October 1983). "Designerly
Ways of Knowing." Design Studies 3,
4: 221-224.

Edwards, C, Gandini, L., and Forman,
G., eds. (1993). The Hundred
Languages of Children: The Reggio
Emilia Approach to Early Childhood
Education. Norwood, New Jersey:
Ablex Publishing Corporation.

Eggleston, J. (1996). Teaching Design and
Technology, 2nd edition. Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania: Open University Press.

Franssen, H.A.M., Eijkelhof, H.M.C.,
Houtveen, A. A.M., Duijmelinck,
H.AJ.P. (1995). Technology as a
School Subject in Junior Secondary
School in the Netherlands . Utrecht,
the Netherlands: University of
Utrecht, Department of Education.

Kimbell, R., Stables, K., Wheeler, T,
Wosniak, A., Kelly, V. (1991).
The Assessment of Performance in
Design and Technology. London,
England: School Examinations and
Assessment Council.

Kormylo, P. and Frame, J. (1995). A
Report on Technology in Case Study
Primary Schools in Scotland.
Edinburgh, Scotland: Scottish
Office Education Department.

Lawson, B. (1979). "Cognitive Strategies
in Architectural Design." Ergonomics
22, 1: 59-68.

Lawson, B. (1990). How Designers Think:
The Design Process Demystified, 2nd
edition. Oxford, England:
Butterworth- Architecture.

National Council for Preservation

Education. (1987). A Heritage at
Risk: A Report on Heritage Education
K-12. Burlington, Vermont:
University of Vermont Historic
Preservation Program.

National Institute for Educational
Research. (1993). Environmental
Education and Teacher Education in
Asia and the Pacific. Tokyo, Japan:
NIER.

Organization for Economic Cooperation
and Development. (1991).
Environment, Schools, and Active
Learning. Paris, France: OECD.

Organization for Economic Cooperation
and Development. (1995).
Environmental Learning for the 21st
Century. Paris, France: OECD.

Royal College of Art. (1976). Design in
General Education, Part One, Summary
of Findings and Recommendations.
London, England: Royal College
of Art.

United Nations Educational, Cultural,
and Scientific Organization. (June
1995). Connect, the UNESCO-UNEP
Environmental Education Newsletter,
p. 2. Pans, France: UNESCO.

Wolf, D. (July 1994). Presentation at

Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs,
New York.

The design

process,

although often

modified

to fit specific

circumstances

and individuals,

generally

includes these

aspects:

- identifying and defining
problems,

- gathering and analyzing
information,

- determining performance
criteria for successful
solutions,

- generating alternative
solutions and building
prototypes,

- evaluating and selecting
appropriate solutions,

- implementing choices, and

- evaluating outcomes.

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LIFELONG

Learning

Using design concepts
in my classroom has
increased the students'
problem-solving
capabilities. It
encourages synectic think-
ing, which permits
students to see
similarities between
dissimilar things.

WENDY CONNOR, 6-8 art,
Jackson Hole Middle School,
Jackson, WY

U.S. leaders generally agree that
adults who are successful have
flexible thinking skills and
the facility to acquire and apply new
knowledge and skills to unfamiliar tasks
and settings. In a time of rapid change,
it is this ability to adapt learning and
develop new problem-solving strategies
that determines success.

Most K-12 curricula reflect a time
when it was possible to learn a well-
defined body of knowledge that society
agreed was critical to adult life and
work. But today, given our rapidly
changing world, learning strategies
that emphasize storing facts in memory
are inadequate. When faced with this
sort of education, students' motivation
to learn understandably wanes because

they see no immediate relevance to their
own lives of either the facts or the learn-
ing methods they are taught. Unless
changes are made, we are in danger of
producing a generation of adults who
lack the basic thinking skills for survival
in the next century.

Schools that do teach thinking
processes frequently emphasize linear
"recipes" that may or may not match
the divergent nature of contemporary
problems and students' own preferences
for learning. In many cases, the process
becomes another fact to learn, a proce-
dure without context or applied value
in the student's world. The task for
educators is to reinvigorate learning
and to model the integrated, dynamic
processes we expect students to use as

responsible, successful adults.

The research for this book suggests
that using design experiences in the
classroom accomplishes that task.
Teachers report that their primary
motivation for using design is to help
students acquire the necessary compe-
tencies to meet new challenges
throughout their lives. At the top of
teachers' reasons for making design a
critical part of their curriculum and
teaching strategies are:

- enhancing flexible thinking skills,

- promoting self-directed learning and
assessment,

- developing students' interpersonal and
communication skills, and

- cultivating responsible citizens.

Enhancing Flexible Thinking Skills

TO ENHANCE STUDENTS' thinking

skills, educators must instill in students
a process for creative problem solving
that transcends individual assignments,
illustrates how learning applies to
students' everyday lives, builds relation-
ships across traditional school subjects,
and increases students' comfort with
the uncertainty that characterizes many
problems. In addition, assessment must
become a matter of students' internal
accountability for the achievement of
high standards.

Strengthening Creative
Problem Solving

Developing and strengthening creative
problem-solving skills is a more difficult
challenge than it appears. Education
researchers define maintenance learning
as the acquisition of fixed outlooks,
methods, and rules for dealing with
known and recurring situations. Innova-
tive learning, on the other hand,
questions assumptions, seeks new per-
spectives, and facilitates transfer to new
problems and settings. While curriculum
can easily challenge students to solve
problems, it must work very hard to
teach processes and ways of thinking that
transcend assigned tasks (Nickerson,
Perkins, and Smith 1985).

Research evidence suggests that the
design process is an innovative model
for strengthening students' creative

problem-solving skills. Because the
design process concerns itself with "that
which does not yet exist," it encourages
learning behaviors that prepare students
for an environment of change.

Willamette Primary School in West
Linn, Oregon, is
explicit in its use
of the design
process. Teachers *-

employ design in
curriculum develop-
ment and their own
study of education;
students discuss the
process and use it to solve
a variety of problems across
disciplines. Classes always document
their process in notebooks, on bulletin
boards, or in classroom and hall displays.
For Willamette, the design process
consists of these iterative problem-
solving steps and questions:

- Define the context and the problem.
What do you want to know, and what do
you already know about the problem?

- Plan and conduct research. How will you
conduct the research? Will you observe,
read, interview, sketch, or build models?

- Generate criteria for a successful problem
solution. What is the rubric or set of
criteria against which you will measure
performance?

- Generate solutions. What are the
alternative solutions?

- Implement. How can you realize and test
the best solutions?

- Evaluate. What were the criteria addressed
by the solutions? What needs modification
to better meet the performance criteria?

- Reflect on the process. What was done
throughout the process? What was
effective? What could have been
improved?

Scott Wavra, a 4th and 5 th grade
teacher at Willamette, illustrates this
process as he describes the efforts of his
students in designing a home for their
pet snake.

My class needed to design
and construct a cage for
an eight-foot
python, who
• could

only stay
in the class-
room if the class
was able to house
him. The children
asked questions about the
needs of snakes and then
studied reference books and
collected information about
large snakes. Cage criteria were
listed by the group. Children
sketched at least three designs
{for the cage}, each incorporating
the learning from their research.
Then the class pooled the different
ideas and developed a rubric of
critical design elements.

Teams of children discussed options and
created a group plan. They were taught how
to draw their plans to scale orthographically,
and then they brainstormed the types of
materials construction would require. The
teams made a corresponding list of prototype
materials (for testing their ideas). They
calculated the viewing area (area) and the
room the snake would need to move (volume).
Each team developed a budget, constructed
scale prototypes, and tested them with a
smaller garden snake. Each group prepared
and gave a persuasive speech about the most
effective elements of their design.

The whole class used that information to
develop the best cage with all of the best ele-
ments of each presentation, and put together
one last blueprint to request construction funds
from the school administration. Once those
plans passed inspection, the children built the
cage, complete with heating and lighting.

This is powerful learning that repli-
cates what society demands of successful
adults. It begins with a highly motivat-
ing problem: keeping the live snake in
the classroom. Students analyze this
problem and set the appropriate criteria
against which their solutions will be
judged. The assignment drives their
search for facts; they acquire knowledge
within a context and make active use
of it. Resources and their uses are self-
determined and, therefore, highly
motivating.

In addition, the problem demands
that they move back and forth through
visual/spatial, linguistic, and mathe-
matical thought and communication.
Students link concepts from science,
mathematics, construction technology,
economics, and art. They weigh each
choice against a preferred outcome, and

they act as contributing members
of a team in making decisions.
This design-based learning
experience teaches students a
problem-solving process they can
adapt to many situations. They
learn about reptiles, building, and
habitat in ways that dramatically
increase the likelihood of retention.
Best of all, they leave the classroom
feeling successful about learning and
anticipating the next day's events.

The research team noted numerous
instances in which teachers and students
reflected on their problem-solving
processes. At such times, teachers made
conscious attempts to comment on the
process and remind students of other
circumstances in which the process
might be helpful. As at Willamette,
many schools use journals in which
students record their thoughts about
design experiences. Dolores Patton, a
3rd and 4th grade teacher using Doreen
Nelson's City
Building

I want students to see the
connections between school
and the world. This is
something I try to do with
non-design strategies.
However, the connections
seem clearer and more
natural to students when
using design.

ALISON CLARK, 6th grade,
Louis Armstrong Middle
School, East Elmhurst, NY

Documenting and sharing
the design process can
begin at an early age.

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Education at Open Charter Magnet
School in Los Angeles, California, asks
students to write about their methods,
diagram or illustrate them, and post
their drawings on the class "history
wall." This serves as an enlarged journal
record of the problem-solving process.
The wall constantly changes with each
addition, modeling the dynamic
process of creative thought.

As David Perkins notes, "Design in
education with reflection [on process]
offers opportunity for students to take
the learning from one problem and
extend it further. It creates the chance
for teachers to move students from
the immediate concrete problem to
general processes of problem solving
that can be applied elsewhere"
(Brandt 1986).

At Locust Valley Intermediate
School in Locust Valley, New York,
teacher Wendy Fein confirms Perkins'
view of the design process through her
work with students: "The design
process promotes organizational skills
and creativity — two seemingly oppo-
site concepts that must coexist in a
truly effective learning environment.
Creativity without some form of orga-
nization can result in chaos Rapid

advances in technology and information
demand that students acquire the
organized, step-by-step design process
that will permit {them] to grow into
productive and effecrive adults, able
to succeed in a rapidly changing

world [The design process] is

easily transferred to problem solving
in any discipline."

Left-handed

Applying Learning to
Students' Everyday Lives

As John Dewey noted in 1910, a critical
failing of school is that it was conceived
as a separate place where lessons were
learned and certain habits formed
(Dewey 1910). Today, this remains true
for many children. Many educators
assert that students leave school before
graduation in part because they cannot
see how education benefits them in
life. Abstract concepts and principles
learned in school frequently exhibit
little relevance to the environment in
which children live, play, and work. The
problems teachers ask students to solve
share little with the problems they f
ace in daily life and over which they
exercise some control.

Whether focusing on everyday prob-
lems in immediately observable settings
or projecting problems into the future,
using design in the classroom builds
bridges between school and life. Rather
than beginning with abstractions,
design activities demand that students
derive concepts and principles from
real encounters with their world. They
learn the unfamiliar by finding it in
or comparing it to what they already
know. As William Perry, an 8th grade
art teacher at Banksville Gifted Center
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, observes,
"Any time I can demonstrate for my
students the necessity for, and applica-

tion of, learning, thinking, and doing,
I gain credibility. Recognizing the
importance of design [in this process]
moves the classroom from the hypo-
thetical to the real world — and to
their worlds."

The research team identified numer-
ous examples of students engaged in
exploration of their own environment.
Ruth Hiebert, a 5th and 6th grade
teacher at Soledad Canyon Elementary
School in Canyon Country, California,
builds her 5th grade curriculum around
City Building Education and a set of
personal questions that allow students
to make connections among concepts at
scales starting with the individual:
Who am I? Who am I in the classroom?
Who am I in the small group? Who
am I in the community? Who am I
in the United States? Who am I on
planet earth?

Students work
in small groups
to draw floor
plans and build
models of the
classroom. They
explore the impor-
tance of furniture arrangement and
lighting to create the type of human
interactions they expect in the class-
room. Later in the year, the class takes
field trips to study different systems in
the city: sewer and power plants, parks,
and bus depots. Discussion centers on
how these systems are necessary to
maintain life in the city and how each
is related to the next in a web of inter-
dependency. Students then design and
build their own mini-cities.

At Locust Valley Intermediate
School, Wendy Fein uses a project on
urban planning to teach students how .
their community works.

Students use census information to construct
a town that complies with the needs of the
population and their view of a better way
of life. ... Students must reach consensus on
what the town will be zoned for, where the
zones will be located, what physical fea-
tures exist and must be built around, what

variances are acceptable Sixth graders,

as part of this project, construct maps that
include nodes, landmarks, and major and
minor paths from their homes to school.

^>^

Because the products of design
problem solving are everywhere, there
is enormous opportunity to engage the
full range of children's interests with
problems that relate directly to their own
lives while simultaneously supporting
the teaching of required curricula.
William Suess, a technology education
teacher at Cape Henlopen High School
in Lewes, Delaware, asks students to
design a simple way of preventing
inebriated teenagers from starting their
cars on prom night. The task meets the
teacher's objectives for having students
understand technology and drafting
while encouraging them to examine
their own attitudes and behavior.

At the same time, design activities
make it possible to explore ideas through
another person's eyes. In Barbara Van
Wicklin's 3rd and 4th grade classes in
rural Allegany County, New York, stu-

dents grapple with the difficulties that
poor design sometimes creates for people
with disabilities. As an exercise, they
redesign the lunchroom ketchup packet
to make it usable by a wide range of
people. In doing so, they learn how deci-
sions about the physical environment
sometimes impede people's ability to
perform simple activities. These students
also realize that they too might one day
experience difficulty with products and
the designed environment, if only
through the natural processes of aging.

As Martin and Jacqueline Brooks
observe, a constructivist approach
builds from students' own questions and
knowledge and contrasts to learning
approaches that assume knowledge is
gained by copying it directly from the
external world and a fixed curriculum
(1993, pp. 15-20). In a design approach
to learning, issues and concepts motivate
questions and transcend the arbitrary
divisions of content in textbooks and
among school subjects.

Building Relationships Across
Traditional School Subjects

Current reform initiatives and standards
in the various school subjects share
concern for students' ability to think in
terms of systems and across disciplines.
An understanding of "connectedness"
is critical to work and responsible deci-
sion making in the future.

Design author and methodologist
J. Christopher Jones describes a hierarchy
of problems in society (see Figure 2.1).
At the lower end of the hierarchy are
problems at the component and product
levels. These are usually the preoccu-
pation of less developed societies (Jones
1970, p. 30).

Many of our contemporary challenges
in postindustrial society, however, reside
at the systems and community levels
of Jones's hierarchy. For example, the
decay of American cities, environmental

Figure 2.1

J. Christopher Jones'
Hierarchy of Problems

COMMUNITY

(formed by interrelated

systems, such as transportation,

communication, housing,

natural environment, etc.)

SYSTEMS

(formed by interrelated

products, such as cars, roads,

airplanes, and maps in the

transportation system)

PRODUCTS

COMPONENTS

Source: 3. Christopher Oones, Design Methods, p. 30
(New York: John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 1970).

pollution, and inadequate nutrition for
all children result from complex webs of
interrelated problems. Current curricula
and teaching practices, however, usually
foster skills and center knowledge
around the component and product
problem-solving levels. By focusing
tasks that are discipline-specific or that
do not situate the study of objects and
ideas within larger contexts, schools
educate a workforce and citizens who
cannot meet challenges at the upper
levels of Jones's problem hierarchy.
Design activities and the use of
the design process in teaching subject
matter other than design force students
to confront how their subject of study
is part of a larger system. For example,
a student design for a city park must

take into account the environmental
impact of its location, the political
system by which the community makes
decisions, the species of plant life that
will thrive within its boundaries, the
range of physical capabilities and inter-
ests of its users, and so on. Even a simple
poster design is part of a communication
system that connects to cultural, social,
and physical contexts through its use.

Interest in interdisciplinary and
cross-disciplinary learning intensifies as
educators help students to transfer basic
problem-solving strategies to diverse and
complex situations. To do this, schools
must teach basic competencies in core
subject areas as well as show relationships
among these disciplines, thus heighten-
ing their relevancy (Jacobs 1989). Many

educators also argue that interdisciplinary
studies have as their primary objective
the development of higher-order critical
thinking skills: comparing, contrasting,
synthesizing, structuring, and innovating.
Design is inherently interdisciplinary
and encourages systems thinking. It
combines concepts and thinking skills
found in both art and science, and it
concerns itself with social, cultural,
and physical contexts. Likewise, the
most successful uses of design in the
classroom are interdisciplinary. While
there is a tendency to think of design
activities as the purview of the art or
industrial arts class — due largely to
definitions of design education that
focus on visual aesthetics or preprofes-
sional training — design has relevance

With Nelson, the
teaching team
generates alterna-
tive activities to
teach students
about the concept
of "changing size."

Find four ways to make
an equation bigger.

Find examples of
"bigger" in science
fiction movies.

- Make a sound bigger.

- Make an object bigger.

- Make a composition
bigger.

- Study the parallels and
contrasts between local,
state, and federal
government.

across the curriculum. As the python
cage example illustrates, richly defined
design problems force students to make
connections among seemingly disparate
facts and subject areas. Integration
among subjects is seamless in design
projects, unlike some learning activities
where teachers force connections to
meet curriculum mandates for inter-
disciplinary instruction.

The research for this book revealed
many examples in which the design
process helped children articulate rela-
tionships and concepts across one or
several disciplines. As Dolores Patton
and Leslie Barclay demonstrate in their
work with City Building Education
at Los Angeles Open Charter Magnet
School, students move freely across dis-
ciplines when given the opportunity.
A project on "change" asks students
to compare a drawing, sentence, and
sound event that use the same concept
of change. For example, a child makes
his drawing "split" by dividing it into
two pieces. He then makes sound "split"
by putting silence in the middle.

Patton describes her work across
disciplines and how it contributes to
• her effectiveness as a teacher.

Design gives me a means to connect my
teaching and build more meaningful path-
ways from one topic to another I find

that it is much easier to connect seemingly

incongruous topics. {The use of design} is
even more powerful than thematic instruc-
tion because it weaves one theme to another.
When we {study} everyday objects, we can
discuss how a teapot is organized so it can
pour effectively. When we discuss organiza-
tion, we can compare city water systems to
the teapot. The children follow this simile
readily, excitedly adding modifications to
clarify the example.

The research revealed another exam-
ple of helping students develop skills
across disciplines at Willis Intermediate
School in Delaware, Ohio. Science
teacher Teresa Bettac uses design
activities to link science and
business in a unit she calls "To
Be a Scientist." Students research
the work and times of a famous scien
tist. They review scientific literature
and interpret the scientist's discoveries
through different media. Students then
write and design a logo and brochure
for a science-related company. They also
must apply for a job at one of the "new"
firms, using their scientist's credentials
and persona. They complete a resume
and job application and interview for
the job. Through this project, students
frame what they know about science in
a business portfolio. Communication to
others about what they learn about sci-
entists and their work plays a primary
role in the activity.

At Tippecanoe Elementary School
for the Humanities in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, design serves as a thematic
unit for the whole school. Teachers
integrate subjects to contrast, compare,
and develop students' understanding
of how disciplinary boundaries overlap.
Each year the school sets a different
theme for activities in all grades. A
program implementer assists classroom
teachers and the art teacher with pro-
ject-based activities. One theme was
"Experiences and Places: More than
Meets the Eye." As program imple-
menter Steven Shaw says, "We are
interested in helping students
develop an understanding of how
the built environment is affected
by different times in history,
people, science and technology, and
the constraints of structures and math-
ematical relationships." Students create
alphabet books based on shapes in the
built environment, visit the Milwaukee
Public Museum to examine scale models
of buildings, work on maps in a study
of abstract symbols that represent the
environment, and compare how different
rooms in a house have changed over time.

While the design process is inherently
interdisciplinary or cross-disciplinary in
nature, classroom design activities do
not necessarily dictate shared instruction
among teachers of different disciplines.
There are many examples in the research

study in which teachers find design
activities effective in placing discipline-
specific subject matter in broader contexts
that children understand. Chapter 4
illustrates how design activities support
the work of specific disciplines.

Increasing Student Comfort
with Uncertainty

The problems of today's world are messy
and ill-defined. A primary challenge to
tomorrow's leaders will be managing the
uncertainties that characterize contem-
porary life. Design deals with these
forces through methods of both divergent
and convergent thinking and through
attitudes that tolerate ambiguity and
suspend judgment in the early stages of
problem solving.

Through design problems, children
learn to think laterally, generating many
alternatives rather than progressing
through a linear process to one right
answer. They experiment through trial
and error in an effort to truly understand
the dimensions of the problem, as well
as the range of potential solutions. In
doing so, students explore alternatives
that attempt to reconcile competing val-
ues by weighing the different outcomes
that result from ranking some aspects
of the problem above others. Because
design focuses on moving conditions
from the "existing to the preferred"
(Simon 1969), students learn to imagine

the consequences of possible choices.
This type of activity is in contrast to
most school assignments that require
students to execute a linear sequence of
tasks in response to a problem for which
the outcome is usually known.

"Making sense" of the problem
appears in the work of a 5th grade
student at Epiphany School in Seattle,
Washington, who has the task of con-
structing a "yurt," a portable domed
tent used by nomadic Mongols. The
project is teacher Deirdre McCrary's
effort to illustrate the physical proper-
ties and limitations of materials within
the context of another environment and
another culture's housing needs, as well
as the value of trial and error in deter-
mining what a problem is really about.

learn

ml
students

to imagine

the consequences of

possible choices

Promoting Self-Directed Learning
and Assessment

v^ / V^iLii ■ j,»<J^»%

The student is to determine its
actual appearance, its size,
and the materials of which
it is made in building a
model. After failing at
several attempts to create
a form with toothpicks,
dowels, tree branches, glue,
and paper, {one} child walks away from
his work. Several minutes later, he returns
and announces, "The branches told me how
to do it!" He realizes the limits of the
toothpicks and the potential of the tree
branches in achieving the size and form of
something he imagines as a yurt: "The
toothpicks could only bend so far without
breaking, but I could get the tree sticks to
bend much further. I realized the only way
I could get the effect I wanted was with the
branches. "

Students who are comfortable with
uncertainties in the early stages of
problem solving are more likely to take
calculated risks and to view failure as a
way to learn rather than as defeat. They
also learn to suspend judgment until
they view facts and circumstances from
many vantage points. While this is a
useful strategy for solving individual
problems, it is also a strategy for life.
As adults, these students will have to
accept challenges for which there are no
prescribed methodologies, invent new
paradigms, and sustain interest in their
work despite intermittent setbacks.

if interest and skill in lifelong
learning are key objectives of education,
it is imperative that schools help stu-
dents take responsibility for their own
learning. Child-centered, constructivist
approaches to learning provide practice
in posing questions as well as solving
problems. Students learn to challenge
assumptions and the ranking of priorities
intrinsic to problem definitions. They
ask themselves what values are implicit
in the structure of the problem and how
broad a context they must address.

In an exercise to design clothing for
people with physical disabilities, high
school students meet and observe their
"clients." The students ask questions

regarding movement and how people
dress. Through this process they set
performance criteria against which they
and their users will measure the success
of solutions. In doing so, students real-
ize they cannot accommodate all needs
equally well; they must assign higher
value to some criteria and, where possi-
ble, reconcile conflicting demands.
Students also learn a new perspective in
thinking about people with disabilities.
They see that the environment and
everyday objects "handicap" people,
not their disabilities.

This example contrasts with more
traditional curricular structures in
which the problem statements students

receive from teachers are more prescrip-
tive in their procedural expectations and
criteria for success. As David Perkins
asserts, typical math problems faced by
most children today are proofs of
knowledge already known: "Although
you can calculate the height from
which you have to drop an ice cube to
vaporize it, or the leverage required to
budge the Empire State Building, who
cares?" (Perkins 1986, p. 97). The
teacher frames the question and knows
the answer; the student's task is to find
out what the teacher already knows and
values. There is no self-determination,
no active context in these types of
problems and, as researchers testify, low
student motivation to solve them.

Good design problems share common
characteristics in what they ask of chil-
dren. Although they may be tightly
defined, often by the teacher, their solu-
tions are not predictable; each student
ranks the importance of individual
variables differently, resulting in
different problem-solving methods and
solutions to the same problem state-
ment. Problems that require students
to reconcile conflicting priorities (e.g.,
cup designs that are elegant but dispos-
able, chair designs that are sturdy but
portable) open opportunities for rich
discussion about why certain criteria

are more important than others. When
the solution to the problem has no
observable precedent, such as a paper
bridge that can support a brick, moti-
vation is high and students stretch their
understanding of basic principles in an
attempt to discover a solution.

Design problems also engage students
in what design author and methodolo-
gist J. Christopher Jones calls "glass
box" thinking: stepping outside of the
process to watch oneself solve a problem
(Jones 1970, pp. 49-50). Because no
future design problem will be exactly
the same as the one they are now solv-
ing, students learn to focus on their
process as the true content of activities.
This self-reflection and self-evaluation
helps students learn from their failures
and build on their successes. Karen
Miller, a 2nd and 3rd grade teacher at
Willamette Primary School, reinforces
the value of self-reflection.

IBsill

developed for

the national assessment
in the arts, four cups are

examined

to identify design priorities
(stability, heat retention,

dispOSability, etc.) and a fifth
cup is designed that combines apparently
competing priorities (stable and stack-
able, elegant and disposable, etc.).

I meet individually with the children to
discuss their reflections on learning, and
check for understanding across a broad

range of skills The class and 1 create a

rubric that acts as a standard that guides
our work. We consider the purpose and
characteristics of work we admire. The
children evaluate themselves at the
conclusion of a project, not only on the
product, but in what areas they have
grown and what they have learned that
might help them in a future project. We
have a working journal in which we
record thinking and progress throughout
the project.

Sharing Responsibility
for Assessment

As educators across the country develop
more effective, large-scale strategies for
determining what students know and
are able to do, the issue of authentic
assessment at the levels of classrooms
and individual students remains a high
priority for teachers, students, and
their parents. Dennie Palmer Wolf's
Performance Assessment Collaboratives
with Education (PACE) at Harvard
pioneers the effort to develop assessment
strategies that authentically model the
performances expected of children in
their adult lives. Wolf believes concern
for measuring and reporting achieve-
ment data to external audiences drives

most traditional assessments, and that
these approaches do not help students
develop their own internal systems of
accountability. Nor does traditional
testing nurture the student's desire to
achieve high standards or provide the
means to establish a personal sense of
excellence. Instead, such assessment
encourages a temporary acquisition of
facts as proof of mastery against criteria
the student does not necessarily value
(Wolf 1992).

New assessments, such as those
endorsed by Wolf, value "formative
reflection," ongoing feedback through-
out a project that reshapes the processes
and final products of learning. Formative
reflection allows teachers to engage
students and their peers in interactive
assessment and mirrors the tradition of
"progress critiques" found in college-
level design classes. Assessment of this
sort supports powerful learning and
builds a school culture of high standards.

The fit between design and these
new assessment strategies is strong.
Design problems present opportunities
for project-based situated learning in
which products are the focus of periodic
critiques of student process. Embedded
within the design process is iterative
work through which students evaluate,
adjust, and redirect behavior in response
to feedback on emerging products or
design solutions. Performance criteria,

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stated at the ft ont end of the
design process, provide
students with the rubrics
against which they will
measure success. Because
students often participate
in the development and
articulation of these criteria, they value
their achievement over what appear to
be the arbitrarily set rubrics in tradi-
tional testing. Because there are many
appropriate solutions to the same
design problem, design-based learning
and assessment strategies tolerate a

range of excellent performances. Unlike
traditional testing, design projects
accommodate the variety of learning
styles in any classroom by allowing
students to demonstrate mastery and
thinking processes in the manner most
comfortable to them.

This match between the design
process and authentic assessment also
signals that a design activity itself may
be an appropriate way to evaluate what
students know and are able to do in
subject areas other than design. For
example, modeling the human digestive

system from parts found in the hard-
ware store can tell a teacher much about
students' understanding of the human
body. In this instance, the design task
requires that students know how the
relevant parts of the human body work
and match the digestive operation to
the apparent function of hardware. The
design task is simply a way to determine
to what degree students' knowledge of
physiology is operational.

Site visits and teacher questionnaires
for this study suggest that, where design
strategies are part of a well-considered
comprehensive program, students tend
to develop internal accountability and
take responsibility for achieving high
standards of performance. In these
schools, assessment is an ongoing shared
responsibility among teachers and
students, a natural part of the commu-
nication climate in the classroom.

Even very young children can set
the standard for and assess excellence
in their work. Susan Dunn and Rob
Larson, authors of Design Technology:
Children's Engineering, maintain "chil-
dren may also generate rubrics, or
open sets of criteria through extracting
successful qualities of models. Children
use examples of work and talk about
features which are 'good'. Using the
children's language, the teacher lists

[their] ideas In developing such a

list, a rubric is not artificially imposed;

Making animal marionettes
sparks students' creativity and
questions. The Research Web
helps them get started.

Is*. *f

Always design a thing
by considering it in its
next largest context: a
chair in a room, a room
in a house, a house in
an environment, an
environment in a city
plan.

ELIEL SAARINEN,

architect

it comes from the children's experiences
and perceptions. Children can use the
rubric to develop, reflect on, and
modify their designs" (Dunn and
Larson 1990, p. 71).

The research team observed student
accountability for powerful learning
at Willamette Primary School, where
several teachers commented on assess-
ment. Kim Turner, a 2nd and 3rd
grade teacher, notes, "The children
and I set the standard for quality work
for each project by creating a rubric.
The work is regularly assessed by the
children and myself together, and
parents are invited to offer comments
too. In this way, children learn to view

evaluation as integral to learning and
something that should continue at home.
It is not just a reporting exercise."
Turner's colleague, Janice Leonetti,
adds, "I notice a rising spiral of quality
in the work the children have produced
over time. As a group we talk about
good solutions and good approaches
as part of the learning process. The
best work from one project raises the
standard for all in the next project."

Scott Wavra, who teaches 4th and
5th grade students at Willamette
Primary School, talks about the use of
portfolios in assessment, "We gather
student portfolios over the six years
children are with us. The portfolios

are evidence of the children's growth
over time and their best thinking at
any particular time. I look for qualities
in the way a child works: asking
questions, gathering information,
organizing and presenting information,
as well as developing an understanding
of the social and scientific concepts that
provide the framework for a particular
study. I am always concerned that upon
completing a study, a child has the will
to continue learning to take on new
and greater challenges."

Teresa Bettac, science teacher at
Willis Intermediate School in Delaware,
Ohio, also uses portfolios as one means
of assessment. "All of my students keep
a portfolio of work for the three years I
have them in advanced science class.
They have an opportunity to add to
their portfolio at any time. They are
also able to see the variety of designs
they have created in three years. Plus
they are able to see development and
improvement in their [understanding
of] design and science concepts."

There is also evidence that tradi-
tional testing practices keep certain
students from demonstrating compe-
tency in core disciplinary content and
skills. At Smoky Hill High School in
Aurora, Colorado, physics teacher
David Pinkerton notes that the use of
design in the classroom lets "students
traditionally shut out from higher

Developing Students' Interpersonal
and Communication Skills

grades in science" demonstrate under-
standing through projects rather than
written tests. Pinkerton indicates,
however, that student performance on
standardized tests did not change when
he adopted a design approach to teach-
ing. In addition to tests and design
projects, he now conducts interviews
with students as a form of assessment.
Through these interviews he learns
that the use of design in his classroom
results in "an increase in process skills,
creativity, intuition, design skills,
troubleshooting, physical manipula-
tion, and thinking on your feet. In
other words, content has not been
sacrificed for process, yet more process

is being learned My techniques

foster long-term memory of ideas and
concepts. I have had enough returning
college students tell me this that I
know it's true."

The research team witnessed students'
shared and self-evaluation as one of the
strongest characteristics of site-visit
schools. By involving students in the
development of meaningful performance
criteria, the design process embeds
assessment in the normal activity of
solving problems. By providing
opportunities for reflection and self-
direction of effort, design activities
help students learn to trust their own
ability to master concepts and skills.

interpersonal skills are critical to
success at all ages and in all endeavors.
These skills are important in the work-
place, but they are no less important in
the civic realm. Likewise, the ability to
construct or interpret meaning in all
types of communication is critical to
success in today's environment of infor-
mation overload. The research revealed
numerous examples in which design
activities fostered competency in
collaborative team work and a variety
of communication skills.

Fostering Collaborative
Teamwork

When educators noted the disparity
between the fact that most adults work
with teams of people while students
often work alone, they began experi-
ments with student learning groups and
teams. A decade of research at the Johns
Hopkins Team Learning Project suggests
that team learning consistently results
in accelerated achievement and better
retention for all students (Slavin 1986).
Collaborative learning also develops
interpersonal skills. In other research,
Johnson, Johnson, and Holubec (1994)
describe the elements of cooperative
learning as:

- clearly perceived interdependence
among students;

- considerable face-to-face interaction;

- clearly perceived individual accountability
and personal responsibility to achieve
group goals;

- frequent use of relevant interpersonal
and small-group skills; and

- frequent and regular group processing of
current functioning to improve future
effectiveness.

The cross-disciplinary and multi-
phase nature of many design problems
provides rich opportunity to nurture
students' collaborative skills across all
these dimensions. Many teachers report
that the complexity of design problems
allows children with different skills
and different "ways of knowing" to
contribute at different moments in the
process and to present a variety of
viewpoints throughout the process.

For example, at Willamette Primary
School, Merilee Bales' 4th and 5th
grade children worked together on a
class-designed coral reef as they studied
habitats.

The goal is to create a life-size coral reef
in the classroom. The class divides into
subgroups to tackle various aspects of the
problem. In each subgroup students assign
roles, such as recorder, resource person, and
process observer. Later, the same children
divide reef-design tasks according to their
interests and expertise. All of the children
gather information in writing about the
elements of the coral reef. When it comes
to the actual construction of the reef, with
sharks, starfish, blowfish, and coral,
several students are fast learners of wire
and papier mache techniques. They teach
their classmates, and with these students
as experts, skills spread quickly
through the class. Many children act
as assistants when the groups need an
extra pair of hands.

While Bales
reports that

she
begins by
helping the chil-
dren divide tasks, they soon assume this
responsibility themselves. Similarly,
she notes that early in the year students

need her help in resolving group con-
flicts, but as the year and involvement
in design activities progress, children
become negotiators and resolve their
own disagreements.

Smoky Hill High School physics
teacher David Pinkerton also has
students form their own design teams,
but he makes suggestions about
recruiting others with skills that
complement those of the people already
on the team. Manette Gampel, a science
teacher at Dyker Heights Intermediate
School in Brooklyn, New York, com-
ments on her students' understanding
of group design work: "I may have
an excellent idea for a bridge, but I
am not a skilled artist. My friend, on
the other hand, is a skilled artist who
can take my idea and translate it into
an actual design on paper. The final
product is a reflection of both our
talents."

Throughout our study, we saw
evidence that participation in design
activities helps to build student confi-
dence and a sense of control over their
own learning. Students are "learning
partners" with their teachers, as well as
with their classmates. Dolores Patton
reports that the use of design in her
classroom transforms her students.

Some of the most important changes in the
students are their increased independence, poise,
and confidence. The children approach new
situations more confidently, looking for
similarities with other projects. They ask
questions more readily, often startling adults
with their insights during field trips and
presentations. I also notice more camaraderie
with my students. Since design is a topic that
can readily be observed by all, we enjoy
sharing observations concerning designs we
encounter. My comments about chair design
are compared to the observations of children,
who are entirely different "chair clients. "
There is a warmth and freedom in the class-
room when comments by student and teacher
are valued more equally.

Teachers also recount that design
activities enable students to provide
constructive feedback to their classmates.

Teachers remark that many students
develop critical language skills and
learn to be thoughtful in giving and
receiving criticism. One 2nd grade
student said, "You learn that someone's
tough opinion about your project has
nothing to do with you; even though
what they say may hurt at first, it's
really only about your work. It's not
about you as a person."

At Willamette Primary School,
teachers encourage students to think
about and articulate the processes
they use while engaged in design and
technology activities. Students record
their own problem-solving steps in
journals and portfolios, describe them
in conversations with the teacher and
peer-group teams, and learn to evaluate
their own work and that of others. As
important, students learn how to
document and describe their design
process for those beyond the classroom:
other school children, teachers, parents,
and visitors.

Whether placed in the classroom,
in the hallway, or in another public
space at the school, student project
displays do not just show the final
products achieved, but carefully
delineate the steps in the process, the
questions raised along the way, and the
alternatives considered. The children
also capture work-in-progress in still
photographs or on video, enabling

them to produce narrated slide-tapes
and videos summarizing their learning
process for parents or community
partners.

The school's founding principal,
Jane Stickney, encouraged such analysis
and documentation inside and outside
the classroom as a means of reinforcing
student ability and ease in reflection,
providing "teaching opportunities"
throughout the school building, and
communicating the values and outcomes
of design-based pedagogy to parents and
other community supporters. Evidence
of the children's comfort with such
reflection proved both personally grati-
fying and professionally validating:
"In the school's second year, when I
began to see older students gathered
together in the hallway — even during
their free time — examining the project
displays of younger students and dis-
cussing among themselves the processes
used, I knew the school was going to
be a success."

Stickney is not alone in her obser-
vations about student interest in the
work of other children. As part of the
LEGO City project at Dranesville
Elementary School in Herndon,
Virginia, in which each class constructs
different components of an ideal city
from LEGO pieces, a student "com-
munity planning team" builds skills
in working with multi-age teams of

One result [of education]
is that students graduate
without knowing how to
think in whole systems,
how to find connections,
how to ask big questions,
and how to separate the
trivial from the important.
Now more than ever,
however, we need people
who think broadly and
understand systems,
connections, patterns,
and root causes.

DAVID ORR, Earth in Mind,
1995

best

W U I l\ is not always the

result of one person's
ef f o rts .

children. Representatives from all
grade levels consider the whole town
and review proposals from each student
construction team (e.g., housing, roads,
parks) before giving approval for work
to begin. The planning team prepares
and distributes weekly advisories and
decisions to each class as they refine the
overall community plan. This example
mirrors the complexity of adult tasks
in organizations of various kinds.

Clearly, design activities make the
point for children that the best work
is not always the result of one person's
efforts. Through the design process,
students gain insight into the value of
teamwork and how to organize them-
selves for effective problem solving.

Developing a Variety of
Communication Skills

The ability to communicate to others in
a variety of appropriate ways becomes
increasingly important in an era of
rapidly changing technology. A culture
that shifted from predominantly oral
communication to the use of printed
texts now often chooses the image
(preferably a moving image) over the
word. We process increasing amounts
of information visually, via television,

illustrations, and diagrams in news-
papers, textbooks, reports, computer
multimedia, and photography. In
previous eras, illustrations elaborated
on text. Today, text explains what we
cannot surmise from the illustration.
It is not uncommon for magazine
readers to go no deeper than perusal
of headlines, captions, and photographs
to determine the content of an article.

Just as some traditional curricula
discourage the use of multiple intelli-
gences, they also handicap students'
development of fluency in various forms
of communication and interpretation.
By relying primarily on verbal and
mathematical forms of communication
for serious study in today's classrooms,
schools fail to develop students as
discriminating readers of visual form
and as communicators in the languages
of their times. Ironically, as budget
cuts threaten art education — one of the
few disciplines that encourages visual
thinking and communication — the
demand to be critical authors and
readers of visual forms is expanding
at an alarming rate.

The design process encourages
liberal use of many forms of communi-
cation. Well-developed communication
cultures exist in all of the site visit
schools and their descriptions recur in
teacher surveys. At Willis Intermediate
School, a 7th grade science class makes

three-dimensional models to demon-
strate how water can power vehicles.
Teacher Teresa Bettac also encourages
students to diagram as a way of under-
standing science concepts: "Trying to
teach science today without using the
many elements of design would be
boring, but also would make an already
complex subject even much harder to
understand. Design strategies help
students, understand difficult concepts.
For example, a student who has
diagrammed the external and internal
parts of a grasshopper has a much
better understanding of where to
locate and find the organs when they
complete a dissection."

The research team also found
examples in which computers enhance
students' visualization and presentation
skills. At Dranesville Elementary
School and San Jose Middle School in
Novato, California, students work with
a variety of Autodesk graphics software
programs to present research findings.
Dranesville students studying insects
design and animate an imaginary bug
in an appropriate habitat. Will Fowler's
San Jose students create multimedia
presentations that reference David
Macaulay's Castle video in their story-
boards and computer animations about
life in the Middle Ages. Some students
create "fly-throughs" of their three-
dimensional computer models. In other

lessons, Fowler uses Macaulay's
Roman City video as the basis for a
social studies lesson.

Equally important in today's world
is the ability to make coherent,
persuasive oral presentations. Design
activities require students to summa-
rize findings, pose questions, articulate
rationales, and critique solutions
publicly at various stages of the design
process. Numerous teachers responding
to the research survey commented on
the degree to which design activities
make children active "presenters" in
their classrooms and confident in
explaining their activities to adults.

Learning to be discriminating
"readers" of form is also possible through
design-based strategies. Rubie Blount,
a 9th grade English teacher at Hillside
High School in Durham, North
Carolina, asks her students to make a
"behavior map" of the room, noting
the room's good points and where it
does not support the work of the class.
They then talk about the changes in
their own behavior that might result
from several alternate arrangements.

Blount says, "After analyzing the
messages conveyed by the simple
arrangement of chairs in a room in our
discussion of 'the rhetoric of rooms,' I
vowed to test the contention that my
classroom design sets me up as an
unreachable monarch." After the class

rearranges the room according to one of
their proposed designs, Blount remarks,
"They love sitting in the semicircle!...
I can easily make eye contact with each
student in the class. Mutiny ensued
when I tried to get them to move their
desks back in the neat little rows [at
the end of the day]" (Davis and Moore
1992, p. 23).

Another example of "reading the
environment" is evident in architecture
professor Paul Tesar's visit to Kathy
Allen's 7th grade social studies class in
Warren County, North Carolina. Tesar's
project is an adaptation of an activity
designed by educator Juan Pablo Bonta
that asks student teams to design well-
known building types (e.g., house,
church, bank, city hall) using simple
geometric blocks. Students then guess
the building type expressed by each
team's design. The activity follows with
a discussion of the language of built
form and an analysis of the physical
elements that lead to right and wrong
readings of building type. The class also
discusses the cultural origins of certain
structural arrangements and offers ideas
about how another culture might
express the same function through
different forms and materials (Davis
and Moore 1992, pp. 51-52).

Dolores Patton also describes
activities in which children "read"
the environment. On a visit to the

Los Angeles City Hall to watch the
proceedings of a city council meeting,
Patton asks students to study the
design of the building. "How does its
design connote power and security?
What is the importance of the rotunda
as an intersection? How is symbolism
used to honor the history of the city?"
Patton's students return to the class-
room to design a new city hall for their
model city of the future with a better
understanding of the language of built
form and its role in projecting the
values of the city.

Some teachers ask their students to explore alternate room arrangements to
show that the room plan can affect behavior and communication. Above, an
illustration titled "The Rhetoric of Rooms" from Education Through Design
by Meredith Davis and Robin Moore.

Cultivating Responsible Citizens

At Willamette Primary School,
design activities helped
students learn that they can
affect decisions about the
school environment. After
working to design and build
a school green space, one
student commissioner wrote
about environmental needs.

THE research study revealed many
examples in which design activities
help students at all levels learn about
the processes that control local decision-
making and how to play active roles
in their own communities.

In some schools, students actively
experience the political and social
processes of their communities. For
example, in a suburb of metropolitan
Kansas City, Kansas, 3rd grade students
at the Stilwell Elementary School toured
their neighborhood while studying the
history of their town. On their tour,
they admired a round barn constructed
in 1912. When these students later
learned of a demolition plan to make

Environmental Commission

Tiffany Yoshikawa

I think the important
thing in Environmental
Commission is planting
trees for the city on the
landsite because we need
trees to help the
environment. I think
another important thing is
to take out the recycling,
clean the sink and find out
what you can do about the
water bottles because those
are important jobs.

room for new development, they orga-
nized to save the barn. The students
made persuasive t-shirts, conducted
walking tours for town residents, and
produced a slide show on the barn,
which they presented to the City
Council. As a result of their efforts,
their Kansas City suburb still has a
round barn (Graves 1997, p. 117).

At Willamette Primary School,
students learned that they can affect
decisions about the school environment.
Working with technical assistants from
the community, students designed and
built a green space within the school.
Former principal Jane Stickney
describes the experience: "The idea for
the green space came from children
who wanted to create a garden on the
school site. The children established
processes for finding answers to their
questions. They worked in teams with
community mentors [environmental
specialists, engineers, and educators] to
collect information {about the site], and

to design and build the green space

They built a sense of belonging and
purpose. And most of all, they made
something for the community that
started off as only an idea."

While these examples illustrate the
empowering nature of active design,
other teachers report similar outcomes
from role playing the type of decision
making that takes place in our society.

One of the more successful examples
is the student simulation of city
government in Doreen Nelson's City
Building Education program. Students
study terrain, demographics, and
land-use decisions. They evaluate
transportation and circulation systems
within their city, as well as structures
for commerce, government, housing,
and recreation. As a decisionmaking
body for the planning of a future city,
the student-formed government
coordinates development and oversees
the daily activities of production.
Students assume the roles of mayor,
council members, and commissioners
for departments such as education,
parks, libraries, housing, utilities, and
transportation. Nelson (1984) says:

As it begins to function, the class experi-
ences its own authority or lack of it; the
obligations of the group, the nature and
function of leadership; and the conflicts
arising between the needs of the community
and the freedom of the individual, failures
in the first organization lead to more
research and reorganization ... . Because
organizational structures cannot function
without procedures, lessons are required in
the basics of conducting meetings, following
an agenda, delegating work to committees
and other skills that are essential for a
group to function.

References

Design activities also encoutage
contact with people in the community
and provide insight into how groups
make design decisions. At Beaver Acres
School in Beaverton, Oregon, 2nd, 3rd,
and 4th graders working with teacher
Pete Ellenzweig prepare for their
building and city design projects in a
variety of ways. They conduct book
research and, when feasible, site visits
and interviews with elected officials,
residents, and other adults. They study
the immediate neighborhood and
nearby Portland, taking walking tours,
sketching buildings, and examining
various aspects of the urban environ-
ment. Reading, listening, and direct
observation inform their own city
planning projects, including the
layout of residential and commercial
areas and the design of individual
facilities such as the zoo, train station,
and football stadium.

It is evident from these examples
that design activities empower
students to make decisions, modeling
the responsibilities of adult citizens.
Through design, students learn the
consequences of such decisions and
prepare to be active participants in
shaping their physical, social, and
cultural environments.

Brandt, R. (May 1986). "On Creativity
and Thinking Skills: A Conversation
with David Perkins." Educational
Leadership A3, 8: 13-18.

Brooks, J.G. and Brooks, M.G. (1993). In
Search of U nderstanding: The Case for
Constructivist Classrooms. Alexandria,
Virginia: Association for Supervision
and Curriculum Development.

Davis, M. and Moore, R. (1992).

Education Through Design: The Middle
School Curriculum. Raleigh, North
Carolina: North Carolina State
University.

Dewey, J. (1910). My Pedagogic Creed.
Chicago, Illinois: A. Flanagan Company.

Dunn, S. and Larson, R. (1990). Design
Technology: Children's Engineering. Bristol,
Pennsylvania: The Falmer Press.

Graves, G. (1997). Walk around the Block.
Prairie Village, Kansas: Center for
Understanding the Built Environment.

Jacobs, H.H. (1989). Interdisciplinary
Curriculum: Design and Implementation.
Alexandria, Virginia: Association for
Supervision and Curriculum
Development.

Johnson, D., Johnson, R., and Holubec,
E.J. (1994). The New Circles of
Learning: Cooperation in the Classroom
and School. Alexandria, Virginia:
Association for Supervision and
Curriculum Development.

Jones, J. C. (1970). Design Methods.
New York: John Wiley and Sons.

Nelson, D. (1984). Transformations:
Process and Theory. Los Angeles,
California: City Building Education.

Nickerson, R., Perkins, D., and Smith, E.
(1985). The Teaching of Thinking.
Hillsdale, New Jersey: Erlbaum
Associates.

Perkins, D. (1986). Design as Knowledge.
Hillsdale, New Jersey: Erlbaum
Associates.

Simon, H. (1969). The Sciences of the
Artificial. Cambridge, Massachusetts:
MIT Press.

Slavin, R.E. (1986). Using Student Team
Learning. Baltimore, Maryland:
The Johns Hopkins Team Learning
Project, Center for Research on
Elementary and Middle Schools.

Wolf, D. P. (1992). "Opening Up

Assessment." In Performance Assessment,
Brandt, R., ed. Alexandria, Virginia:
Association for Supervision and
Curriculum Development.

A STRATEGY FOR

Excellent Teaching

the best teachers bring learning to
life with techniques and strategies
that promote excellent student
work and high teaching standards. For
the innovative teachers who are the
subject of this research, design-based
curricula provide frameworks for
achieving such excellence and high
standards. While these teachers approach
design on their own terms, they share
a common concern for instruction that
adapts to individual learning styles and
an array of subjects.

The research for this book found
considerable variation in how design is
used in the classroom. Some teachers

and students explore the modes of
inquiry used by graphic designers,
product designers, interior designers,
and architects as strategies for learning
new content and skills. They also may
study the performances of everyday
objects and places and the process for
making decisions about visual commu-
nication, consumer products, and the
built environment. Others use design
as an active, hands-on approach to
teaching and learning that motivates
both teachers and students. In some
cases, design is the subject of investi-
gation; in other cases, it is the means
of investigation.

It is clear from the classroom obser-
vations that design experiences
invigorate teachers and students, trans-
form the nature of teaching, and foster
success for all types of learners. From
the teacher's viewpoint, the use of
design in K-12 classrooms achieves two
important goals:

- Design-based teaching strategies support
a broad range of student achievement by
transforming the teacher from authority
to facilitator, reaching all learner types,
making learning active, and using tech-
nology in the service of ideas.

- Design-based teaching strategies build
connections among teachers, subject
areas, and the community.

Supporting A Range of Student Achievement

Design experiences invigorate
teachers and students,
transform the nature of
teaching, and foster success
for all types of learners.
Here, students at IS 246 in
Brooklyn, New York, work
together to build a chipboard
model of the Bank of China
in Hong Kong.

AS teaching objectives shift from
instilling facts to improving students'
thinking skills, educators find their
roles in the classroom also change.
Increasingly, teachers must prepare
for instruction that guides rather than
directs, that poses questions rather
than provides answers. Through
design-based pedagogy, teachers
rediscover the art of teaching.

Transforming the
Teacher's Role

The use of design has significant impli-
cations for the teacher, who moves from
the role of omniscient authority to
facilitator. In shedding the mantle of

an expert who knows the answers to all
problems, the teacher becomes a learner
who shares with students an open mind
about solutions to problems. While the
overall achievement of learning out-
comes are certain, there are no single
"right" answers to design problems.

As Kim Turner, a 2nd grade teacher
at Willamette Primary School in West
Linn, Oregon, explains, "It's easier to
be the expert, but the results are more
powerful when I'm not. Rather than
focusing on where I have to go next, I
am able to hear children explaining
their own thinking {about their design
solutions] in ways that allow me
glimpses into their development. These

give me insight into my next moves to
help them develop further."

Patricia Kadlec, a 4th and 5 th grade
teacher at Willamette, adds, "I am
increasingly convinced I do my best
teaching when I am on the edge of my
own understanding."

Gail Aldridge, a 2nd and 3rd grade
teacher at Willamette, reinforces the
views of her colleagues. She remarks:

When 1 provide a framework for the
children in my class and then step out of
the way, I am amazed at what they can
do! I can follow their progress in conver-
sations and journals, and move in to assist
in developing understanding or {to help
with} a momentary frustration when the
opportunity arises. In that way, I don't
teach "beyond" them. There is a sense of
relevancy. I am able to guide with questions,
gestures, musings, and modeling, without
the stultifying demands of direct telling.
The {children} emerge on the other side of
their questions with real answers of {their}
own, with their self-esteem increased, and a
belief they can tackle almost anything.

As facilitators, teachers urge students
to evaluate the appropriateness of
solutions they propose. In this role,
teachers involve students in the process
of "valuing," without imparting specific
values themselves. They encourage and
reward a variety of student approaches

the teacher

becomes a Learner

to problems rather than the single
teacher-centered or textbook path.
Teachers who use the design process
as a map for classroom activity hold
students accountable to student-
authored performance criteria.

Barbara Van Wicklin, a gifted and
talented teacher at Fillmore Central
School in Allegany County, New York,
affirms this view of design-based
teachers as facilitators: "Design adds to
my effectiveness because I become a
facilitator rather than a knowledge giver.
I allow for learning to take place rather

than be the information giver I set

judgment aside and join [students] in
their quest. I am open to change and
failure — and so are they."

A kindergarten teacher at Willamette
Primary School recounts her transforma-
tion to a design-based facilitator: "My
students were attempting to build tall
buildings with newspapers when a little
boy who did not know how to begin
stopped his work in frustration. My
first reaction was to tell him exactly
how to roll the newspapers into tubes.
However, I stopped for a moment and
asked him what he was trying to do,
and then we looked at columns and tall
cans as possible models {for creating the
form]. Although he still had difficulty
with the mechanics of rolling, he knew
what he wanted to do and asked a
friend to assist him."

who shares with students 311 Opefl mind about

solutions to problems.

Teachers also report that design-
based strategies energize their teaching.
They find themselves creating new
learning experiences that are appropriate
for a particular group of children, rather
than relying on tired exercises or lec-
tures from a textbook. Even when
repeating similar design assignments
from year to year, teachers find that
students ask different questions and
invent new solutions. Mark Ceconi, a
teacher at Daniel Webster Magnet
School in New Rochelle, New York,
says, "Using design also satisfies my
personal creative needs, helping me to
grow as an instructor by perpetuating
my interest in the subjects I teach and
confirming my ability to present them
in ways I best know how."

Several teachers who use design
activities in the classroom report that
they avoid problems in student motiva-
tion that often occupy so much of
teachers' attention. Van Wicklin talks
about the joy of teaching motivated
students: "I have found myself having
to constrain enthusiasm rather than
encourage it. My classroom always has

students working in it. They eat lunch
there, spend free periods there, and
many nights I have turned off the lights
[and sent children home] because the
janitors have to go home. Discipline
problems are virtually nonexistent
because of the high interest, hands-on
experience the student is having."

Steve Brady, a technology education
teacher at Eagle Ridge Junior High
School in Savage, Minnesota, agrees:
"During a design activity I find that the
number of children 'on task' is greater
than on nondesign activities." These
teachers are among those who say that
design-based teaching strategies allow
them to focus on individual student
achievement, rather than on group
motivation and discipline.

Just as designers modify their
practices based on the outcome of a
design solution, teachers redesign
learning experiences based on student
performance. Because design problems
can be multidimensional in the intelli-
gences they tap and the skills they
build, the teacher need not repeat
assignments until students master

Using design does add to my
effectiveness as a teacher.
Compared to non-design
activities, it allows my stu-
dents to take part in decision
making, which empowers
them and gives them a feel-
ing of ownership. This
creates an excited, motivated,
participating student who is
easier to teach and discipline
problems decrease.

VERN LAUFENBERG, JR., Sennett
Middle School, Madison, WS

Design helps me be more
effective because not
everyone learns the same
way . . . I have been able
to design many different
ways of teaching an idea
or method . . . If I didn 't
use "design" I would
not reach many of the
students in my class.

PATRICIA DICOSIMO,
9-12th grade art teacher,
Simsbury, CT

content or skills. Instead, the teacher
simply uses a new and interesting design
task to develop the desired competency.
Mark Ceconi offers an example from
Daniel Webster Magnet School.

One child, in particular, comes to mind.
She was a very quiet, introspective student
with large gaps in language skills. She
experienced a great deal of difficulty
expressing her ideas in written or verbal
form. Her drawings, however, were
wonderfully embellished with rich detail
and a sophisticated spatial awareness. In
the writing process, she began using story-
board techniques to develop her ideas
sequentially, first through drawing, and
then by explaining each drawing using
written detail. By the end of the year, she
had developed a newfound self-confidence
in her own abilities, and had grown
immeasurably as a writer in her ability
to express her ideas and views.

It is clear that Ceconi and other
teachers who responded to the research
survey maintain their interest in
teaching largely because they see the
profession as a creative challenge. Their
roles as facilitators reduce redundancy
in their daily practice and allow them
to focus on the issues that attracted
them to teaching in the first place.

Reaching All Learner Types

Students exhibit varied capacities in
different intelligences and individual
preferences for learning in certain ways.
Design-based experiences appear to
reach a wider variety of learners than
traditional methods of instruction,
which favor the student who perceives
information abstractly and processes
it reflectively.

Howard Gardner argues that teachers
should approach any topic worth teach-
ing in at least five ways that reflect
different intelligences. These include:

- narrational, presenting a story or narra-
tive about the concept in question;

- logical-quantitative, invoking numerical
considerations or deductive reasoning
processes;

- foundational, approaching the concept
from a philosophical and terminological
perspective;

- aesthetic, emphasizing the sensory
responses to surface features that
capture the attention of students
who favor an artistic stance to the
experiences of living; and

- experiential, dealing directly with
relevant materials that embody or convey
the concept in a hands-on approach
(Gardner 1991, pp. 244-246).

Gardner suggests that, taken
together, these intelligences comprise
the information and inquiry necessary
to contribute to students' full under-

standing of any topic. He maintains
that "full understanding of any concept
of any complexity cannot be restricted
to a single mode of knowing or way of
representation" (Gardner 1991, p. 247).
He also believes studying a topic
through multiple intelligences decreases
the likelihood of misconceptions and
stereotypes.

Mary Ann Chamberlain, a 5th grade
teacher at Meadowthorpe Elementary
School in Lexington, Kentucky, views
design strategies as a way to engage
students who excel in different intelli-
gences: "Design allows me to build on
each student's strengths as they are
revealed through the process of design."

For example, when studying the way
societies shape the built environment
in response to cultural, social, and eco-
nomic factors, Chamberlain incorporates
the following activities to provide
different points of entry to the subject
and to encourage development of more
than one type of intelligence:

- The examination of the past and present
through book research on the structure
and function of buildings. Students must
present their findings visually, requiring
deductive reasoning (diagrams showing
how buildings stand up) and aesthetic
understanding (records of visual and
spatial properties such as massing,
proportion, materials, scale, color, and
ornament).

- The design and building of columns for
use in buildings of a particular geo-
graphic region and time period. The
column must sustain specified weight,
but it also must be meaningful to people
in the region. This activity provides both
logical-quantitative and foundational
points of entry to the study of built
form. In building the model of the
column, students deal directly with
materials in an experiential mode.

- A five-day scavenger hunt for parents and
students in which they must locate and
identify specific architectural elements on
a tour of homes in Lexington, Kentucky,
built in the 1700s to the 1920s. This
activity enters the discussion of the
built environment through aesthetic
experience.

Simsbury, Connecticut, high school
teacher Patricia DiCosimo agrees that
design helps her do her job well:

"Design helps me be a more effective
teacher, because not everyone learns in

the same way I have to be able to

design many different ways of teaching

an idea or method If I didn't use

design, I would not reach many of the
students in my class."

Several teachers note that the use of
design in the classroom results in greater
student success and increases the stature
of students who do not excel in verbal
or logical-mathematical skills. Julie
Olsen, a 2nd and 3rd grade teacher at
Hawthorne Elementary School in
Madison, Wisconsin, makes this point:
"Students who might otherwise get
buried in a more traditional school. . .
gain a lot of equity among their peers

and confidence to learn in other areas

The design problems we have studied
are self-defined and require a lot of dif-
ferent approaches; there is no one 'right'
answer. In many ways, all of the stu-
dents are starting at the same point."

Tara Williams, a 7th grade social
studies teacher in Warren County, North
Carolina, notes that some of her students
often have trouble demonstrating the
depth of their understanding through
words. She remarks that when her class
uses newspaper to "model" various forms
of government, "[I can] actually see what
they [know]." Student models use torn
and wadded paper to show the relative
size and hierarchy among branches of

government, centers of power, and the
relationship of citizens to their govern-
ment. The crudeness of the newspaper
as a modeling material keeps student
attention focused on the core issues,
not on replicating irrelevant details or
physical objects they associate with
government. Unlike more traditional
modeling or diorama projects, students
need not have fine motor skills to succeed.

Teachers report that by providing
multiple points of entry into subject
matter, they deal effectively with
student and teacher misconceptions,
biases, and stereotypes. A study initiated
by technology teacher Phil Nobile,
English teacher Carol Ramsey, and
physics teacher Tony Nicholson of
Greenwich High School in Greenwich,
Connecticut, looked for gender issues
that might reinforce stereotypical notions
that science and technology courses are
not encouraged for young women. The
Teachers of Problem Solving (TOPS)
project was a collaboration between

teachers who use design

create greater
opportunity

for special

students to have SUCCeSSflil

learning

expenences.

Greenwich Public Schools and Massa-
chusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Nicholson sought greater participa-
tion in his design-based physics courses
and arranged for teachers, students, and
administrators to attend a day of study
at MIT on strategies for encouraging
female enrollment in technology classes.
Returning to Greenwich, the teachers
developed a course modeled on MIT's
2.70 Design/Build course, in which stu-
dents work in teams to build a variety
of products and structures. The faculty
extended this approach by working with
nearby elementary schools, having the
high school students mentor the younger
children on similar design projects.
Nobile reports that TOPS boosted overall
enrollment in technology at Greenwich
High by 110 percent and female enroll-
ment by 20 percent (Nobile 1994).

The Middle School Mathematics
through Applications Project at the
Institute for Research on Learning based
in Menlo Park, California, also reports
that their computer-oriented, design-
based approach to the teaching of
mathematics increases the participation
of students who previously showed little
interest in mathematics. They report
that results are particularly striking
among girls and students who speak
English as a second language.

Because design activities accommo-
date students with different learning

abilities, teachers who use design create
greater opportunity for special students
to have successful learning experiences.
Along with teams of students from more
than 30 schools in the greater Hartford
area, students at the Special Education
Learning Center participated in the
Call to the Visionary Artist project,
sponsored by the Architecture Resource
Center of the Connecticut Architecture
Foundation. The challenge was to design
a building for a downtown riverfront
site through coordinated disciplinary
investigations. Art teacher June
Bisantz-Evans and mathematics and
science teacher George Macaruso
work with students who have learning
disabilities and behavioral problems,
are at the 6th to 8th grade level, but
whose performance is generally appro-
priate for the early primary years.

Bisantz-Evans and Macaruso report
that subject matter that is usually a
challenge for special students under
traditional teaching strategies
becomes easier when design is
the focus of activity.

To meet social studies objectives, students
explore the historical and social aspects of
the project, such as the role of the river in
the formation of the city, changes in city
form as shown on maps, personal and
family histories, shifting needs of the city
across time, and physical changes in the

buildings and city plan found through a
walking tour with map and camera. In
mathematics, class discussions lead to
diagrams and measured models of columns
and bridges. Students build small trusses
that support weight based on their cal-
culations. To meet art objectives, students
brainstorm possible building designs and
visualize their concepts through drawings
and models, addressing practical concerns
such as parking and safety, as well as
aesthetic features of the building. To meet
science objectives, students explore solar
heating and the environmental need for
plants in an indoor I outdoor park. Finally,
in language arts, students write about
why their building serves a purpose and in
what way it successfully communicates its
relationship with the river.

Bisantz-Evans and Macaruso also
report, "The last phase of the project
was the exhibition of all the city wide
projects in a central location. When
our students saw their model in the
exhibit, they were truly proud. Self-
esteem is an extremely important issue
for these young people. Following this
project to its conclusion and seeing with
their own eyes that their work could
hold its own with that of any other
child was a real reward for all their
effort. For us teachers, it was an equally
powerful experience. We had not seen

the skills of some of these children prior
to this project. One child who had poor
reading and writing skills was recast
after he and his friends realized that he
had wonderful building skills."

Regardless of ability, students show
preferences for ways to learn. Unfor-
tunately, traditional lecture- and
textbook-based classrooms favor one
type of learner: the student who does
well in reflective, abstract learning
experiences. The use of design activities
broadens the type of acceptable learn-
ing behavior in classrooms, allowing
teachers to reach students in ways that
correspond to their natural preferences.

Making Learning Active

Not all active learning is project based.
Traditional laboratory experiments,
technical drafting assignments, and some
crafts lessons, for example, involve
students in physical activity but are
usually exercises in which the method
is tightly defined and the outcome is
known before students begin. While
students' performance on exercises
varies in quality, their solutions to the
problem generally are the same.

In project-based learning experiences,
on the other hand, the learner poses a
problem for which there are many good
answers. Projects usually stretch over a
long period of time and require sus-
tained concentration on various aspects

of the assignment. Students are active
participants in devising a method for
solving the problem and engage in
distinctly different kinds of work across
the span of the activity. Projects tend
to require information and skills from
a number of disciplines, encouraging
students to move seamlessly across sub-
ject areas and to work in teams. Students
frequently go through trial and error,
testing solutions and making adjustments
in their work based upon findings.

Design activities accommodate
students with different learning
abilities. These no-nonsense
designers from the Hartford,
Connecticut, Special Education
Center pose with their carefully
planned solution for a downtown
development site.

Students at Bret Harte
Elementary School in
San Francisco designed
and built this "magic
suspension bridge."
They wrote about the
bridge, its qualities,
and where in the world
it could take them.

Rarely do two students arrive at the
same solution to the problem.

Many educators consider project-based
learning a particularly appropriate
vehicle for education reform. David
Perkins notes, "It is through doing that
students best demonstrate that they can
go reasonably beyond the information
given, and that they can generalize,
analyze, and invent" (1991, pp. 5-8).
Dennie Palmer Wolf asserts, "Projects

that have their foundations in the real
world provide a model for young people
of true enterprise that is likely to be
encountered as they grow up. Through
involvement in projects, students
acquire skills in important areas such
as research, evaluation, and production,
and in the basic curriculum areas. They
also obtain knowledge of what it means
to carry out a significant undertaking
with appropriate support and guidance"

(Wolf 1992). Gardner calls this "situ-
ated learning," or learning that allows
students to encounter the various forms
of knowing operating together within
the context of particular situations and
to see how accomplished adult masters
move back and forth spontaneously
among ways of knowing and learning
(Gardner 1990, p. 31).

Katherine Holtgraves, at Willamette
Primary School, comments on situated
learning: "I create opportunities for the
children to engage in the real work of an
artist, an engineer, architect or drafts-
man. Not only are they fascinated with
these challenges, but it is through this
kind of challenge that children relate
learning to their own experience and
realize the value of pursuing knowledge."

With very few exceptions, the
research examples in this study are
project-based and achieve learning out-
comes that are consistent with the best
project-based practices. The examples
build on a long tradition of instruction
in college-level design education and
situate learning within the context of
everyday problems. They demand inte-
grated performance that draws from a
variety of subjects and teaches students
to observe, analyze, model, and test
principles in action. The design process
demands constant evaluation through
prototype testing, group consensus-
building, and personal reflection. It is

clear from the study that teachers find
design activities a natural process for
introducing project-based learning into
their classrooms..

Technology in the
Service of Ideas

In all the schools visited, the research
team observed the use of technology as
an integral part of design activity. For
many teachers, "technology" means
computer hardware and software; for
others it refers to tools as varied as
hammers, cameras, and calculators. In
the best circumstances, students learn
to select and use technology in the
service of ideas, in ways that transcend
specific equipment and their application
in particular assignments.

While many teachers report the use
of close-ended computer software, such
as SimCity, to teach design concepts, it
is evident that computer technology in
most design-based classrooms is simply
a means to solving problems and not
an end in itself. Many teachers cite the
use of computers for modeling three-
dimensional relationships, diagramming
concepts, and animating dynamic
principles. Open-ended programs that
allow students to create their own text
and illustrations help children of all
ages explore and present their ideas.

Through arrangements with
Autodesk, a manufacturer of graphics

software used in K-12 settings as well as
professional architecture and engineer-
ing firms, San Jose Middle School in
Novato, California, and Dranesville
Elementary School in Herndon, Virginia,
expand students' repertoire of design
media. Students at San Jose Middle
School draw alternative arrangements of
their classroom that better support
their learning activities. At
Dranesville, students use Autodesk
software to write and illustrate
reports and short stories.
Students in both
schools create sto
ryboards and
animations to
demonstrate
what and how
they learn in
various sub-
jects. In Los
Angeles at
Open Charter
Magnet School,
students regularly
develop stories and
reports with elaborate
diagrams and illustrations
on Apple computers installed at
their desks.

In Simsbury, Connecticut, art
teacher Patricia DiCosimo teaches high
school students graphic design through
both traditional hand methods and

professional design software programs.
Students in Leslie Porges' 8th grade
geography and civics classes in
Chandler, Arizona, use the latest geo-
graphic information systems (GIS)
software in their city planning and
resource mapping activities. Across the
country, numerous design and technol-
ogy students also use Computer-Assisted
Design (CAD) software to produce
professional quality two- and three-
dimensional representations of
their design solutions.
Teachers also
report that the
use of technology
in classroom
design activities
expands their
own knowl-
edge. In many
cases, teachers
become learners
with their stu-
dents, acquiring
skills within the
context of assign-
ments. Teacher
submissions for this study also
indicate that teachers are
frequently self-publishers who create
learning materials that support design
activities in their classrooms.

i m

Teachers use both traditional

hands-on methods and design

software programs to teach

their students. Stud

-
work with mate-"

drawbridge design and

construction (above) or use

research and computer skills

to create three-dimensional

signs of the Golden Hinde

A Strategy for Making Connections

Figure 3.1

CURRENT reform initiatives signal
fundamental changes in how teachers
work. The creation and support of team
approaches to instruction are hallmarks
of reform efforts, diminishing the
isolation of teachers from one another
and building the individual classroom
teacher's sense of belonging to a com-
munity of professionals. While team
teaching is one approach, a coordinated
group of individual classroom teachers
who share common sets of
students is more likely.

The development of design projects
led by instructional teams within schools
provides teachers with opportunities to
coordinate their work across disciplines.
One of the most common strategies is
to use themes that unify several teachers'
work with students through broadly-
defined topical frameworks. Teachers

select readings, illustrative examples,
and assignments on the basis of the
theme, encouraging students to make
connections across traditional discipli-
nary boundaries. These teachers may
still teach alone in their classrooms,
maintaining students' focus on the way
their discipline contributes to broader
understanding of the issues at hand,
but coordinate content and instruc-
tional planning with other teachers.

In some schools the goal is to inte-
grate subjects; teachers ask students
to draw from several subject areas in
their investigation of problems that
are not seated in a single discipline
and that require integrated problem
solving skills. In certain cases, teachers
ask students to pose the problems or
themes themselves.

Figure 3.1, adapted by Wake County,

North Carolina, curriculum specialist
Linda Isely from the work of Heidi
Hayes Jacobs, shows current curricular
profiles arranged according to the
degree to which teachers of different
disciplines collaborate.

While some teachers set the agenda
for what students will learn, others ask
students to play key roles in determin-
ing the timing, content, and approach
to instruction. Despite the freedom in
these classrooms, students are held
accountable for achieving high stan-
dards of excellence and powerful
learning. In other cases, students exer-
cise their power to choose only within
narrowly-defined options for subject
matter and approach. The principles
behind these approaches are to engage
students in self-directed choices that
connect content to their own lives and

Continuum

of Options for Curricu

lum Design

Discipline Based

Parallel Disciplines

Multi-disciplinary

Interdisciplinary

Integrated (Integrative)

Focus is on strict inter-

Teachers sequence their

Related disciplines are

Units/Courses

The curriculum is focused on

pretation of disciplines

lessons to correspond to

brought together in a

Units or courses bring

themes and problems that

with knowledge presented

lessons in the same area in

formal unit or course

together the full range of

emerge from the child's world.

in separate fields. Separate

other disciplines. Content

to investigate a theme,

disciplines in the school's

The child poses questions

blocks of time during the

does not change, only the

issue topic, or problem.

curriculum for a period of

around which the curriculum

school day.

order of teaching changes.

Linkages are made for

time. Content and modes

is built. In the extreme, the

The theory is that, with

the student by fusing

of inquiry are linked across

curriculum has no state or

simultaneous teaching,

the curriculum.

the disciplines.

local bounds.

students will make linkages

Design as a different
approach to geometry.
Mathematics can be
understood visually, as
well as computationally.

allow instructional strategies to arise
naturally out of the complexity of
meaningful problems.

Interdisciplinary and
Cross-Disciplinary Teaching

While some teaching approaches make
design a topic for investigation, others
employ designerly modes of inquiry to
explore traditional core subjects. The

first approach may make design a
discrete unit of study, but the latter
strategy adds no additional discipline
areas to the curriculum and helps
teachers better achieve interdisciplinary
and cross-disciplinary learning objec-
tives within their respective teaching
assignments.

Heidi Hayes Jacobs articulates the
importance of creating curricula to

offer a range of experiences that reflect
both discipline-field and interdiscipli-
nary orientations. Jacobs says, "By 3rd
grade, children view subjects as changes
in behavior, teacher attitude, areas of the
room, and times of the day. Rarely does
anyone explain to them the nature and
power of the disciplines or how the sub-
jects relate to one another This dual

emphasis [singular focus on one disci-

At Dyker Heights Middle
School, students demonstrate
mastery of relevant disciplinary
concepts through their
participation in the school's
Architecture and Design
Program. These students dis-
play their model skyscrapers.

pline and interdisciplinary curricula] is
different from past attempts at curric-
ulum integration that viewed the two
approaches as opposing points of view —
through this century, there has been an
unfortunate tendency for schools to go
to extremes of either rigid subject iso-
lation or strained, whimsical thematic
instruction" (Jacobs 1991, p. 22).

Jacobs also attributes the high prior-
ity schools place on interdisciplinary
curricula to an expansion of informa-
tion: "While the school day has stayed
about the same, knowledge has grown.
The traditional confines of the school

day are literally bulging, and much of
the newest, most valuable knowledge
falls between the cracks of conventional
subject areas." She also describes mis-
conceptions about how well schools are
doing at discipline-based teaching, say-
ing, "If you go to your local high school
science teacher and ask him to describe
— not necessarily in great detail — the
science that starts in the middle school,
let alone the elementary school, he won't
know" (Brandt 1991, p. 24).

David Ackerman and David Perkins
wrestle with how to think about curricu-
lum. They conceptualize curriculum on

two levels, curriculum and metacurricu-
lum: "The curriculum is composed of
substantive concepts and content of
discipline-based fields. The metacurricu-
lum is the thematic-based set of skills
and strategies selected to help children
acquire the curriculum content, and to
develop the capacity to think and learn
independently" (Ackerman and Perkins
1989, pp. 80-81). Perkins (1989, pp.
70-71) notes that a worthy integrative
theme has "broad and pervasive applica-
tion. . .reveals similarities and contrasts. . .
and fascinates."

Perhaps the most striking character-
istic of the use of design activities in
schools is the ability to integrate knowl-
edge across the boundaries of traditional
school subjects. Design is inherently
interdisciplinary. It draws upon content
and skills in a variety of disciplines in
the process of solving problems that
usually reside within multifaceted con-
texts. These contexts involve physical,
social, cultural, and temporal factors.
While design problem statements define
just how broad or narrow a context
students will address, the criteria for
evaluation usually reflect that design
problems are situated within complex
systems and require a variety of skills
in their solution.

This study identified many cases
in which teachers use design activities
to build integration skills and content

connections among disciplines. In
numerous instances, teachers achieve
mandatory curriculum objectives for
their disciplines while unifying study
across diverse subject areas.

Among the many examples of inter-
disciplinary and cross-disciplinary
learning discovered through this
research, the following example from
Seattle teacher Deirdre McCrary is typi-
cal. McCrary uses the 5 th grade social
studies curriculum Man: A Course of
Study (ALACOS) to guide her year's work
with 5th grade students. Integrating
concepts from cultural and physical
anthropology with biology, geography,
math, and physics, McCrary emphasizes
the designed world of habi-
tats, tools, and shelter.
Her assignment encour-
ages students to build
analogies among sub-
jects that appear to be
unrelated on the surface.

First, students look closely at
five mammals of increasing
{biological} complexity: the Pacific Coast
salmon, herring gull, baboon, and chim-
panzee, and finally they study a human
population very different from their oum —
the Netsilik Eskimo. In following the concept
of structure and function, {students} look at
the design of these various animals and the

work each must do. They compare the struc-
ture and function oflnuit clothing in their
special environment, to the structure and
function of a bird's feathers, to the needs
served by the students' own clothing. Students
also study the relationship between the need
for shelter and the use of available materials.
They might build birds' nests using sticks,
leaves, moss, and mud, or construct model
igloos from sugar cubes or marshmallows. In
another design exercise, they take five materi-
als— fish, caribou antler, tent thong, moss,
and caribou bone — and design a sled that
can carry all their belongings and yet be
fully recyclable in the spring thaw.

While this example has an instruc-
tional richness derived from its use
of information from many disciplines,
many teachers also report using design
activities to explore just a few subject
areas. For example, at Gaithersburg
Intermediate School in Gaithersburg,
Maryland, art teacher Patrick OMalley's
class explores the form-structure rela-
tionships in the biological world
through drawings and models. When
building models and drawing maps
of communities, Tim Valdez and Julie
Olsen at Hawthorne Elementary School
in Madison, Wisconsin, teach 2nd and
3rd grade students the mathematical
concepts of scale, measurement, and
geometry.

design problems are
situated within

co m p Lex system s

and require a variety

of S kl LIS in

their solution.

The research team also found
instances in which teachers from differ-
ent disciplines share instructional
responsibility for a single thematic
unit. At Dyker Heights Middle School,
6th, 7th, and 8th grade teachers in
mathematics, English, science, social
studies, and technology collaborate on
thematic instruction under the school's
Architecture and Design Program, coor-
dinated by 6th grade science teacher
Manette Gampel. Design related to
bridge construction, architecture,
habitat, and public space are vehicles
through which students demonstrate
mastery of relevant disciplinary concepts.

In a multi-grade project to design
a "Subterranean City," for example, stu-
dents work in teams on sections of the
city. The science component of the pro-
ject explores why buildings stand up,
strength of materials, principles of engi-
neering, and the biological needs of
inhabitants. In math, the students calcu-
late live and dead loads, measure and
construct I-columns from paper, and
make scale drawings. In social studies,
students research past architectural styles
and modern transportation systems. The
teachers jointly evaluate students on
the basis of models, diagrams, and a
research report describing the purpose

of each structure, the mathematical and
scientific principles used, background
information, and a bibliography. The
project spans the year with different sub-
ject and grade level teachers devoting
varying amounts of time to it each week.

Because of the scheduling complex-
ities required to coordinate thematic
instruction among teachers, this appro-
ach is most often used in self-contained
classrooms where one teacher instructs
a single group of students in all subjects,
as in most elementary schools. Thematic
units of study or projects are more
common at the elementary levels. The
strategy of using thematic units of study
or projects becomes more challenging
at higher grades, where emphasis on
discipline-based instruction is also
stronger. Yet, the continuing success of
teachers and students in Dyker Heights'
Architecture and Design Program shows
that it can be done.

The next chapter provides specific
examples of discipline-based curricular
experiences in response to national
standards. While the text describes
many of these classroom projects under
the headings of traditional disciplines,
it is easy to find instances where other
disciplines contribute to the success of
the students' learning experiences. In
some instances, teachers expand their
disciplinary scope by enlisting teaching
support from experts in the commu-

Herman Miller Furniture

nity, building connections to content
that may not be accessible through the
school's own resources.

Connecting with
the Community

One way to encourage children to be
lifelong learners is to frame their learn-
ing experiences within the context of
their own lives. As might be expected,
traditional classrooms emphasize the
acquisition of library reference infor-
mation and often ignore important
learning from other sources. Teachers
who use design-based strategies, on the
other hand, tend to have a more gener-
ous notion of "information." Visiting a
landfill may better inform students'
decisions about packaging design than
watching a film about manufacturing.
Interviewing a wheelchair user may
elucidate issues of sociology, trans-
portation, and community design more
than any civics text. Design activities
encourage students to draw from richer
sources of information and value more
than conventional sources of data.

The research team noted a variety of
strong community connections among
those schools and classrooms immersed
in design activities. Design-based
teachers frequently arrange interactions
among their students and people from
the community who provide materials,
offer critiques, and serve as role models

and instructors. Teachers in the study
encourage use of a broad range of infor-
mation sources, relying on students'
own experiences, interviews, and arti-
facts as frequently as textbooks for
reference during design-based projects.

Many of the innovative teachers in
this study take advantage of the profes-
sional resources in their communities,
encouraging visits to the classroom.
In Philadelphia, the Architecture in
Education Program of the Foundation for
Architecture uses graduate students and
professional designers in architecture,
landscape architecture, and planning
to help teachers develop and carry out
design-based units of study. The pro-
gram also invites design professionals,
city officials, and parents to view and
critique student projects.

Gary Dewey, a 7 th grade science
teacher at Holland Christian Middle
School in Holland, Michigan, brings
designers from local firms, such as
Herman Miller Furniture and Gentex,
to his class to share their strategies for
solving design problems and working
in teams.

Two out of the 10 schools visited
during the research study are adoptees of
the national engineering firm CH2M
Hill. Willamette Primary School has
CH2M Hill engineers on its advisory
board to provide ongoing consultation
with staff on a range of issues and to

+CH2

. . .the presence of the
engineer provides a link
between the work students
do and life outside of
school and encourages
young people to practice
roles they may assume
as adults.

DAVID PINKERTON,
Aurora, Colorado

K 0 P E

interact directly with students. At
Dranesville Elementary, CH2M Hill
engineers also make frequent visits to
the classrooms to work with children.

David Pinkerton in Aurora, Colorado,
invites a retired engineer to judge his
students' Rube Goldberg machines. The
engineer reviews the models, listens to
students' explanation of the physics
principles employed in their designs,
and queries students about the possible
applications of their work to problems
of everyday life. Pinkerton reports that
the presence of the engineer provides a
link between the work students do and
life outside of school and encourages
young people to practice roles they may
assume as adults.

Other teachers report that their
classes visit places where design profes-
sionals work and observe their problem
solving in action. These visits reinforce
for students the notion that their pur-
suits are consistent with those of adults.
As one 8th grade student noted, "I was
shocked but really happy to see that
Mr. Holt got as frustrated as I get when
he was trying to figure out where to put

a stairway in his office building. He
told me that these kinds of challenges
never go away because each building
is different."

In Peter Barricelli's 5th and 6th grade
classes at several schools in Messalonskee
School District in Oakland, Maine, stu-
dents contact professionals inside and
outside the classroom. Students interact
with local professionals on an assignment
that moves from the construction of
a cube, to a room, to a building, to a
whole city. With a surveyor, the children
survey the school playground using
professional equipment. An engineer
shows them how to draw one of their
house designs on the computer. Local
architects and engineers critique their
initial city plans, and the city planner
provides useful information on town
codes governing roads, sidewalks, and
parking. A real estate lawyer from the
community shows students how to
register deeds and titles. Children
responsible for building the town's hos-
pital, fire station, and other buildings
visit those facilities, analyze spaces and
functions, interview users, and then
return to school to develop their own
designs. Students transfer deeds for the
buildings and lots to the next year's
class, which assumes responsibility for
further modification of the model.

One of the strongest examples of
teachers engaging students in their

community is the story of Hidden
Hollow in Salt Lake City, Utah. Today,
thanks to the inventiveness of teacher
Sherri Sohm and the persistent awareness-
raising efforts of KOPE (Kids Protecting
Our Environment), the city consults
4th, 5 th, and 6th grade students on
decisions about the publicly owned land
on the south side of Parley's Creek.

KOPE had its origins in the problem-
solving lessons of Sohm's classroom at
Hawthorne Elementary School. Twice
a week Sohm works with accelerated stu-
dents in the 4th through 6th grades,
developing their critical thinking skills
by challenging them to investigate envi-
ronmental problems in their community.
In 1990, when the school children dis-
covered the paltry remnant of Parley's
Creek struggling beneath construction
debris, they proposed to rescue it.

Sohm structured research activities so
that her students learned the history of
the community and the creek, one of the
terminal segments of the old Mormon
Trail. Moreover, the site, now almost
entirely ringed with buildings, had been
one of the first settlements in the valley
— Sugar, Utah — until Salt Lake City
absorbed it early in the 20th century.

At the county records office, the
students discovered that the strip of
land surrounding the creek was a city
park until 1957 and that there were now
proposals to build a shopping mall,

KOPE students from Salt
Lake City, Utah, display
their 8-foot plan of
Hidden Hollow and the
surrounding business
district.

which would bury the creek in a culvert
and pave over the middle of the block
for a parking lot.

Envisioning the miniature rift valley
as a verdant respite from the surround-
ing business district, as a potential
outdoor classroom for environmental
studies, and simply as a great place to
have fun, the students renamed it
"Hidden Hollow." Sohm encouraged
them to marshal information and allies
from the community. First, the children
organized KOPE and invited other ele-

mentary schools to lend their support
and creative ideas. Then they assembled
information about the site's resources and
invited numerous experts including
geologists, soil scientists, botanists,
wildlife specialists, and the city's urban
forester to the site to explore its hidden
assets. With the help of landscape
architects, the students also sketched and
discussed design options for restoring
the natural environment while making
it accessible with trails, benches, and
footbridges.

In the spring, developers met with
the KOPE kids in the Hawthorne
Elementary School Library and dis-
missed their dreams as too little too
late. Undaunted, the students rallied
public support for down-zoning the
city-owned portion of land so that it
could not be used for commercial
development. Armed with research on
city policies and a landscape architect's
drawing of their design ideas, the stu-
dents appeared before the City Council.
Before an audience of several hundred

Landscape artist Jan
Striefel created this site
plan for Hidden Hollow,
using student ideas. The
plan helped the children
obtain grants for work on
the park.

adults and elementary school children,
the Council approved KOPE's petition
for the down-zoning.

Over the years, Sohm's classes have
continued to use Hidden Hollow as a
focus of their community-oriented prob-
lem solving. One group of students
hosted a design workshop in Hidden
Hollow, drawing together a variety of
design professionals, parents, neigh-
borhood residents, and local business
people. Using maps of the city and their
model of the 12-acre block, the children
described their vision of the Hollow and
invited public comment.

Under Sohm's guidance, the students
developed an action plan for phased
improvement of the Hollow, presented
it to the city's departments of planning
and public services, and won approval
for their concept. Then the children
learned how to write proposals for
"i grants and in-kind donations. Their
■ ■■ first proposal secured Community
Development Block Grant
x funds to pay for the removal
J of 17,000 tons of construc-
' tion debris and the
installation of a gate to pre-
vent further illegal dumping.
Gradually, with the help of volunteers
and their own "sweat equity," the stu-
dents brought about the transformation
they envisioned. The Utah National
Guard and many others graded the ter-

2 100 Soutn

future bike path connection

Parleys Creek

existing riparian vegetation
enhancement area

informal trails

existing vehicular acce

native grass
wildflower meadow

f- future urban trail connection

Wilmington St.

HIDDEN HOLLOW RESTORATION

rain, planted trees, and laid out
hiking/biking paths. Upcoming phases
include the installation of security
lights, an irrigation system, plants,
benches, and interpretive kiosks.

With Hidden Hollow officially
designated as open space and included
in the city's Master Plan, the students
turned their attention to the appearance
of existing buildings, the proposals of
various developers, and the opinions
of business and home owners in the
surrounding blocks.

Working with the Sugar House
Chamber of Commerce, the students
surveyed 269 businesses in the area and
achieved an 80 percent response rate.
The survey revealed strong support for

completing Hidden Hollow and wide-
spread recognition of the value added
to the business district by this amenity.
Students made models to illustrate how
attention to building size, scale, materi-
als, and placement of windows and doors
helps new construction fit into the block
and increases tenants' and customers'
physical and visual access to the open
space. These more recent explorations of
development and design options are part
of a larger study called "Sugar House
Dilemmas," through which students
at Hawthorne Elementary and their
peers at Beacon Heights Elementary
examine larger economic and social
issues in the neighborhood, including
crime and housing.

References

From a tiny stream to the complexi-
ties of urban development, the KOPE
kids broadened their understanding of
the interplay between natural and built
environments and enlarged the context
for their learning and community service.
In the process, they educated and ener-
gized fellow students, teachers, parents,
and a host of public and private sectors
in Salt Lake City. The ripple effect of
their work led to the KOPE Kronkal. a
bimonthly newspaper written by kids
for kids. The paper chronicles not only
the progress with Hidden Hollow but
also the wide array of projects of envi-
ronmental clubs established at other
elementary and junior high schools in
the area. Today the Kronkal is distrib-
uted to 24,000 students in grades K-8
each school year. KOPE also initiated an
annual series of Student Conferences on
Sustainability at which children present
projects that protect the area's natural
and cultural resources.

Clearly, the use of design within and
among disciplines presents new chal-
lenges for teachers and fundamentally
alters their role in the classroom. Design
also causes teachers to rethink the nature
of assessment and the community con-
text in which they teach. In accepting
these challenges, however, teachers find
renewed interest in teaching, view
themselves as part of a community of
creative professionals, and experience
success in helping children reach their
maximum potential.

Ackerman, D. and Perkins, D.N. (1989).
"Integrating Thinking and Learning
Skills Across the Curriculum." In
Interdisciplinary Curriculum: Design
and Implementation, Jacobs, H.H., ed.
Alexandria, Virginia: Association
for Supervision and Curriculum
Development.

Brandt, R. (October 199D- "On
Interdisciplinary Curriculum: A
Conversation with Heidi Hayes
Jacobs." Educational Leadership 49, 2:
24-27.

Gardner, H. (1990). Art Education and
Human Development. Los Angeles,
California: Getty Center for Education
in the Arts.

Gardner, H. (1991). The Unschooled Mind:
How Children Think and How Schools
Should Teach. New York: Basic Books.

Jacobs, H.H. (September 1991).
"The Integrated Curriculum."
Instructor 101, 2: 22.

Nobile, P. (Summer 1994). Description of
TOPS Project provided to NEA.

Perkins, D.N. (1989). "Selecting Fertile
Themes for Integrated Learning."
In Interdisciplinary Curriculum: Design
and Implementation. Jacobs, H.H., ed.
Alexandria, Virginia: Association
for Supervision and Curriculum
Development.

Perkins, D. (October 1991). "Educating
for Insight." Educational Leadership. 49,
2: 5-8.

Wolf, D.P (1992). "Opening Up

Assessment." In Performance Assessment,
Brandt, R., ed. Alexandria, Virginia:
Association for Supervision and
Curriculum Development.

DESIGN IN THE

Curriculum

While a design approach to teach-
ing is congruent with the
objectives of interdisciplinary
curricula, it also facilitates learning
and the achievement of high standards
within disciplines. The following
sections describe learning expectations
witbin disciplines and examples that
support the notion that design experi-
ences improve student performance in
various subjects.

History and Social
Studies Education

OPPORTUNITIES to study design
topics and use activities in social studies,
geography, and civics abound, as
suggested by the content and teaching
scenarios in the voluntary national
standards for these subjects. Topics
may be drawn from the myriad of ways
people use design to shape their envi-
ronment and communicate their values:
the design of graphic communications
(print or electronic), product and pack-
aging design, architecture, interior
design, landscape architecture, historic
preservation, town and city planning,
natural resource conservation, and
new development. The social studies

standards are replete with examples of
students analyzing the ways in which
people, past or present, encode meaning
in their communications, make prod-
ucts, design buildings, build bridges,
and transform the landscape with cities
and towns.

Engaging students actively in the
design process, on the other hand,
prompts them to consider how they
would address various human needs,
whether of their own or another time.
They consider how the economy,
culture, and technology of the time
shapes the design response. They can
build models of cities, plan for the mass
production of products, and design
posters to carry political messages.
Such activities challenge students to
articulate their own vision of how to

The most fundamental
requirement for a democracy
is an educated citizenry
capable of informed judgment
on public issues. Participation
in self-governance will
require a higher standard of
scientific literacy, a deeper
understanding of history,
and a greater capacity to
think critically.

Who Will Teach Our Children? A
Strategy for Improving California's
Schools, The Report of the
California Commission on the
Teaching Profession, 1985

fm9m

«K

«**

Students should

to express

their

understanding of content

through visual form.

preserve the best of what generations
have left as a cultural legacy while
creating a new, sustainable future. In
response to the social studies standards'
interest in analyzing group and indi-
vidual needs, design activities can
address how products and environments
accommodate a variety of users who
differ in their physical, economic, and
social characteristics.

Throughout, the social studies and
geography standards challenge teachers
to develop student proficiency in the
use of graphic communication techniques.
Students should learn to express their
understanding of content through
visual form and to derive and analyze
information from maps, charts, tables,
and other graphic information. Both
sets of standards encourage the use of
technology, including CD-ROMs and
the World Wide Web, in gathering
and interpreting data. Regrettably, the
standards stop short of asking teachers
and students to study the principles
of graphic design and to extend their
abilities beyond mere mimicry of existing
newspapers and Internet displays.

The geography standards are also
replete with opportunities for teachers
and students to explore the designed
world and to exercise their own design
talents. Among other things, "the geo-
graphically informed person knows and
understands . . . the spatial organization

of people, places and environments...
the processes, patterns, and functions
of human settlements . . . how human
actions modify the physical environment"
(Geography Education Standards
Project 1994).

The geography standards further
depict students progressing through
increasingly demanding explorations of
the built and natural worlds, paying
particular attention to the ways in
which their interdependence is discernible
in spatial dimensions. Thus, from their
earliest years, students use mental maps
to organize information about people,
places, and environments. They can
make physical maps and scale models
of their community, showing different
land uses. By 4th grade, they should
show ways in which humans adapt to
environmental conditions through the
design of clothing and shelter, under-
stand the effect of natural resources and
transportation technologies on the
location of communities, and compare
areas within their own community
in terms of different facilities and
infrastructure.

In subsequent years, the standards
expect students to understand the
demographic and economic determinants
of business location, the relationship of
transportation types to urban and
suburban growth, and the impact of
that growth on agriculture, watersheds,

and specific ecosystems. In 5th through
8th grade, they should be able to identify
cultural elements in the landscape,
from local landmarks to architectural
styles to patterns of farming and settle-
ment; assess the environmental impact
of using wetlands for recreation or
building; and solicit and examine people's
differing opinions about the use or
misuse of resources.

By high school, students should be
able to analyze the structure and shape
of cities and predict the impact of
changes in population, transportation,
and economic activity. Ultimately, they
should develop policies on resource
management, design alternative systems,
and carry their debate about sustainable
development into the public arena.

National Standards for Civics and
Government, from the Center for Civic
Education, asserts that preparing
students for a life of civic and political
participation is a critical mission for
education. While articulating the
knowledge students should master and
the intellectual skills they should
develop, the Center also encourages
teachers to use a variety of dynamic
models to cultivate and strengthen the
participatory skills essential to civic
life. The standards call for students to
conduct research in the community;
take and defend positions; meet with
different stakeholders; and try their

hands at coalition building, conflict
resolution, and governance (Center for
Civic Education 1994, p. 5).

The research for this book uncovered
many examples of teachers using
design activities to achieve history and
social studies objectives. Epiphany
School in Seattle, Washington, uses
a graphic design problem to teach
elementary school students about ideo-
logical positions in World War II and
about the power of visual persuasion.
Deirdre McCrary's students study Life
and Time magazines from the 1930s
and 1940s and then describe the
connections advertisers made between
their products and the war. They study
the visual vocabulary of the period and
make notes about images and type
styles. Students then create propa-
ganda posters for either an
Axis or Allied power. The
posters are intended to recruit
soldiers or volunteers, persuade
citizens to buy war bonds, urge
greater industrial production,
incite emotions over the war,
inform people of substitutes for
rationed food and fuel, or convince
people to conserve resources.
"Through this activity," McCrary
states, "students also become
more discriminating viewers of
contemporary commercial and
political advertising."

Barbara Clark, a social studies
teacher at Sequoyah Middle School in
Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, requires
students to select an explorer for
the focus of their study. After
researching the explorer's life
and travels, students have the
option to design and write a
travel brochure encouraging
others to join his expedi-
tion; write and videotape
a news broadcast about the
explorer's discovery, as it might be
heard in the period under study; or
design a mural that records the
explorer's adventures. These activities
require students to reframe textbook
research in terms of audience and the
method of reporting. Unlike typical
research reports, the design products

In making this model of
a Greek Revival house,
students at Hawthorne
Elementary School in
Madison, Wisconsin,
learned why this style
of architecture appealed
to citizens of the early
United States

demand active student attention to
how others perceive information and
the impact of the reporting format on
content structure.

Teachers in this study report that
reading a book about another culture
does not have the same impact on
students as does studying actual arti-
facts or creating objects of that culture.
To produce design artifacts, students
must understand the culture's world
view, its essential beliefs and customs,
its physical setting, and available mate-
rials and technologies. Appropriately
structured, these are not simply exer-
cises in which students physically
replicate cultural objects, but activities
that reveal deep social structures and
beliefs. They illustrate how cultures
encode artifacts with strongly held
ideas and aspirations.

At Union Grove High
School in Union Grove,
Wisconsin, Terry and
Karen Crown use design to
integrate art and global
studies. Students conduct «S
traditional library research
on geographic regions of the
world, compare cultural charac
teristics through analysis of indigenous
design, and create artifacts for each
region they study. For example, students
examine different hats from around the
world; understanding comes through an

analysis of materials, environment, the
hat's shape and methods of construction,
and pupose.

Other teachers report that concerns
such as the design of shelter and cities
are points of entry into studies of
culture and settings other than
their own. At Hawthorne
Elementary School in
Madison, Wisconsin, Julie
Olson's 2nd and 3rd grade
students study the neighbor-
hoods in which they live, but
focus on common needs that
people throughout the world have
for shelter. They find they can use
design to understand and appreciate
differences in culture by comparing
needs people share in common.
Alison Clark's 6th grade class at
Louis Armstrong Middle School in
East Elmhurst, New York, draws
plans and builds models of
Sumerian, Egyptian, Greek,
and Roman cities; discusses
the influences of environ-
ment and available materials
on the design of the city; and
writes city planning regula-
tions. They then compare these
ancient cities to their own neighborhoods.

Donna Banning, an art teacher at
El Modena High School in Orange,
California, uses a social studies context
to structure her art history lessons.

While much of art history instruction
in high school classrooms focuses on the
visual characteristics of an art movement,
as exemplified by the work of a few
individuals, Banning places designed
objects and environments in

broader social, cultural, and
historical contexts. In
describing a typical
project, she says, "Art
history students study
the changing attitudes
toward worship over
time by researching the
variety of spaces used for
that purpose. From early
Paleolithic cultures to contemporary
communities, there have been many
different places of worship designed and
constructed to meet the particular needs,
available space, philosophy, economy,
and materials of a given people."
Banning uses designed objects and
environments to invert the traditional
hierarchy of high school art history,
making the social, cultural, and historical
context the center of discussion and the
objects or environments simply evidence
of change. She moves across time in
exploration of the changing attitudes
toward a social-cultural issue, rather
than through a tightly defined, artist-
centered chronology of objects that
may have few social or cultural concerns
in common.

Social, cultural, and
technological history
come together for
students participating
in the annual "Create
a Landmark Contest"
sponsored by the Historic
Landmarks Foundation
of Indiana.

Contemporary environments also
serve as rich resources of information
about the students' own culture, as well
as opportunities to practice research
and decision making skills. The social
studies curriculum at Public School
145M in New York City requires that
teacher Felice Piggort cover the topics
of neighborhood and community with
her 2nd grade students. Piggott interprets
this curriculum requiremenr rhrough a
mapping activity in which her srudents
first analyze the content of their com-
munity (residences, services, landmarks)
on individual tally sheets compiled
during a walk through the neighborhood.
On maps drawn after studying how

architects depict space from aerial
viewpoints, the students record symbols
that stand for their tallies. Finally, they
go back out into the neighborhood to
check the accuracy of their maps and
compare different analyses by students
in their class. This Translation of a
walking experience into a two-dimen-
sional representation of the journey
focuses student attention during and
after the tour. They learn important
skills in encoding and decoding symbolic
form and the two-dimensional depiction
of three-dimensional space. This influ-
ences how they later interpret graphic
representations of ideas and relationships
among ideas, an important skill that is

critical to understanding data in the
social sciences.

In Piano, Texas, Ann Tucker teaches
Texas history at Haggard Middle School
where a core objective in her 7th grade
class is to identify the structure and
functions of local, county, and state
governments, including city planning.
Tucker encourages her students to
interview city employees to gain a
variety of perspectives as they work in
research groups.

Following a presentation of team
findings, the teacher asks each student
to plan and design an ideal city using
information presenred by the teams. In
addition to drawing a detailed plan of

Students at Haggard Middle
School in Piano, Texas, study
local and state government,
including city planning. As
they work on their own city
plans, students often consult
with local officials to gain a
variety of perspectives.

the proposed city, the student writes
a narrative describing the type of
government, services, financing, and
growth strategies for the community.
The class evaluates designs on the basis
of content, location and inclusion of
services, feasibility of government and
taxing functions, and innovations in
transportation and communication.

The strategy of involving students
in the planning and design of a city
also works for Eugenia Jameson, a
sociology teacher at Piano Senior High.
Her curriculum requires that students

understand the influence of history
and geography on cultural values and
norms, the dynamic interaction
between economic development and
social stratification, the evolution of
social and governmental institutions
to meet basic needs, the urbanization
process, and the influence of changing
technology on all of these elements.
Jameson also expects students to
develop skills in problem solving and
citizenship through participation in
activities such as role-playing, debates,
and group projects.

In teams, students design and make
a model of their own city. In an accom-
panying narrative they must name the
city, define its present population and
a 20-year projection, and explain how
the city's design will accommodate
growth, respond to natural features,
and relate transportation, infrastructure,
housing, jobs, and recreation. Students
consider the needs of different age,
ability, and income groups. In their
final report they describe the govern-
mental structures required to make
their city work. At the end of the year,
members of Piano's planning commis-
sion and city staff critique both middle
school and high school projects and
present awards for the best city plans.

In contrast to planning cities from
scratch, Leslie Porges' 8th grade civics
and geography classes at Bogle Junior
High School in Chandler, Arizona,
tackled the complexities of planning for
South Chandler, a 16-square mile area
quickly turning from a rural to urban
community. Armed with maps from
local government, Porges' students first
inventoried South Chandler by bus,
then created a more detailed classroom
map showing topographic features,
roads, and existing development.

Based on population projections,
the students knew they had to plan for
an average density of 3,500 people per
square mile. They created zones for

clean, high-tech industry along the
major freeway and railroad tracks,
placed higher density multi-income
housing near these employment
centers, and allowed for lower density
housing further out.

Throughout their project, the
students consulted a variety of people
in the community to make their deci-
sions about commercial development,
professional offices, schools, recreational
spaces, and medical facilities. They also
determined where to locate utilities,
fire stations, and bus stops.

The students learned that careful
analysis of traffic patterns, land values,
and community demographics forms
the basis for most development decisions.

To encourage nonpolluting forms of
transportation, they proposed adding
walking and biking paths in the right-
of-way along most major corridors. To
conserve water, mitigate against heat
build-up, and make the city attractive,
they also called for landscaping with
drought-resistant plants on commercial
street frontage, with more extensive
buffers around industrial sites and
other large facilities.

Though working with rudimentary
tools, Porges' classes produced a detailed
and sophisticated plan, which won
awards from the American Planning
Association and the American Express
Corporation. Prize money from the
latter's national geography competition
enabled Porges to acquire a computer
and mapping software. Succeeding
classes now continue city planning
activities with the ability to produce
professional-looking documents that
identify a wide range of urban design
elements.

At the Ethical Culture School in
New York City, 5 th grade teacher
Hettie Jordan-Vilanova uses a design
project to focus student attention on
the future and how the decisions made
by our own culture will communicate
the content of our lives ro future gener-
ations. She asks students to design and
build an archaeological dig site for the
year 3000. "Whar artifacts have survived?

What do they say about the culture?
What do they tell you about how these
people lived?" Jordan-Villeco's assign-
ment results in scale models of the site
and short stories written from the
perspective of the archaeologist who
makes the discovery. This activity
points out to students that we learn
history not only through major events
and people described in books but also
by studying the everyday aspects of
people's lives, including our own.

Because design objects and environ-
ments both reflect and shape the culture
in which they are produced, they prompt
lively discussions and comparisons.
Students gain insight into worlds other
than their own and learn to appreciate
differences as well as identify common
concerns among people.

In one project, 5th
graders at the Ethical
Culture School in New
York City analyzed their
neighborhood needs and
then designed and created
models for an interactive
science and technology
museum (above) and for
a community center and
hospice (left).

"...for the natural world
everywhere displays the
significance of the concepts
of mathematics, and the
designed world is largely
dependent upon them."

OECD, Changing the Subject,
1996, p. 89

Language Arts Education

THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE Arts

standards, published by the National
Council of Teachers of English and the
International Reading Association in
1996, provide clues to the importance
of visual thinking to reading and writing.

The standards show interest in
students posing problems and speculating
on their solution by gathering, evaluating,
and synthesizing information from print
and nonprint text, artifacts, and people.
The standards pay special attention to
the "complexity and creative potential
of human problem solving" (International
Reading Association and the National
Council of Teachers of English 1996, p.
38), as well as the presentation of clear
and convincing arguments necessary to
achieve results. The preceding examples
of design activities in which students
become participants in their own
communities involve situations in which
students use interviews and persuasive
language in support of their ideas
for change.

Spanning grade levels, the standards
document refers to mastering visual
as well as verbal language. Presenting
stories and information in nonprint
media, including film and video,
receive considerable attention in dis-
cussions of language structure and
interpretation. These references, and
the design examples throughout this
book, support the notion that successful

students exercise more than verbal and
computational vehicles of thought, and
that doing so actually enhances all
understanding. In addition, the standards
call for students to extract information
from maps, charts, photographs, and
other graphic material and to use
these forms of visual representation
in developing persuasive arguments
and effective communication.

Michael Joyce, Vassar professor of
English and author of Of Two Minds:
Hypertext Pedagogy and Poetics, goes a
step further in discussing the visual
aspects of reading and writing. Joyce
describes a technologically induced
shift in human consciousness that
theorists believe is as profound as the
historic move from oral to print com-
munication. In a hypertext computer
environment, readers choose the order
in which they read and participate in
the construction of meaning. Writing
becomes visual, as well as verbal,
demanding attention to both the form
and content of text. What Joyce
describes are tasks previously assigned
to graphic designers, visual communi-
cation professionals who control reader's
eye movements, amplification of certain
ideas, and juxtapositions of pictures
and words that create new or modified
meanings. Joyce and others believe new
technology fundamentally redefines
reading and writing to include a visual

...successful students exercise more than

verbal and computational V6 HI C16S OT

thought...

command of language. In this context,
the fit between design activities and
language arts may be tighter than it
first appears (Joyce 1994).

The research for this book revealed
many examples in which teachers use
technology in the development of writ-
ing skills. Although the most common
examples include the authoring of
illustrated texts or multimedia scripts
that students later animate on the
computer, others use design experiences
to broaden students' sensitivity and
understanding of subject matter.

At Willamette Primary School in
West Linn, Oregon, 2nd and 3rd grade
teacher Katherine Holtgraves asks
students to write the story of "mechan-
imals" at the same time they are
building a cam-driven, wooden toy.
Their efforts result in first person
narratives told from the perspective of
the animals. This example illustrates
both Joyce's comments on the need
to address a nonlinear approach to
content development (manifested in

the "question web" described below) and
the use of design to acquaint students
with the subject of their writing.

The children developed a question web about
animals in general. They used the questions
that intrigued them and added more specific
ones to generate individual question webs
about their chosen animal. Each child gath-
ered information through a text search and
kept notes in the learning logs. We listened
to several passages selected for their narrative
qualities and developed a list of those common
features to understand "narrative" writing.
We used the same process to experience "first
person perspective. " The children drafted
their animal information in that style,
decided on pagination and accompanying
illustrations, and designed borders that were
symbolic or foreshadowing (both ideas based
on published books we perused).

We worked through inquiry to explain how
the rotation of an off -set wheel moves a
vertical shaft up and down. They listed the
essential elements of that system and created
a materials list. The children drew their

ideas of the mechanics and later incorporated
that system into a design of their own,
illustrating their animal in its habitat.
Their journals housed all of their working
drawings and notes.

Gail Aldridge, who also teaches 2nd
and 3rd grade students at Willamette,
reinforces the importance of the design
process to the teaching of writing, "{The
students] think through our design
process and plan ahead using a sequencing
strategy. We have carried that structure
over to our writing. And our draft-
revision processes in writing are natural
connections to our process with three-
dimensional construction. We have also
developed a 'habit' of trying a variety of
approaches or layouts before deciding
on one, and keeping a working portfolio
of options in case we need to dip into it
for alternative ideas as we go."

Patricia Kadlec teaches older students
at Willamette. She says, "I share with
my children graphic structures for
organizing information and setting up
their writing. We use webs, flowcharts,

A left-handed writer solves the
problem of smearing ink while
writing. She designed a glove
that moves above the page on
wheels.

morphological analysis charts, and
Venn diagrams. These are visual designs
that we use in many ways. I make time
in our busy schedules to honor crafts-
manship, working though draft stages
to final copy with plenty of time for
reflection, response, and revision. Just
as in adult design studios, the critique
that children receive from peers can be
used in the present project or tucked
away for later reference. We strive for
quality and our efforts pay off in pride,
rising standards, and new discoveries."

...

At Daniel Webster Magnet School
in New Rochelle, New York, Mark
Ceconi's 4th grade students design and
make comic books that illustrate their
own narratives about superheroes. Using
a writing technique called "semantic
mapping," students brainstorm the traits
of their characters in diagrams with
radiating notes and sketches about visual
details and behavior. They organize
attributes in charts under sections
titled costume design, superpowers,
and alrer-ego. Then they build a visual

storyboard of the narrative that reveals
their characters' lives.

Design shares with writing an interest
in metaphor. Developing analogies is
a common problem-solving strategy for
designers; they ask how the demands
of a problem situation are like other
things that provide similar performances.
Research shows that the ability to
make analogies is a strong characteristic
of creative people and develops through
practice. Rubie Blount, a 9th grade
English teacher at Hillside High
School in Durham, North Carolina,
asks students to develop visual analogies
as prompts for their writing assignments.
She says, "Using direct analogy (a door
is like a lid), personal analogy (if I were
a door I'd be revolving), and compressed
conflict (a door is an 'open barrier') as a
prewriting activity is a fun way to get
kids to think creatively . . . Comparing
the school hallway to Main Street
forced us to extend our
thinking to the
limits. Because
we initially
felt the two
were not a lot
alike, we had
to change our
way of
thinking
to be more
inclusive."

Mathematics Education

concern over mathematics educa-
tion, expressed by the National Council
of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM)
and the larger professional community,
resulted in new national goals for
mathematics curricula. These include:
creating connections to other subjects
and to the world outside the classroom;
emphasizing complex, open-ended
problem solving; and increasing
communication and reasoning about
mathematics (National Council of
Teachers of Mathematics 1989). NCTM
recognized that reconnecting mathe-
matics to everyday living is paramount
to engaging young people, especially
female students and minorities.

Lisa Leonard, a 6th grade mathematics
and reading teacher at Derby Middle
School in Birmingham, Michigan,
shows how her two subject areas inform
students' design and construction of
bridges from toothpicks. Students
begin by reading stories about a man
who builds bridges from match sticks
and a book about the construction of
the Brooklyn Bridge. Working with
the technology teacher, Leonard shows
student "companies" how to draw plans
for their own bridge designs on their
assigned sites. Given a budget, students
must order materials, maintain balance
sheets, and chart the progress of the
job. Upon completion of their bridge,
each student company predicts the

weight its bridge will bear and where
it will rank among the successful solu-
tions in the class. Accountants, civil
engineers, carpenters, and a local bridge
builder join the class for discussions
and a final test of each design's structural
capacity.

The research team heard from many
teachers that the new goals for mathe-
matics education are consistent with the
achievements of students who engage in
design-based learning. Primary teachers
most commonly report the use of
design activities to teach measuring and
calculation. A 1st grade teacher at
Dranesville Elementary School in
Herndon, Virginia, uses the construction
of LEGO villages to teach children
about scale and proportion. Each child
must build a different element of the
village, proportional in size to the
other elements. Soon a classroom set of
rules for relative size evolves.

Researchers observed sophisticated
uses of design for teaching mathematics
at Chipman Middle School in Alameda,
California, and at Roosevelt Middle
School in San Francisco, California.
Both schools are participants in the
Middle School Mathematics through
Applications Project (MMAP), developed
by the Institute for Research on
Learning in Menlo Park, California.
The 8th grade classes of Bob Bergin
and Ramona Muniz use MMAP-designed

software tools to support their practical
inquiries. For example, MMAP's
ArchiTech, a drawing and spreadsheet
computer program, allows students to
design floor plans of buildings; investi-
gate the effects of changes in heating
and insulation values; and calculate
measurements, scale, and proportion.

In the early lessons, groups of students
design a research station for eight
researchers in Antarctica. They work with
an architectural program that aids them in
drawing the living quarters and a research
facility. Students collectively design and
draw a proposed solution on the computer.
They then calculate the costs to build it,
including the walls, windows, and
furniture. Costs drive modifications in
construction.

In later lessons, students calculate the costs
of heating the facility. They then find the
best R-value of insulation for reducing
heating and building costs. Students defend
this optimal insulation level through
mathematical and real-world arguments.

MMAP research findings and
testimony from teachers suggest that
the program encourages enthusiastic
participation of students who never
before showed an interest in mathematics.
Jim Greeno, a research fellow at the
Institute for Research on Learning
and the Margaret Jacks Professor of
Education at Stanford University, offers

•• /

■i

-i

;:!

success stories about students who were
previously "written off' by math teachers.

He says, "The MMAP approach
reorganizes students' relationships to
learning. My general impression is that
the student who is alienated by the
authoritarian structure of math and
science, which have been taught in
ways that reek of authority, may do
better under the MMAP approach. In
open-ended problems, one of the things
that gets opened up is the social struc-
ture." Greeno goes on to say, "If
problems are specified for students to
solve and students are given the facts
and the procedures to solve them, they
don't have an opportunity to identify a
significant problem from a trivial one.
The studies we have on people in the
work environment clearly indicate that
recognition of important problems and
figuring out what to do in response to
them is critical to success."

Teachers also use design strategies to
teach high school mathematics. Joanne
Stanulonis, a mathematics teacher at
Crossroads High School in Santa
Monica, California, uses several design
assignments in her classrooms. One
project asks geometry students to
explore the calculation of perimeter,
area, volume, ratio, and proportion in
the construction of a model house. The
students determine the quantity of
materials needed, make scale drawings,

calculate the appropriate BTUs for
cooling the house, determine the
amount of water needed to fill the pool,
and tally estimates within budget
requirements.

In another assignment on transfor-
mational geometry, Stanulonis's students
create Escher-like tessellations, rotating,
reflecting, and vertically and horizon-
tally transforming functions depicted
in the Cartesian plane. Stanulonis says,
"[Students] see these activities as a
'break' from learning! Ha! Are they
fooled! Some of the greatest learning
and hardest lessons emerge from these
design lessons! . . . More importantly,
students discover they can 'work it out'
with a peer by merely discussing the
problem, tossing it back and forth."

According to the Third International
Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS),
funded by the National Science
Foundation and released in October,
1996, U.S. schools introduce students
to a greater number of mathematics
concepts than their counterparts in
other countries, but seldom do
American students explore these concepts
in depth. The study of 41 countries
found that American students focus on
mastering mathematics procedures
rather than on making sense of their
application in everyday situations.
According to Ken Travers, professor
of mathematics education at the

University of Illinois/Champaign and
a member of the TIMSS steering
committee, the articulation of content
standards and benchmarks for mathe-
matics in the United States is "right on
track," but the transformation of actual
classroom practice lags behind. "We
talk about the importance of engaging
students, of collaboration, and of
problem-solving," Travers notes. "The
videotapes [from this study] provide
ample evidence that the Japanese
teachers are already doing this"
(Education Update, January 1997).
What is needed, the TIMSS researchers
conclude, is to make content more
relevant to students by linking it to
their personal lives, extending learning
beyond the classroom, and encouraging
more in-depth exploration.

Science Education

in 1985, the American Association
for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
launched Project 2061, a multi-year
initiative to encourage systemic
educational reform. In Science for All
Americans, project director James
Rutherford and co-author Andrew
Ahlgren subsequently set forth the
rationale for this ambitious undertaking.
In it they decried traditional teaching
methods that emphasized "the learning
of answers more than the exploration of
questions, memory at the expense of
critical thought, bits and pieces of
information instead of understanding
in context, recitation over argument
[and] reading in lieu of doing" (AAAS
1989, p. viii). The authors called for
a new goal: to develop scientifically
literate citizens who understand our
evolving technological society, exercise
wise judgment in the public realm, and
play productive roles in the economy.

To remedy this situation, Project
2061 promotes education reform with
the goal of developing the scientifically
literate person as "one who is aware that
science, mathematics, and technology
are interdependent human enterprises
with strength and limitations; understands
key concepts and principles of science;
and uses scientific knowledge . . . for
individual and social purposes" (AAAS
1989, p. vii). The way to achieve such
literacy, according to Project 206 1, is

to teach principles and processes, not
in the abstract, but in a variety of
everyday contexts with which students
are familiar. AAAS encourages teachers
to involve students in identifying
problems, framing questions, actively
investigating, generating and testing
alternative solutions, and describing
outcomes using a full range of visual
and mathematical models.

Project 2061 has had widespread
influence on science reform efforts in
the United States. In articulating its
vision of appropriate "scope, sequence,
and coordination" of science education,

the National Science Teachers
Association (1992) endorsed the
approach to content espoused in Science
for All Americans. Similarly, Project
206 l's 1993 publication of Benchmarks
for Science Literacy influenced the
development of national voluntary
content standards then underway.

Benchmarks states up front that the
goal of science literacy is in part to help
people "make sense of how the natural
and designed worlds work" (AAAS
1993, p. xi). In presenting guidelines
for what students should know and be
able to do in science, mathematics, and

Students at Hemingway
Elementary School in Ketchum,
Idaho, study acceleration
and momentum by solving
problems in the design of a
roller coaster track.

Sixth graders at Dyker Heights
Intermediate School in
Brooklyn, New York, designed
this catapult for the 1996
Eureka Competition.

technology by the end of grades 2, 5, 8,
and 12, this tool for curriculum devel-
opment devotes an entire chapter to
exploring aspects of the designed world.

The National Research Council of
the National Academy of Sciences
joined the voices of reform by calling
for voluntary national standards for
science education (National Research
Council 1996). Echoing Project 2061 's
insistence that students be engaged,
the standards say, "Hands-on activities
are not enough — students must have
'minds-on' experiences. Science

teaching must involve students in
inquiry-oriented investigations in
which . . . they apply science content to
new questions; they engage in problem
solving, planning, decision making, and
group discussions; and they experience
assessments that are consistent with an
active approach to learning" (National
Research Council 1996, p. 20).

The authors of the National Science
Education Standards acknowledge that
children in kindergarten through 4th
grade can understand and carry out
design activities before they can engage
in direct scientific inquiry. Thus design
serves as the vehicle for gaining direct
experience with materials and the
forces of nature. From the earliest age,
students can examine familiar products,
such as zippers, can openers, bridges,
and cars. They can identify the problem
each design solves, describe the materials
used, and analyze how well the design
performs.

Very young
children can also
design their
own communi-
cation, products,
and environments. Through the design
process, children learn how to analyze
constraints, such as cost or safety; to
communicate their ideas verbally and
graphically; and to work independently
and collaboratively with a spirit of

mutual respect for alternate approaches
to the same problem.

In grades 5-8, students differentiate
between science and technology. They
understand that scientists propose
explanations for questions about the
natural world, while designers and
engineers propose solutions that respond
to human problems, needs, or aspirations.
They learn that design solutions must
work within the constraints of nature,
taking into consideration the properties
of materials, varied physical abilities of
different people, the force of gravity,
and so forth.

Like their counterparts in earlier
grades, these students also analyze
designed products, environments, and
systems in the world around them.
They develop their own solutions to
complex problems and extend their
explorations beyond products to
structures, landscapes, and assembly
lines. They learn to interview potential
users and to probe constraints, including
those that arise from societal preferences
(for efficiency, safety, etc.) and those
embedded in the natural world (such
as the effect of natural forces or the
durability of materials).

In general, the National Research
Council finds that many high school
students harbor a popular but erroneous
view that equates science with progress
but technology with environmental

problems. At the same time, they
"respond positively to the concrete,
practical, outcome orientation of design
problems before they are able to engage
in the abstract, theoretical nature of
many scientific inquiries" (National
Research Council 1996, p. 191).

Design activities are powerful illus-
trations of the ways in which science
and technology shape one another. By
dissecting the processes and choices
that led to design solutions and by
analyzing their consequences, students
understand that all technological
solutions carry risks and benefits.
Moreover, they learn that the solution
to one problem may illuminate the
need for further scientific research or
new technology.

By being both judicious and creative,
teachers can use even a limited number
of design activities to reveal multiple

facets of science. The standards sug-
gest, for example, that students might
analyze features of different athletic
shoes, measuring the friction caused by
various tread designs and exploring
constraints imposed by the needs of
different sports movements, the human
anatomy, and different materials.

The picture of high school science
education painted by the National
Science Education Standards is exciting
and multidimensional. The standards
encourage students to tackle more
complex design problems than in
earlier grades and to probe the myriad
of influences that shape design criteria
and constraints. The standards expect
students to analyze the costs and
benefits of design solutions and to
document the evolution of their thinking
and creativity, using drawings, three-
dimensional models, and if possible,
computer-assisted design. At the center
of this learning, students come to under-
stand the interconnections of science
and technology, while also gaining a
deeper appreciation of the value and

necessity of knowledge and skills in
other disciplines.

Teachers contacted in the research
for this book provide evidence that
the goals of science education reform
can be achieved in typical classrooms
with students who might view science
as a formidable hurdle under more
traditional teaching approaches. At
Sam Houston High School in Lake
Charles, Louisiana, students in Linda
Wygoda's chemistry and environmental
science classes build structures from
straws, make composite materials, and
produce multimedia presentations on
weather, molecular structure, and
kinetics. Wygoda values the design
approach, especially with students who
are apprehensive about science. She
says, "Design has been an outlet for my
creativity as well as that of my students.
I wouldn't teach any other way."

At Lakeview High School in
Columbus, Nebraska, Ed Kinzer's
10th- 12th grade students in a science
research class carry out independent
projects. Student Mark Moeller

Any activity that causes
students to think and make
is good. If the activity causes
them to rethink and redo,

it's even better When

students design, build, use
and test their own projects,
it's the best that science
education gets.

PAUL BURTON, 7-8th grade
teacher, Tucumcari, NM

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scovery

and invention

designed, built, and tested an infrared
walking stick for visually-impaired
individuals. The user presses a switch in
the stick, sending out beams of light.
Reflecting back from objects, the beams
set off one of three buzzers depending
on the distance of the object. Moeller's
design won national awards for science
research and invention.

Mark Ceconi, a 4th grade teacher at
the humanities-centered Daniel Webster
Magnet School in New Rochelle, New
York, teaches the principles of aerody-
namics through the design of model
hang gliders built from straws, tissue
paper, and pipe cleaners. Students learn
about lift, drag, hot air currents called
"thermals," and how the actions of
the pilot change the movement of the
aircraft. Throughout the lesson, students
study analogous structures in birds:
hollow bones, skeletal structures, and
feathers.

Manette Gampel, a science teacher
at Dyker Heights Intermediate School
in Brooklyn, New York, uses a design
project entitled Building Biomes to
teach the mandated curriculum in the
natural sciences. The intent of the
project is to explore the interdependency
of plants and animals in an ecosystem.
Students select a land or water biome,
conduct research in the library, and
record the plant and animal life that
will thrive in the biome's climate and

geography. They also study human
inhabitants' behavior, including
occupations, food procurement, and
housing. Students then design and
construct their own biomes, choosing
plants and animals they predict will
produce a balanced ecosystem. They
consult with pet stores, plant nurseries,
and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.
Using computers, the students keep
daily records of soil, air, and water
quality and temperature changes.

David Pinkerton, a physics teacher
at Smoky Hill High School in Aurora,
Colorado, describes student design
projects that illustrate physics principles.
Although he lectures periodically as
an efficient way to prepare students
for problem solving, Pinkerton says,
"Cookbook experiments from lab
manuals that feature a prescribed set
of instructions have been eliminated
[from my class}. . .The 'solve a real
problem' format requires a lab team
to design their experiment." His list
of projects includes the design of an
inertial nutcracker that uses no levered
jaws; a mini-hovercraft judged on how
little friction it generates; a video
analysis of a simple motion, such as
throwing a ball (the video is then used
to construct a graph of human move-
ment); a vehicle that operates on
Newton's Third Law; and a functional
electric motor (built from one C-cell

Technology Education

battery, two button magnets, a soda
straw, three straight pins, and sufficient
wire and tape) that serves a new pur-
pose, such as slicing a grape or turning
on a light.

Some projects demonstrate how stu-
dents can affect environmental
outcomes through design intervention.
Barbara van Wicklin's high school stu-
dents at Fillmore Central School in
Allegany County, New York, create
devices and strategies for energy con-
servation. "One team designed a new
electric meter which measures pennies
rather than kilowatt hours and outputs
costs daily on a small calculator in one's
kitchen. The students reasoned that
when a person observes money being
spent, they are encouraged to turn off
the lights and conserve energy."

These research study examples are
very much in the spirit of the princi-
ples outlined in the National Science
Education Standards. Through design
activities, teachers in this study
balance their roles as science experts
with facilitation of student discovery
and invention.

WHEREAS SCIENCE is about under-
standing the world, technology is about
taking action and knowing how to take
action upon our physical surroundings
(Bottrill 1995, p. 41). While some
educators debate the necessity of
involving students in the social and
cultural implications of technology, it
is clear that technology and design
education share similar problem solv-
ing concerns: performance expectations

for proposed solutions; invention of
alternative physical form; testing of
prototypes; and assessment of outcomes
in human as well as mechanical terms.

Recent studies by national and
international organizations reveal that
technology education is in a state of
creative ferment in schools around the
world. The United Nations Educational,
Scientific, and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO) devotes the fifth volume of

The design process, crucial
to technology. ..should
integrate well-developed
communication skills with
critical thinking skills.

TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION IN THE
CLASSROOM, 1996, p. 17

its series on Innovations in Science and
Technology Education to an exploration of
this phenomenon. British educator and
series editor David Layton notes that
whether countries are developing or
industrialized, "the case for technology
as a component of general education is
under examination and is impelling
specific curriculum innovations . . .
Also, what is incontestable is the
energy and vitality of the field. It has
emerged as one of the most exciting,
challenging and potentially significant

areas of curriculum renovation" (Layton
1994, pp. 11-12).

The Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD)
also cites technology as an emerging
discipline in its study of teaching
innovations in science, mathematics,
and technology around the world.
Across the globe, the OECD sees a shift
"away from set-piece tasks for the
acquisition of specific skills and towards
generating solutions to real and complex
problems (Black and Atkin 1996, p. 36).
The OECD description of the learning
outcomes of technology education
shares much in common with accounts
of design-based classrooms.

. . . {I}t can draw pupils into a different
practice of solving human problems and
needs. Some of the means are practical and
operational, often involving the making of
artifacts, but others require thinking about
the design of new systems and environments.
To achieve high standards, students have to
learn several different things: construction
skills, identifying needs, developing optimum
designs, acquiring and using necessary
knowledge from science, from mathematics,
and from other disciplines as the problem
demands, and evaluating their own and
other people's solutions. As a subject,
technology can be distinctive by its interdis-
ciplinary character and for its power to
develop students' practical capability for

tackling complex problems {Black and
Atkin 1996, p. 88).

In the United States, the National
Center for Improving Science Education
(NCISE) published its own study of the
subject titled Technology Education in the
Classroom: Understanding the Designed
World. The international study team
assembled by Center director Senta
Raizen finds that most member nations
in the OECD are ahead of the United
States in introducing technology across
all grade levels. Rather than "coherent,
carefully planned sequences of technology
education from kindergarten through
twelfth grade," the NCISE reports that
American schools more often present
the subject "in bits and pieces — an
isolated project here, a replacement
unit there, or at best, a single year-long
course that provides in-depth treatment
of a few topics, but offers no continuity
or sequence from one year to the next"
(Raizen, Sellwood, Todd, and Vickers
1995, p. 3).

One reason for this disjointed
practice, according to the Center, is that
technology education, unlike other
academic disciplines, has not articulated
a clear path of intellectual progression
from kindergarten through advanced
university studies. The International
Technology Education Association
(ITEA), with funding from the National

Science Foundation and the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration,
recently launched the Technology for All
Americans Project to develop national
voluntary standards, much like those
for other school subjects. In 1996, the
project released The Rationale and
Structure for the Study of Technology,
which sets forth the field's "knowledge
base" (International Technology
Education Association 1996).

NCISE finds classrooms in which
a craft-based approach emphasizes
psychomotor skills in manipulation of
traditional materials such as wood,
metal, and textiles. Students make
products according to prescribed
designs, rather than based on their own
analysis, methods, and evaluation. Even
in classrooms sporting the latest high-
tech equipment, instruction may limit
students to the mastery of operational

skills rather than cultivate critical
thought. Elsewhere, teachers emphasize
theoretical understanding of technological
processes to the exclusion of practical
applications where students test under-
standing and press the technology
envelope through new designs.

To illustrate how well-designed
technology education integrates various
disciplines, the authors present the
example of a semester-long junior high
school activity in which students design
a toy glider suitable for 1 0-year-old
children and the systems for assembling,
packaging, and marketing it.

In science, students explore how
some plants and animals glide and the
strength-to-weight relationships of
different materials. In mathematics
they examine the geometry of different
wing and fuselage configurations;
measure the flight lengths, times, and

trajectories; and calculate the cost of
materials needed for their product and
its packaging. They also must consider
the costs associated with purchasing raw
materials, manufacturing, distribution,
and advertising. The packaging must
protect the product and function as
part of a marketing strategy. The class
looks at past attempts at human flight
and documents its own design process
in a portfolio. A team of four teachers
collaborates on facilitation for this
project (Raizen et al. 1995, pp. 78-81).

One place where a comprehensive
approach to technology education is
particularly evident is Willamette
Primary School, in West Linn, Oregon.
Examples from the school appear
throughout this book. All teachers at
Willamette understand and integrate
both the design process and technology
across all subject areas. Susan Dunn,
who wrote Design Technology: Children's
Engineering with Rob Larson, served as
the school's first instructional coordinator.
In their book, Dunn and Larson contrast
the design-rich experiences of children
in the past with those of young people
in today's consumer culture whose play
is largely conditioned by toy manufac-
turers and children's media. There is
less opportunity for young people to
exercise their own imaginations and
realize their vision through their own
hands. Dunn and Larson believe design

I feel that when a student
designs and tests a system
personalty, the learning is
intrinsic and there is owner-
ship. Children are full of
brilliant ideas. They just need
an environment to create and
express themselves... I would
be frustrated as an educator
if design were not a part of
how I teach.

STEVE BRADY, 7-8th grade tech-
nology teacher, Bu rnsvi lie, MN

technology can reacquaint children
with these natural human capabilities.

At Dranesville Elementary School in
Herndon, Virginia, teacher Stephen
Knobloch asks students to construct a
method by which they can move a pound
of sand one foot vertically off the ground.
Linked to a social studies unit on pyra-
mids in ancient Egypt, this technology
project investigates pneumatics, simple
machines, hydraulics, and gravity. In
other Dranesville classes, students develop
design and technology solutions for a
great variety of problems: how to keep
geese from using the ponds and walking
on the greens at a local golf course; how
to transport Little Red Riding Hood's
cookies to Grandmother's house via
a "wolf-proof container"; and how to
get three Billy Goats Gruff safely
across a river to greener pastures on
the other side.

TIES Magazine and Project UPDATE,
both based at The College of New
Jersey (formerly Trenton State College)
encourage the integration of design and
technology across the K-8 curriculum.
TIES Magazine (Technology Innovation
and Entrepreneurship for Students)
regularly features examples of design
and technology from schools in the
United States and abroad. Project
UPDATE (Upgrading Practice through
Design and Technology/Engineering
Education) is a multi-year effort in

K-8 teacher training and curriculum
development. Funded by the National
Science Foundation, the project works
with pilot schools from New York to
Virginia, using design problem-solving
methods as a means of integrating math,
science, and technology education.

In its first phase, Project UPDATE
helps teachers design Contextual
Learning Units (CLUs) integrating the
three primary subjects with others
through four themes: travel, the built
environment, events, and amazing
machines. One teacher developed a
number of units around the theme of
A Sailing Trip to China. She developed a
topic web that included map making
and reading; measuring
distances and calculating
time; investigating
specific gravity
and relative den- ^3
sity, buoyancy,
tidal energy, and wave energy; and
appreciating the art, music, and culture
of China. Design and technology oppor-
tunities arise throughout this journey to
China, from making and testing sail-
boats to designing efficient travel gear,
to making and flying dragon kites. All
emphasize the design process (Project
UPDATE 1996, pp. 2-9).

Exemplifying the new breed of
technology teachers, Stephen Scanlon
of Marlton, New Jersey admits design

has transformed his teaching and his
students' learning.

For the first fourteen years of my teaching
career I taught industrial arts education.
I emphasized materials and processes.
Design? Build the plastic and wood,
three-tiered candy dish exactly like the
model in class and you will receive an A.
For fourteen years! ! Now? Active learning
by design is the class and what we teach
and learn. Whether in sixth, seventh, or
eighth grade, students are taught through
activities that require design. . . The biggest
change in my teaching and classroom
environment has been the excitement that
my students bring to class with them. No
longer are they confined to producing
projects that are designed by someone else
with results that are very predictable.

Scanlon introduces his 6th grade
students to design in the context of
exploring the role of invention and
innovation in our society. What
motivates people to "pursue a better
mousetrap"? How do analyzing problems
and achieving design solutions depend
upon "thinking differently"?

In 7th grade, Scanlon 's students
form the 2M Design and Package
Company, collaborating with students
in Susan Bishop's food, nutrition, and
consumer studies class to develop a new
snack food and design the packaging
and marketing for it.

In the 8th grade control technology
class, Scanlon's students demonstrate
their knowledge of electronics, pneu-
matics, robotics, and other subjects by
designing conveyor systems, burglar
alarms, and other devices. In the
advanced science and technology
course, students build machines to
illustrate the application of scientific
principles.

Scanlon acknowledges that open-
ended problem solving initially
frustrates some students. Gradually,
however, "students come to understand
that responsibility for learning is now
directed back to them. This atmosphere
lends itself to a more positive response
from all the different types of students
within a class . . . Ultimately when
students identify a problem on their
own and solve that problem on their
own, they realize that they can control
their world."

Crossing the threshold into high
schools, one finds fewer occasions that
motivate teachers to work in an inter-
disciplinary way. Given that college
and career decisions loom on the horizon
for students, many teachers emphasize
training in specific technologies.
Design in these classrooms is more
prescriptive and likely to focus on
figuring out internal mechanics rather
than addressing the interface between
technology and users.

Nevertheless, even some high school
technology teachers are taking a second
look at the benefits of integrating
designerly thinking more firmly into
their curricula. In some cases, they follow
the lead of colleagues in other countries.
In other instances, they respond to the
increasing importance business assigns
to design as a competitive strategy in
the global marketplace. As more
elementary and middle schools introduce
technology within the context of the
design process, many high school
teachers also discover that their students
have expectations to continue working
from a design perspective.

Working in design teams, Gary
Finke's students at Oak Harbor High
School in Oak Harbor, Ohio, tackle
projects in architecture, photography,
and computer-automated manufacturing.
In one class, students designed a fire-
house needed in nearby Toledo; in
another, they designed and built part
of a manufacturing plant that moves
materials using robotics and an auto-
mated assembly line. Finke looks to
industry for inspiration and seeks out
books, videotapes, and workshops that
reveal how teams of designers and
engineers work together in real-world
settings. Finke's most motivated

Middle school students discuss
airplane design at a "Dare to
Fly" event sponsored by the East
Orange and Hasbrouck Heights,
New Jersey, school districts.

a r c h i t e ct m e

rWotics

m a tics

students frequently devote free periods
and after-school hours to their projects.

In Philadelphia, Lincoln High
School teachers Donald Testa and Nick
Zecca teach design and technology to
9th graders as part of Acatech, a new
charter school-within-a-school empha-
sizing academics applied to technology.
Responding to this mandate, the teachers
use design methods to update and modify
previous industrial and vocational
offerings. Having learned about British
methods through inservice courses at
Drexel University, Testa and Zecca use
a variety of design briefs to address
student aspirations and society's needs.
Students design and make child-safe toys
with moving parts, build and test struc-
tures for their load-bearing capacity, and
create logos and monograms.

In Newark, Delaware, Paul Devine
teaches technology classes for 9th
through 12th grade students at Glasgow
High School. The curriculum has three
clusters: communications technology,
physical technology, and bio-related
technology. Whatever the grade or
cluster, Devine encourages his students

to explore the multiple dimensions of
contexts for which they create design
solutions. For example, in redesigning
a 1922 row house for a family of three
in Wilmington, Delaware, Devine asks
students not only to accommodate
contemporary needs and technology,
but to consider designs of the past, how
they are a reflection of their time, and
how today's buildings can use concepts
from the past in their design. In product
development assignments, Devine
prompts students to weigh the ecological
and ethical implications of the ways in
which they acquire and process raw
materials and dispose of manufacturing
byproducts and finished products.

Devine searches for ways to link his
courses with other disciplines. Upon
learning that the Smithsonian Institution
in Washington planned to dispose of a
model simulating a fresh water marsh, he
obtained it for the school, then worked
with math, science, and environmental
education teachers to develop related
curricula. The technology students
designed modifications to the model to
complement student experiments.

Environmental Education

during the past 30 years,
American educators have broadened
the initial emphasis in environmental
education from a concern for air and
water quality to a more comprehensive
approach to teaching about ecosystems.
Responding to the flurry of energy
conservation efforts during the oil crisis
of the 1970s, educators began to pay
more attention to the impact of the
built world on the natural environment.
More recently, interest in sustainable
development has encouraged yet another
transformation in environmental educa-
tion, stimulating renewed interest in
ways to educate students about interre-
lated systems at all levels.

A watershed event in changing
perspectives on environmental education
was the United Nations' Conference on
Environment and Development, held
in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. Popularly
known as the Earth Summit, it forged
the critical link between education and
our planet's ability to sustain an ever-
burgeoning population. Looking at a
40-year window of opportunity before
the trajectories of resource depletion
and population explosion lead to wide-
spread calamities, the conference called
upon all nations to develop plans for
transforming their social, economic,
and governmental practices.

In June 1993, the White House
established the President's Council on

Sustainable Development — consisting
of 25 leaders in government, industry,
education, and environmental advocacy —
to create a national action strategy for
sustainable development. Central to the
recommendations in the Council's 1996
report is the provision of high-quality
education that enables young people
"to understand the interdependence of
economic prosperity, environmental
quality, and social equity — and prepares
them to take actions that support all
three" (President's Council on
Sustainable Development 1996, p. vi).
The Council emphasizes that educa-
tion for sustainability should not be a
new subject grafted onto an already busy
school curriculum but a fundamental
way of informing all teaching and

learning. Design perspectives shape
understanding of broad issues of sustain-
ability and are necessary to transform
patterns of consumption, business
practices, and environmental planning.

The principles underlying education for
sustainability include, but are not limited
to, strong core academics, understanding the
relationships between disciplines, systems
thinking, lifelong learning, hands-on
experiential learning, community-based
learning, technology, partnerships, family
involvement , and personal responsibility
(President's Council on Sustainable
Development 1996, p. 70).

As examples in this book reveal,
some innovative teachers already engage
students in such community-based

Design perspectives are necessary
to transform patterns of environ-
mental planning. With help from
the KIDS Consortium, students
at Edward Little High School
in Auburn, Maine, created a
recreational master plan for their
campus and its adjacent woods
and then won school board and
city council approval for the plan.

learning experiences, drawing upon
several disciplines in the curriculum.
These teachers admit, however, that
they often have to piece together such
holistic instruction, learning about
interdisciplinary, design-based methods
through their own reading, outside
professionals, and the occasional, relevant
inservice opportunity.

Recent reports on the state of
environmental education confirm this
testimony from the field. Education for
Sustainability: An Agenda for Action
makes a series of recommendations
for greater integration of information
about sustainability in formal and
non-formal education. "Discipline-
oriented educational processes," however,
present obstacles to an interdisciplinary
approach. Likewise, schools must
overcome "insufficient professional

preparation for teaching the core content
of sustainability issues" (Education for
Sustainability Working Group 1996,
p. 8). Agenda for Action also finds
widespread variation in state policies
supporting the inclusion of environ-
mental education in the curriculum and
in teacher training.

Most new teachers graduate from teacher
preparation institutions with limited
knowledge of education for sustainability
and ways that it can be incorporated into
their teaching. . . (Mjost teacher preparation
programs have not incorporated the neces-
sary content and methods. In fact, most
university professors who offer core courses
in educational methodology have not them-
selves had the preparation necessary to
infuse sustainability concepts into their
courses and the internships they oversee
(Education for Sustainability Working
Group 1996, p. 15).

Many of the inservice courses and
instructional materials available to
elementary and secondary school teachers
originate in public agencies and
nonprofit organizations concerned with
various aspects of natural resource
protection. Responding to a survey
undertaken by the National Consortium
on Environmental Education and
Training, teachers report that such
inservice opportunities are often strong
in content but weak in pedagogical

strategies. Similarly, teachers find that
much of the material for classroom use
raises awareness of basic ecological
principles but does not help them to
strengthen students' skill in analyzing
resource management alternatives and
exploring other aspects of the human-
environment relationship (Wade 1994).

In its recent report to Congress, the
National Environmental Education
Advisory Council decries the limited,
topical focus of many environmental
curricula and advocates "a more balanced
menu of materials and programs that
emphasize skill development and action,
and that stress the interdisciplinary
nature of environmental issues"
(National Environmental Education
Advisory Council 1996, p. 17). The
Council's guidelines for exemplary
practice call for teachers to help students
explore the environment in its totality,
even to the point of examining the
environmental aspects of plans for
development and growth.

From teacher education to curriculum
materials, leaders in environmental
education are calling for a paradigm
shift toward a more comprehensive
understanding of the environment, one
that encompasses human needs as well
as natural resource issues. This requires
a multidisciplinary approach, for as one
recent study points out, "sustainability
is best understood by exploring the

intersections of a number of different
dimensions, such as the interaction of
social, political, cultural, economic, and
ecological perspectives" (Gabriel 1996,
p. 22). It calls on environmental educators
to develop a "systems thinking pedagogy"
to ensure this holistic approach.

As educators develop this new
pedagogy, they discover that design lies
at the intersections of all these dimen-
sions. Learning about the design of
products, buildings, landscapes, and
communities; investigating their
impact on natural resources; and creating
new sustainable solutions to today's
problems are ways that teachers can help
students develop the knowledge and
skills needed for a more balanced world.

Under the auspices of the North
American Association for Environmental
Education, a national multidisciplinary
committee is preparing voluntary
standards for the field that reflect the
paradigm shift described above. The
guidelines call for consideration of the
social, economic, political, technological,
cultural, historical, moral, and aesthetic
aspects of environmental issues as
well as their biological and physical
dimensions. Citing content standards
published to date in the natural sciences,
social sciences, and humanities, the
guidelines show that environment
education offers numerous opportunities
to meet curricular requirements in those
fields by encouraging students to draw

upon knowledge from many other disci-
plines (North American Association for
Environmental Education 1997, pp. 4-5).

In New Jersey, combining the study
of built and natural environments is a
way to link suburban and inner city
schools, as well as various academic
subjects. Paul Inderbitzen, head of the
American Re-Insurance Company, put
together a coalition of public, private,
and non-profit partners to sponsor
BEES, Inc. (Building Environmental
Education Solutions). Its goal is to help
schools develop hands-on, in-depth
investigations of local environmental
problems in a manner that models the
complex decision making involved in
solving them. By meeting on site and
in the classroom with a variety of stake-
holders (residents, environmentalists,
developers, legislators, city planners,
remediators, and others), students come,
to appreciate the intersecting interests
in a particular issue.

During the 1994-1995 school year,
BEES brought together students and
teachers from Trenton Central High
School, Hunterdon Central Regional
High School, the private Hun School,
and Granville Academy, an afterschool
program for disadvantaged youth. The
schools worked together to analyze
what might be done to reclaim an
abandoned industrial site in Trenton
for the residential area surrounding it.

The future is not some place
we are going to, it is one we
are creating. The paths to it
are not found, but made, and
the making of these pathways
changes both the maker and
the destination.

UNESCO, "Qualities Required
of Education Today to Meet
Foreseeable Demands in
theTwenty-first Century,"
1989, p. 9.

A New Jersey Department of
Environmental Protection
staffer gives members of BEES
a tour of an abandoned factory
site in Trenton.

The 60 participating students learned
about techniques for testing, washing,
and removing contaminated soil. After
interviewing neighbors concerning their
desires, the students worked with urban
planner Tony Nelessen to develop models
showing how compatible housing and
the necessary public infrastructure
could be reintroduced on the site.

The following year, BEES linked
students and teachers at inner-city
Camden High School with their
counterparts at suburban Cherry Hill
West to study a former factory site in
South Camden designated by the state
for the Superfund clean-up program.
This investigation involved 80 students
along with biology, chemistry, environ-

mental science, English, social studies,
art, and business teachers. The entire
group participated in site visits and
meetings with outside specialists, while
smaller teams investigated site history,
health effects, soil testing, community
opinion, government policies and
actions, and site redevelopment feasibility
and design.

Over the course of the school year,
the teams studied the effects of different
forms of radiation, conducted tests
around the perimeter of the Camden
site, and learned about the larger
ecological context of the Delaware
estuary. Because exploring the issue of
environmental justice was a particular
objective of the project, the students

also interviewed neighborhood residents
and toured two other facilities located
within 10 blocks of the contaminated
site, the county's principal sewage
treatment plant, and a major waste-to-
energy cogeneration plant.

As the final phase of the project, the
students worked with an environmental
consultant and the city planner to
analyze the feasibility of redeveloping
the contaminated site. After estimating
the cost of clean-up necessary to proceed
with any option, they examined 10
alternatives in terms of accessibility,
construction cost, profitability, number
of people served, and compatibility with
the surrounding neighborhood. The alter-
natives included low-income housing,

school, park, recreation center, gym,
skating rink, shopping center, restaurant,
movie theater complex, and motel.

For teachers and students alike, partic-
ipation in these complex investigations
of everyday problems is enlightening.
"Working on the feasibility committee,"
says Camden student Bernadette Gray,
"made me realize how much work goes
into making decisions and determining
what to do next." Hun School environ-
mental studies teacher Colleen Balch
sums up the long-term benefits:

After these experiences, the students will
never be able to look at an environmental

problem in a simplistic way again The

students have gained an understanding
that our society is very complex, and they
now have a knowledge of the tangled paths
they have to walk to reach solutions for
such multifaceted problems. Hopefully, they
are on the path to feeling empowered to
make changes (Building Environmental
Education Solutions, Inc. 1 996).

Far to the south, the entire 1 1th
grade at Paramount High School in
Boligee, Alabama, conducted a year-long
environmental investigation through
the lens of an architectural challenge:
to design a waste treatment facility and
environmental education center on the
banks of the Tombigbee River. A four-
person team of math, science, social
studies, and language arts teachers

developed this rich problem statement
with help from Ventures in Education,
a New York-based organization that
assists schools in developing student-
centered, constructivist methods of
instruction. The Paramount team
attended Venture's inservice workshops
and worked closely with its Architectural
Youth Program, developed by Marc Sokol.

The teachers challenged the 65
students to work together as a design
firm, analyzing the social, economic,
regulatory, and environmental aspects
of the facility and devising their own
architectural plans for it. Throughout
the year-long process, Brenda Peters,
from Auburn University's College of
Architecture, Design, and Construction
helped students develop skills in
drawing, modeling, and constructive
criticism of their design ideas.

In science class, the students ana-
lyzed different solid waste processes
with the assistance of an environmental

scientist from the state's Department of
Environmental Management. With the
help of a geologist from the University
of West Alabama, they then examined
the geology, hydrology, topography,
and soil composition of the proposed
site. In English class, they practiced
writing research abstracts and formal
reports. In math, they calculated the
amount of household waste generated
in Greene County and determined that
the proposed facility must also treat
waste from two additional counties to
be profitable.

In developing their design, the
students had to determine the space
and equipment needs of waste manage-
ment technology and anticipate the
needs of workers at the facility, staff at
the environmental education center,
and visitors. They surveyed residents
in the community concerning their
attitudes and interests in environmental
education. At the end of the year, the
students presented a thorough review
of all issues, together with site plans,
architectural drawings, and three-
dimensional models. So impressed was
school superintendent Joseph Dantzler,
that he invited the students to present
their work to the Greene County Board
of Education and representatives from
the state Department of Education.

For student June Weston, one of the
most valuable benefits of the project

For teachers and students,
participation in complex
investigations of everyday
problems is enlightening.
Above, BEES students from'
the Hun School in New
Jersey try out an innovative
soil testing kit with a
scientist at Ohmicron, Inc.

References

Most of my design projects
have to do with synthesizing
specific subject matter
and application of learned
concepts. ..Life is not
compartmentalized into
English, science, math, and
social studies, so I strive
to integrate all these into
my course.

LYNN SWEETAY, 11-12 ecology,
Taravella High School, Coral
Gables, FL

PARAMOUNT HIGH SCHOOL

n^-. .3 f ,

- v. fmt

was "learning not to be intimidated by
complex problems, but how to break
them down and tackle the various parts
in order." For their part, social studies
teacher Nancy Cole and her colleagues
are convinced of the value of this inter-
disciplinary approach for meeting the
state's curricular objectives. With a
new team of 1 1th grade students they
tackled the design of a comprehensive
high school for the county.

It is clear from these examples in
social studies, language arts, mathematics,
science, technology, and environmental
education that teachers find the use of
design in their classrooms an effective
means for delivering mandated
discipline-based curricula. No teachers
in the research study expressed concern

that design activities displace required
content. Instead, all voiced belief that
through design they better achieve
learning objectives in their respective
fields. In most cases, the added benefit
of design activities is to connect
disciplinary study to larger contexts.

American Association for the

Advancement of Science, Project
2061. (1989). Science for All
Americans. New York: Oxford
University Press.

American Association for the

Advancement of Science, Project
2061. (1993). Benchmarks for
Science Literacy. New York: Oxford
University Press.

Black, P. and Atkin, J.M. (1996).

Changing the Subject: Innovations in
Science, Mathematics, and Technology
Education. New York: Routledge,
with the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development
(OECD) in Paris, France.

Bottrill, P. (1995). Designing and

Learning in the Elementary School.
Reston, Virginia: International
Technology Association.

Building Environmental Education
Solutions, Inc. (1996). BEES
Program Brochure. Princeton, New
Jersey: BEES, Inc.

Center for Civic Education. (1994).
National Standards for Civics and
Government. Calabasas, California:
Center for Civic Education.

Dunn, S., and Larson, R. (1990).

Design Technology: Children's
Engineering. Bristol, Pennsylvania:
The Falmer Press.

Education for Sustainability Working
Group. (1996). Education for
Sustainability: An Agenda for Action.
Washington, D.C.: President's
Council on Sustainable
Development.

Education Update. (January 1997). "It's
All In the Videotape." p. 3.
Alexandria, Virginia: Association
for Supervision and Curriculum
Development.

Gabriel, N. (1996). Teach Our Teachers
Well: Strategies to Integrate
Environmental Education into Teacher
Education Programs. Boston,
Massachusetts: Second Nature.

Geography Education Standards Project.
(1994). Geography for Life: National
Geography Standards. Washington,
D.C.: National Geographic
Research and Exploration.

International Reading Association and
the National Council of Teachers
of English. (1996). Standards for
the English Language Arts. Newark,
Delaware: IRA and Urbana,
Illinois: NCTE.

International Technology Education
Association. (1996). The Rationale
and Structure for the Study of
Technology. Washington, D.C.: ITEA.

Joyce, M. (1994). Of Two Minds:

Hypertext Pedagogy and Poetics.
Ann Arbor, Michigan: University
of Michigan Press.

Layton, D., ed. (1994). Innovations in
Science and Technology Education.
Paris, France: United Nations
Educational, Scientific, and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO).

National Council of Teachers of English
and International Reading
Association. (1996). Standards for
English Language Arts. Urbana,
Illinois and Newark, Delaware:
NCTE and IRA.

National Council of Teachers of

Mathematics. (1989). Curriculum
and Evaluation Standards for School
Mathematics. Reston, Virginia: NCTM.

National Environmental Education
Advisory Council. (1996). Report
Assessing Environmental Education in
the United States and Implementation of
the National Environmental Education
Act of '1990. Washington, D.C.:
Environmental Protection Agency.

The National Research Council, National
Academy of Sciences. (1996).
National Science Education Standards.
Washington, D.C.: National
Academy Press.

National Science Teachers Association.
(1992). Scope, Sequence, and
Coordination of Secondary School
Science, Volume 1. The Content Core:
A Guide for Curriculum Developers.
Washington, D.C.: NSTA.

North American Association for

Environmental Education, (draft
1997). Environmental Education
Guidelines for Excellence: What
School- Age Learners Should Know
and Be Able To Do. Washington,
D.C.: NAAEE.

President's Council on Sustainable

Development. (1996). Sustainable
America: A New Consensus for
Prosperity, Opportunity, and a Healthy
Environment for the Future.
Washington, D.C.: President's
Council on Sustainable
Development.

Project UPDATE. (1996). Contextual
Learning Unit (CLU) and Support
Materials. Trenton, New Jersey: The
College of New Jersey, Department
of Technological Studies.

Raizen, S.A., Sellwood, P., Todd, R.D.,
and Vickers, M. (1995). Technology
Education in the Classroom:
Understanding the Designed World.
San Francisco, California: Jossey-
Bass Publishers, Inc.

Technology for All Americans Project.
(1996). Technology for All Americans:
A Rationale and Structure for the Study
of Technology . Reston, Virginia:
International Technology
Association.

Wade, K. (1994). National Survey of
Environmental Education Teacher
Inservice Education. Ann Arbor,
Michigan: Regents of the
University of Michigan.

f A , P .

T H j / '

HB ^Bw '

iWiiii iiiniiifiiiiwir wumr^

OPPORTUNITIES AND

Challenges for Schools

Researchers have found that
even very young children
engage in complex thinking
and problem-solving. For this
reason, educators talk less
today about whether the
child is ready for school and
more about whether the
school is ready for the child.

THE HOLMES GROUP,

Tomorrow's Schools of
Education, 1995, p. 29

When examined within the
broader context of a school or
district, design-based learning
presents new ways for realizing long-
term goals and learning outcomes.
In a discussion of school- and district-
level implementation of design
strategies, it is easy to focus on physical
obstacles to systemwide adoption.
However, the strength of a design
approach to curriculum and instruction
lies in its ability to provide a new con-
struct for educational reform and to
challenge long-held practices that
stand in the way of achieving signif-
icant progress in improving schools
for children.

The research for this book reveals key
issues surrounding support, expansion,

and maintenance of design-based
curricula. The issues come from the
experiences of students, teachers,
and administrators who use design-
based learning in their classrooms
and schools. They are:

- use of resources in schools,

- teacher education and support, and

- beliefs and assumptions about students,
teachers, schools, and community.

It is important to note that these
issues are not unique to using design in
the classroom. They are the same issues
raised by those calling for educational
reform and by researchers examining
the effectiveness of curriculum, instruc-
tion, and the business of schools.

Use of Resources in Schools

The traditional

schoo

StrUCtUre does not allow

this very natural process.

RESOURCE ALLOCATION, including

time and space, has long been a focus
of educational reform. There is ample
evidence that the structure of the school
day and the design of classrooms
in which learning takes place affect
student achievement, just as they affect
the productivity and quality of adult
achievement in the workplace.

Time

Many teachers report that teaching
through design runs counter to the ways
in which schools organize the school
day. The most common observation is
the mismatch between the time needed
to tackle rich, complex problems and
the regular intervals at which children
must change classes or shift attention
to other subjects. The process of
designing, teachers point out, requires
varying amounts of time for planning,
research, execution, and reflection. For
some activities, 45- to 55-minute class
periods are sufficient; for others, they
are woefully inadequate. Teachers note
that without latitude to change daily
schedules, the flow of the design process
is interrupted and some of the potential
strength of learning activities diminishes.
Teachers in self-contained classrooms,
as in many elementary schools, or in
cross-disciplinary teams, where teachers
share adjacent class periods with the
same group of students, report fewer

problems with external time constraints.
They can extend or contract assigned
time periods to adapt to the demands
of learning activities. However, in
school settings where the academic day
is tightly organized into regular periods
of time and students work with many
teachers who do not function as a team,
the conflict between schedules and the
type of learning implicit in design
activity is more striking.

For example, Smoky Hill High
School physics teacher David Pinkerton
negotiates with students and other
teachers to allow his class to participate
in hour- long assessments of their Rube
Goldberg machines. Students must seek
permission to miss and then make up
time in other classes as they deliver their
elaborate projects to school, set them
up, and pretest them in preparation for
Pinkerton's assessment of each team's
work. Pinkerton says, "Design [projects]
require time to make a prototype, see
how it behaves, and adjust it, based on
the interactions. The traditional school
structure does not allow this very
natural process."

Administrators also acknowledge
the challenge. Stanley Hestings, vice
principal at Smoky Hill High School,
observes, "Discrete course periods like
those in high schools and middle schools
make it difficult to accommodate irreg-
ular or uneven requests for extended

periods of time to undertake and com-
plete a design task. To do it, we need
to rethink the way the whole school is
organized. You see, with a schedule like
ours, changes like that can affect a
dozen other teachers."

The control teachers exercise over
time allocation within their classrooms
is also a factor in the use of design in
the curriculum. Teachers report that
initially they have difficulty in gauging
how long it will take students to
complete a project. With experience,
they gain a better sense of how long
some projects require. However, there
are no guarantees. A concept that one
group of students masters in two days
could take a week with another group
of children. Within the same class,
students require differing amounts of
time to complete an assignment. While
traditional classroom activities often
mask the varying rates at which children
learn, design activities make them
visible and allow the teacher to address
student problems at an early stage in
their learning tasks.

The second area of concern about
available time is teacher planning and
coordination of design activities.
Virtually all school reform efforts
involving cross-disciplinary instruction
discover that the traditional school
schedule makes little provision for
teachers' joint planning, coordination

of instruction, and reflection. Based on
regular class periods, the traditional
school schedule inserts planning time
in individual teachers' sched
ules without regard for
teamwork. Team-based
approaches to using
design in the classroom
suffer from the same
inflexible time structure that
plagues any teaching team. It is fair to
conclude that students do not experi-
ence a truly integrated educational
program when their teachers cannot
plan together and coordinate instruc-
tion during the school day.

Furthermore, it is not feasible for
teachers to complete joint planning
for the entire school year in the two
or three inservice days before the start
of school. The teachers
in this study claim
planning for design
activities and
curriculum must be
ongoing and responsive
to issues and demands
that arise throughout
the year.

In several of the
site-visit schools, such
as Willamette Primary
School and Dranesville
Elementary School,
administrators attempt

to schedule joint teacher planning time
within each school day. Principal
Madeline Brennan at the Dyker Heights
Intermediate School recog-
nized this need upon
initiating the design-
based program in her
school: "A common
preparation period was
provided so that teachers
could discuss options for multidisciplinary
units of study and to identify those
subjects which could be aligned to bene-
fit the students' thinking." At many
other schools, however, most teams of
teachers using design in their classrooms
report voluntarily extending their work
day to meet or talk on the phone with
fellow teachers from their team.

A teacher at Beaver Acres
Elementary School in
Beaverton, Oregon,
takes time to discuss
a student's design for
corn husk dolls.

The use of design benefits
my students both intrinsi-
cally and extrinsically. As
individuals, students take
ownership and being to
participate using originality
and creativity. They find they
can achieve and be successful,
which increases their self-
esteem and motivation...
As a group, students learn
how to cope with each other
and work together. Their
adaptability in many environ-
ments is strengthened.

VERN LAUFENBERG, JR.,

Sennett Middle School,
Madison, WS

Space

The second challenge in the use of
resources concerns the organization
and control of physical space. Demands
for larger, alternately configured, or
otherwise flexible classroom space are
common among teachers who use
design activities in their curriculum.
Generally, the traditional classroom
with rows of individual desks better
accommodates janitors than it does
teachers and learners.

Many teachers in this study cite
appropriate furniture and classroom
space as central to the success of design
projects. Tables around which groups
of students cluster are preferable to
individual desks. In schools where

design and technology are a focus,
tables are common features in most
classrooms, and teachers configure
them differently for each activity.

Without question, space for storage,
building, and presentation plays a key
role in design experiences, as it does
in any active, project-based learning.
Design-based classrooms are distin-
guished by the sheer volume of material
that adorns walls; covers floors, tables,
and desks; and spills into hallways. Many
projects are three-dimensional and made
of fragile materials requiring special
storage. These projects can easily over-
whelm typical classroom closets and
cupboards, as well as bulletin boards,
notebooks, and file folders designed for
more traditional products of education.

Reallocation of Resources

The degree of support for design varied
widely among the schools in this study.
In some cases, districts allocate addi-
tional resources, beyond those provided
for traditional schools, to support
design-based instruction. These resources
may include teaching and professional
staff, materials, equipment, and tech-
nological support. At Dranesville
Elementary School and Willamette
Primary School, funding for technology
and instruction coordinators initially
was part of the overall school budgets.
At Tippecanoe Elementary School for

the Humanities, a full-time art special-
ist supports classroom design activities,
and a coordinator manages and supports
the overall program. These coordina-
tors do not have classroom teaching
responsibility and devote their time
exclusively to curriculum and inservice
coaching of teachers. Their presence
provides school-and system-level sup-
port that sustains programs through
changes in classroom teachers and
institutional policies. They also pro-
vide a liaison between the school or the
classroom and administration, report-
ing on achievements and obstacles to
effective instruction.

Several schools in this study estab-
lish separate budget lines to finance
design activities. Computer software
and hardware purchases are frequent
expenditures. More typically, however,
teachers report that they scavenge for
funds to supplement their budgets and
make use of found or donated materi-
als. It was clear from our site visits that
for many activities teachers employ
inexpensive materials and that finding
things and putting them to a new use
are part of the learning process for
children. It was also evident that the
teacher who uses design in the class-
room is resourceful; none said he or
she was unable to use a design approach
to teaching because of a lack of expen-
sive equipment.

Teacher Education and Support

MOST OF the teachers in this study
did not gain competencies in design-
based teaching and learning through
traditional teacher education programs.
With few exceptions, the teachers who
appear in this study developed expertise
in a design approach to teaching in one
of four ways:

- through prior work in design, including
study for degrees in architecture and
graphic design;

- through inservice programs supported by
professional societies or other design-
related organizations;

- through independent development of new
strategies after years of frustration with
traditional methods; or

- through coaching in the design process
by a designer relative, friend, or instruc-
tional coordinator.

Preservice and inservice teacher
training are critical to the success of all
education reform efforts. Teachers need
to exhibit the same competencies as
students: an understanding of systems,
problem-solving skills, teamwork, pro-
ficiency with technology, manipulation
of information, and efficient allocation
of resources. Traditional approaches to
teacher preparation are not oriented
toward ensuring that teacher candi-
dates develop these competencies in

their professional work. While this has
implications for the success of many
school reform efforts, it is particularly
important for the use of design in the
classroom, both as a strategy for teaching
and as subject matter.

Sheila McCoy, Dean of the College
of Education and Integrative Studies at
California State Polytechnic University
at Pomona, describes the shift that
must take place in teacher education.

Design-based approaches force teachers to
really think about what they are doing.
For many teachers, it is the first time they
are building from the ground up, not from
surface material down. Teachers don't
generally begin from nothing. They deal
with boxes of curriculum materials and
prepared content. They want things cut up
in neat packages. Teachers in my college-
level education classes frequently ask me,
"What will be on the exam?" Design forces
them to go back and ask themselves why
they are trying to do something. It forces
them to function as creators and authors,
which teachers rarely do without a design
education.

David Kennedy, Director of Educa-
tional Technology in the Washington
State Office of Public Instruction,
describes the challenges of changing
departments of education and the
preservice and inservice preparation of
teachers. He believes state administrations

and colleges suffer from "hardening of
the categories" and "massive territoriality"
that work against design and any
approaches that encourage integration of
subject matter or new ways of thinking.
Sheila McCoy confirms the struggle
to insert new approaches in college
curricula, citing her own administrative
efforts to gain university approval for
Doreen Nelson's innovative master's
degree program in design and creativity,
based on City Building Education.

Students at the
Enlightenment School in
Waterbury, Connecticut,
complete a model of
their school.

" Teach erS haveto develop expertise

within their school in order to achieve 3

1 6 PI t they have to make sure there is the

right kind of spirit in the

building."

cCoy describes design as "deceptively
simple," often disguising its intellectual
power in activities that resemble play.
McCoy believes people have to see this
approach in action or be part of an
activity to be convinced that it taps
higher-order thinking skills.

Myron Atkin, professor of technology
education at Stanford University, goes a
step further in talking about the problems
of introducing design-based strategies in
teacher education. Atkin says, "Schools
of education depend on professorial
interest in adopting or not adopting
new approaches as part of their teacher
education curricula." If an education
professor's personal interests don't sup-
port new approaches, students in that
college or university don't learn them.
He cites the pervasiveness of science/

technology/society courses on U.S.
campuses and the study of the social
implications of science as much likelie
orientations than his own design-basec
approach to technology education.
Atkin also believes, "Most teacher
education is geared to state certification
It is the state framework that really
guides what is taught. . .. Western
education glorifies the abstract, but cor
crete action and practical reasoning
glorify the species. We have taken this
kind of learning out of our education,
and it is time to bring it back."

While educators are somewhat
divided on how to best achieve reform
in teacher education, many agree that
inservice workshops are insufficient in
creating sustained change in teaching
practices. McCoy says, "You're always

Teachers learn design and
model-making techniques
at a workshop offered by the
Salvadori Educational Center
on the Built Environment.
Teachers take these techniques
back to their schools and
share them with others,
developing their own
expertise and building a
spirit of collegiality.

confronted with the question of how to
deal with groups of people who have
different knowledge. You can't even out
the experiences in a short period of time."

Leona Schauble, professor of educa-
tional psychology in the College of
Education at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison, also believes that
workshops are not the best way to
bring about change. Instead, an ongoing,
one-to-one relationship between 30-40
teachers and the university's center for
mathematics and science education
allows Schauble and her colleagues to
regularly videotape teachers' work and
show them how to author their own
projects and curricula.

Susan Dunn, former instructional
coordinator at Willamette Primary
School, believes some people can learn

a design approach through workshops
or on their own, but she adds, "They
miss the continuing conversation from
the college classroom to their schools."
Dunn teaches graduate-level courses as
an adjunct professor at Lewis and Clark
College and has taught graduate
courses at the three schools in which
she has been an administrator. Many of
her teachers enroll in master's degree
programs that divide college course-
work between satellite classes in their
own schools and the Lewis and Clark
College campus. Their study includes
research, assessment, child development,
teaching strategies, and practicum.
Dunn says, "Teachers have to develop
expertise within their school in order to
achieve a long-term commitment; they
have to make sure there is the right

kind of spirit in the building. The
collegiality with other teachers is as
important as the relationship between
their graduate study and what they are
doing at school. Immersion creates a
more supportive environment and
makes change a way of life." Dunn also
accepts teaching interns from Lewis
and Clark College and frequently hires
them when they graduate. She calls
this a "long-term commitment to
building the fabric of the school."

In the design and creativity master's
program in education at California
State Polytechnic University at
Pomona, director and professor Doreen
Nelson visits her graduate students'
classrooms to observe how teachers
reassess traditional strategies and trans-
form their roles as curriculum planners

CONSTRUCTION
ZONE

ntffy Cl 6 S 1 A n as r

and to find source^that prov

. . .to i d e
teachi n g
in support of design

based

elevant to their
provide information
curriculum and instruction

and authors of new approaches. Dean
Sheila McCoy says, "This process in
which the teacher learns to perceive
herself or himself as a designer can be
scary for some; they have to create this
thing, to step into the unknown." She
cites Nelson's commitment to go
beyond the college classroom as one
reason for her teachers' success.

Gail Johnson, Acting Coordinator
for Certification and Personnel at the
Utah State Office of Education, is more
positive about short-term workshops.
She observes teachers from Adele
Weiler's Building Connections workshops
on the built environment. Johnson
believes changes in teacher behavior are
consistent with statistics from the
National Council for Staff Development:
10 percent of the participants are "on
board" immediately, while another
60-70 percent come along in time.
There is strong evidence that Weiler's
concepts and practices become part of
the teachers' yearly programs and that
they revise their work and often retake
the workshops. The State Office of

Education updates teachers with infor-
mation on new strategies from year to
year. Johnson also believes design
workshops spark higher retention than
other topics. She observes, "Because the
workshops are participatory and teachers
are actively engaged, the information
stays with them."

Jan Norman, chair of the
Department of Art and Museum
Education at the University of the Arts
in Philadelphia, agrees that there is
some value in short-term workshops.
Norman runs design-based workshops
for Pennsylvania teachers from all
subject areas. For the most part, her
participants are seasoned teachers with
long-term commitments to the class-
room, not beginners. Norman says,
"Most are interested in the problem-
solving element and ways of teaching
higher levels of thinking." However,
Norman admits many teachers imple-
ment only a single design project in
their annual curriculum. She believes
the ability to sustain a design approach
to instruction depends on long-term

plans for integrated curriculum and
ongoing assessment.

At the University of the Arts, Jan
Norman developed courses in design-
based instruction for undergraduate
and graduate students in collaboration
with Charles Burnette, chair of the
university's industrial design program.
Students who have a strong professional
education in design can become certifiec
to teach K-12 students.

Donna Kay Beattie, associate
professor of art education at Brigham
Young University, shares with Norman
an interest in methods through which
students enrolled in undergraduate
college design programs can acquire
the qualifications to teach in K-12
classrooms. Beattie sees differences
between her students in design and
those engaged in visual arts: "The
design majors are characterized by
open-mindedness and the ability to
approach teaching problems from man;
directions." The Brigham Young pro-
gram also requires a design component
in the art education curriculum and

offers a design specialization option for
art education majors.

Since current university curricula for
the preparation of teachers do not include
the study of design as subject matter
or as a pedagogical strategy, teachers
must rely on their own resourcefulness
to identify design as relevant to their
teaching and to find sources that provide
information in support of design-based
curriculum and instruction. The lack
of recognition of design and design
education by university programs and
the absence of resources in schools for
ongoing teacher education remain serious
obstacles to wider adoption of design-
based instruction.

Instructional Support and
Supervision

The research revealed that instructional
and administrative support for the use
of design in schools and school districts
is uneven. There are a few examples
of strong commitment to design by
district administrators, but the major-
ity of teachers who use design in their
classrooms labor in isolation.

Joel Montero, superintendent of
the Novato Unified School District
in California, is one of the exceptions.
Clearly, Montero understands the
benefits of design-based instruction
and works to sustain a supportive
environment for educators who are

willing to reassess their teaching prac-
tices. Montero says,

What education hasn't done well in the
past is foster applicative learning. "Design-
build" or "design-develop" concepts ask
students to apply what they know. ...We
have several teachers who provide leadership
in this approach. What you need is a ker-
nel of interest, then critical mass at any
school site, and the work begins to evolve
and grow. The district has to be supportive.
It doesn't all work perfectly the first time.
If you're squeamish, get out of the way. You
have to support teachers on the cutting edge.

Montero 's experience with teachers
who use a design approach also
changed his attitudes about who he
needs to hire. He looks for teachers
who are "noncontrollers" and who are
"not afraid of technology." Responding
to what he sees as lack of preparation
by colleges of education, Montero has
developed a three-year "new teacher"
training program that focuses on
application-based learning. In many cases,

he uses his own teachers as inservice
instructors who conduct workshops for
their colleagues.

Finally, Montero takes responsibility
for providing the community with a
picture of success, for translating into
action what an educated person needs to
know. In doing this, Montero involves
the business community through a
"business education roundtable" of
40 companies that advise him and his
teachers about the likely demands of
the workplace in the future.

As Montero demonstrates, to sustain
design-based learning and teaching,
teachers must have ongoing support
from curriculum supervisors and
principals. First, because design is
inherently interdisciplinary, teachers
must receive inservice training and
curriculum materials that balance dis-
ciplinary with interdisciplinary and
cross-disciplinary study. For the most
part, secondary schools charge teachers
with the responsibility for transmitting
discipline-based content. Design-based

To evaluate staff expertise
in teaching through design,
school administrators must
recognize skills developed
by the process itself. Here,
two teachers from the Open
Charter Magnet School
examine their students'
city-building process.

CU111UCLC11L V 111

d 1 S C 1 p 1 1 &38%g

i n t e r d i s
c r o s s - d i

:s.

, the successful use of design

strategies must equally address the
achievement of specific disciplinary
competencies while showing applica-
tions in larger interdisciplinary and
cross-disciplinary contexts. Any strat-
egy that fails to achieve some level of
competency in discipline-based issues

eceive sustained adminis-
in most school systems.
Teachers reqiiire trailing in curriculum
development and instruction to balance
these issues.

Second,

in classrooms demands that curriculum
supervisors be equally knowledgeable
in design so that planning, supervision
of instruction, resource allocation, and
assessment of teachers mirror what is
going on in the classroom. Most
curriculum specialists who support the
use of design in classrooms gained their
interests and expertise through the same
informal channels as teachers. Some
teachers express concern over the lack
of informed specialists who can act as
teacher resources and function as advocates
for innovative teaching in their districts.

Research indicated that courses in
instructional methods, curriculum
development, and assessment are
appropriate venues for the introduction
of new strategies that have their basis
in design. Likewise, university laboratory
schools are logical sites for experimen-
tation and research in the application

of new methods to classrooms. Such
efforts are likely to foster teacher and
curriculum specialist comfort with the
design process and cultivate the confi-
dence necessary for broader adoption
of design-based methods.

Third, the study indicated greater
teacher success in schools where admin-
istrators support development of teacher
teams and bring beginners in design-
based approaches to higher levels of
comfort with methods used by more
experienced coworkers. These adminis-
trators recognize the need to construct
schoolwide systems for collaboration
and renewal of expertise; teachers cannot
create these conditions on their own
while managing the demands of the
normal school day.

While other approaches to education
reform share this need for support,
evidence from several schools suggests
that success is more likely when there
is strong support from administration.
Willamette Primary School, Dranesville
Elementary School, and Dyker Heights
Intermediate School have in-school
curriculum coordinators for design
and technology. As part of the Apple
Computer's Vivarium Project, the
Los Angeles Open Charter Magnet
School provides its design teachers
with instruction support through a
consultancy with Doreen Nelson using
City Building Education. In these

cases, teachers have developed a strong
command of design concepts and pro-
cesses, and they communicate them
well to their students.

The use of design as a strategy for
teaching and learning also holds promise
for teacher assessment and is likely to
give teachers useful feedback to guide
their practice. Because this type of
instruction places the teacher in a role o
facilitator, traditional testing of content
knowledge and classroom procedures
appears insufficient for identifying hovt
successful teachers are. Jim Zinck, chaii
of the science department at Smoky
Hill High School, observes:

Even "new" teacher assessment techniques
often do not apply to teaching activities in
a design classroom. For example, in visiting
a design classroom, I might never observe
the teacher engage the entire class at once.
Instead, the teacher-as-coachlteacher-as-
facilitatorl teacher-as-resource roles would
result in the instructor moving from studen,
to student or team to team offering advice
on strategy, technique, or findings. Some
students or teams working independently
might never be specifically engaged by the
teacher at all {within a normal class
period}. If 1 used the district's (teacher
assessment) form, or a {Madeline} Hunter
form, I'd have to leave much of it blank
because the categories simply don't apply.

100

Beliefs and Assumptions

AS suggested throughout this book,
the use of design in the classroom
challenges traditional beliefs and
assumptions held by and about schools.
Such challenges are inherent in any
reform effort, but design-based curricula
and instruction, in particular, raise
questions about the continuing relevance
of three widespread assumptions:

- Discipline-centered instruction is better
than interdisciplinary or cross-disciplinary
teaching for learning core subjects.

- Design activities are the domain of
gifted and talented students in the arts.

- Schools must provide all the resources
necessary for learning.

The reflective study of design, in
which students think about or com-
ment on design objects or environments
and their contexts, is equally cross-dis-
ciplinary. In looking at the design of
cities, students explore the social, phys-
ical, and cultural environments that
shape human behavior. Social studies,
environmental science, and history play
important roles in such investigations.
In analyzing visual communication,
students "decode" meaning in the
relationship between word and image.
Such assignments integrate skills in the
language arts, art, history, and technol-
ogy. While active involvement in the
design process usually characterizes

most design-based learning, these
reflective activities are also the founda-
tion for developing discriminating
consumers who make critical choices
in their adult lives. Because reflection
on design frequently addresses systems-
level problems, such as communication
and the environment, it is also useful
in showing students how core subjects
relate to each other.

California Polytechnic State
University Dean of Education and
Integrative Studies Sheila McCoy and
others believe design education actually
improves teachers' understanding of
disciplinary content and, in doing so,
prepares them for interdisciplinary

Interdisciplinary Teaching
and Learning

For reasons discussed earlier in this
book, contemporary reformers extol
the value of interdisciplinary and cross-
disciplinary teaching. As an inherently
interdisciplinary activity, the design
process offers an approach for structuring
such study. Because design usually
involves project-based and situated
learning, students who engage in design
activities model the work of adults by
drawing content and skills from those
disciplines necessary to solve a problem.
Knowledge must "work" and be useful,
not merely be acquired for the purpose
of storing facts.

Product designer Vince
Foote explains the science
inherent in athletic shoe
design.

101

multiple ways
the world

teaching. She says, "Design educa-
tion shows that ideas have structures,
too, and that you can take ideas and
make them physical, actual. Design
education forces people to go to the
inherent structure, to go below the
surface, and the more you do this
the better your thinking will be.
You can only build meaningful
connections to your discipline when
you look at its structure." David
Kennedy concurs: "Design tran-
scends all content areas. It organizes
the product of any discipline."

However, interdisciplinary and
cross-disciplinary teaching requires
planning time and extra effort by
teachers. Leona Schauble at the
University of Wisconsin's center on
math and science education says
that in most elementary schools in
this country, "there is almost no
talking from grade to grade and no
sense of what teachers are building
upon or toward." In the elementary
classrooms documented by this
study, teachers prepare new instruc-
tional plans that span several subject
areas. Art, technology, and science
specialists in these schools often
coordinate their work with that of
classroom teachers to ensure that
design activities extend across appro-
priate time periods during the
school day.

Typically, there is less flexibility for
innovation in middle and high schools
because:

- teachers have less control over the division
of the school day;

- school populations are shared by many
teachers;

- society expects older students to engage
in reflective, rather than active, learning
experiences; and

- schools place great emphasis on matching
high school discipline-based study to the
demands of college.

Research findings of this study
support the notion that high schools
are less likely to take a design-based
approach and to engage in interdisci-
plinary or cross-disciplinary study.
Implementing cross-disciplinary design
curricula in the upper grades depends
on altering perceptions about the range

of ways in which schools achieve discipli-
nary expertise. Without administrative
support to alter traditional practices,
such as division of the school day into
regular periods of time and the move-
ment of students to new spaces for each
subject, there can be little change.

An Approach for All Students

One of the persistent misconceptions
about learning is that mastery of basic
skills through repetitive learning
experiences is a necessary prerequisite
for tasks that involve higher-order
thinking skills. The result is that the
education of younger children, and
of older children who perform below
grade expectations, often emphasizes
repetitive tasks and the acquisition of
facts through some prescribed method.
One manifestation of this thinking is
that while gifted-and-talented programs
are frequently the most creative and
interesting, classes for "students at
risk" function in highly regimented
instructional climates.

Several classrooms in this study
serve gifted or privileged populations.
Some classrooms represent magnet
programs or enrichment for academically
gifted students. Others are in schools
that serve affluent neighborhoods
where education is valued highly by
the community. In the overwhelming
majority of the schools studied, however,

teachers work with a broad range of
student abilities representing an array
of economic backgrounds. The research
also identified classrooms in which
design strategies address the needs of
less academically able students. In fact,
teachers comment that design strategies
work better than more traditional
methods in engaging students who are
reluctant learners.

Stephen Knobloch, a teacher at
Dranesville Elementary School, noted,
"One of the greatest benefits [of
design] for students is providing an
opportunity for all students, not just
the gifted/talented students, to experi-
ence higher-level learning by doing.
Many of my most enjoyable teaching
experiences have been with learning
disabled students who have their great-
est success using the design process
and then seeing the 'ah ha'."

Stephen Scanlon, a technology
education teacher at Marlton Middle
School in Marlton, New Jersey, confirms
that students with lower performance
records have an opportunity to succeed
in design experiences. He says, "Design
allows the academically frustrated stu-
dent to realize that 'intelligence' is not
confined to textbooks. Design in my
classroom allows the spotlight to be
turned on students who have formed
negative opinions about their role in
the educational process."

103

Father and daughter build a
geodesic dome out of rotted
newspaper at the Chicago
Architecture Foundation's
"Ingenious Sotutions Famity
Workshop."

Product designer Vince
Foote demonstrates the
science behind traction
for a middte school class
in North Carolina.

In at least one instance, at Warren
County Middle School in North
Carolina, gifted and talented 6th grade
students experienced higher frustration
with the open-ended nature'of their
first design project than did their
lower-performing classmates. These
students were unsettled by the possibility
of many "right" answers and by comments
that the designs could be improved
by exploring alternative viewpoints.
Several refused to go to their next class
until they could do the activity over
again. Steven Scanlon concurs that
design instruction can also offer a bene-
ficial, eye-opening experience for
students already deemed "successful":
"[Design] allows the gifted student
who may be frustrated by the
regimentation of right,
wrong, and one way of
doing things to truly
explore their talents."

It is also impor-
tant to note that
the research found
numerous examples
of effective design-
based learning and
teaching with very
young children, includ-
ing those in kindergarten
Students in the primary grades
understand and engage in the design
process. Concurring with Howard

Gardner and Nigel Cross that there are
multiple ways of knowing the world,
this study affirms that design strategies
provide students of all ages with oppor-
tunities to practice and exhibit their
mastery of information, resources, and
processes through projects that are not
part of the traditional curriculum.

Community and Parent
Support

One of the major strengths of design-
based teaching strategies is that the
community becomes integral to
instruction. Community partnerships
flourish in schools that use design
activities in the classroom, with
graphic designers, industrial designers,
architects, urban planners, con-
tractors, software

developers, and others
playing active roles
in instruction.
Through such
interaction, stu-
dents share their
perceptions of
design issues,
build connections
between school and
work, and expand their
understanding, not only
of careers in design but of
many other adult roles in the com-
munity. Because these encounters take

place within the context of solving
problems, students gain insight into
these varied jobs and come to appreci-
ate how many people shape the built
environment. This type of learning does
not take place in typical "career day"
presentations, where children are simply
told about adult work.

Design activities also involve parents
in their children's education. Teachers
in this study report that parents notice
their children's increased interest in
school when design activities are intro-
duced into the curriculum. Frequently,

assignments spill over into learning
activities in the home, which affords
parents direct observation of student
performance. Teachers also report, how-
ever, that parents occasionally require
careful explanations of curriculum
strategy to see that the school retains a
commitment to basic problem-solving
skills and that strings of projects add
up to more than entertainment. Once
informed, these parents usually become
strong supporters of design-based
approaches to teaching and learning.
Parents and future employers also

express concern over assessment.
Schools must demonstrate how portfo-
lio assessment and performance-based
testing work and what they reveal.
While evidence exists supporting the
validity and reliability of such evalua-
tion, many people are accustomed to
more quantitative indicators of success-
ful learning. Administrators and
teachers should not underestimate the
effort required to achieve public under-
standing and acceptance of more
comprehensive methods of evaluating
what students know and are able to do.

105

CONCLUSIONS AND

Recommendations

the research for this book suggests
that there is great variation in
teachers' understanding of the
design process and design issues. Many
teachers who responded to the ques-
tionnaire interpret all active learning
as design based. Yet building the
Parthenon out of sugar cubes, replicat-
ing the Globe Theatre complete with
thatched roof, making a computer model
of a castle, or constructing an entire vil-
lage out of cardboard, moss, and twigs
are little more than "makework" projects
if teachers cannot clarify for students the
design thinking that lies behind choos-
ing materials, using technology, and
responding to climate and human needs.

Similarly, teachers who don't have a
true understanding of the design process
cannot adequately coach students to
create their own design solutions to a
problem, be it imaginary or real. To be
able to use the full dimensions of design
problem solving to benefit instruction
and learning, many teachers need a better
grounding in the design process so they
understand the unique characteristics
that distinguish it from other activities.

Some teachers confuse visual products
(illustrated book reports, drafted plans
for a house) with design problem solv-
ing, in which students make critical
choices that affect the quality of the
environment, efficiency of products, and

effectiveness of communication. While
illustrating and drafting are valuable
skills that enhance students' work, they
rarely go far enough to involve students
in making choices about or analyzing
important issues related to design or
the subject of their investigation.

Many respondents to our question-
naire described projects in which the
teacher knows the outcome before
students begin the assignment. They
also described exercises in terms of pre-
scribed methods for reaching a solution
rather than in terms of student inquiry
and discovery. These teachers miss the
point of the design process. They stifle
opportunities to broaden students'

107

— missing from most
students' experiences is
the notion that design
shapes and reflects the
perception and behavior
of others.

understanding of the subject matter of
such investigations and usually assess
student performance in terms of how
well a resulting product resembles
their expectations. To truly use design
problem solving, these teachers need
ongoing professional critique of their
assignments and teaching practices as
well as assistance in developing new
facilitation skills.

The number of research examples in
which design itself is a subject of reflec-
tive study are few, indicating teachers'
lack of confidence in and education
about design as well as limited access
to design resources. The teachers who
incorporate reflective study of design
into social studies and arts curricula
generally have prior experience with
the subject through formal study or
with a colleague or family member
who is a design professional. Design
issues are not the normal content of
teacher preparation.

Even the best classroom examples
in our study show a somewhat narrow
view of design. In almost all cases, the
core design issues are physical, and they
center on the study of one or more of
the following:

- the physical conditions to which a design
responds,

- the physical nature of the environment
that design creates,

- connection of a culture with only the
physical attributes of a designed object,
or

- the physical activity required to bring
form to an idea.

While these issues are important —
and examples show how projects
develop design students' thinking
skills — missing from most students'
experiences is the notion that design
shapes and reflects the perception and
behavior of others. They are missing
out on the idea that designers often
make choices based on how they and
others want people to think or act.

The definition of "culture" implicit
in most of the project examples limits
design discussion. In responses to the
questionnaire, teachers describe the
cultural dimensions of designed
objects, environments, or problem
solving in terms of ethnic origin or a
period in one country's history. For
most of the teachers in this study, "cul-
ture" equals only the geographical or
historical location of the design prob-
lem or object of investigation. Rarely
do they view culture as shared systems
of belief, experience, or circumstances
of life. Consequently, few projects
penetrate surface definitions of how
people identify and represent them-
selves through their choices about
environments, products, and communi-

108

Teacher Education

cation — rich territory for discussion
and project development.

Most teacher surveys that describe
active learning use three-dimensional
modeling or construction as primary
activities. Although some teacher
responses to our questionnaire describe
activities in which students make
two-dimensional objects, the majority
of these represent fine-arts projects,
where the primary purpose is self-
expression, or technical drafting
exercises, where the mental aspects
of translating a three- dimensional
object into a two-dimensional repre-
sentation are of lesser importance than
the execution of the drawing itself.

Notably absent in the surveys is
mention of two-dimensional, graphic
communication for the purposes of
explaining, informing, or persuading.
This is surprising considering the
dominance of media in students' lives
and the ease of storing these projects
in comparison to three-dimensional
projects. Teaching students to "encode
and decode" visual information is an
important aspect of literacy in today's
media-rich world and a valuable link
to language arts and the analysis of
scientific and social studies data.

it is evident that wide adoption of
design as a curricular or pedagogical
strategy will not happen without serious
attention to teacher education and the
development of teacher skills, knowl-
edge, and attitudes about design. Such
attention must focus on inservice as well
as preservice professional development.

Although inservice programs broaden
teacher awareness and understanding of
design and its use in the classroom, the
majority are insufficient in bringing
about attitude changes and skills acqui-
sition at levels that prompt permanent
change in teaching practices. Research
indicates that inservice programs encour-
age changes in teacher performance in
the first year after participation, but the
use of new methods declines dramati-
cally in subsequent years. Teachers and
researchers attribute this decline to lack
of positive reinforcement for their work
from school principals, supervisors, and
more experienced colleagues.

The Holmes Group, a consortium
of 84 research universities, seeks to
advance the reform agenda for the
education of professionals who work
in schools.1 Its report, titled Tomorrow's
Schools of Education, cites the weaknesses
of continuing education programs for
teachers as "their overemphasis on
seat-time... [,] their lack of continuity

or sustained assistance over time, and
their lack of close connection to educa-
tional practice as it affects youngsters'
learning" (The Holmes Group 1995, pp.
55- 56). This is the culture into which
design educators must insert them-
selves if progress is to be made through
inservice and continuing education of
teachers in design-based methods.

Currently, few inservice programs
promote the use of design in the
classroom. Most are led by a handful
of university design educators whose
primary responsibilities are teaching and
research in their respective institutions.
These programs range from one-day
workshops to summer institutes, with
limited opportunity for follow-up once
teachers return to their classrooms.

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Taking time to appreciate
good design work validates
the process in the eyes of
younger students.

If education schools do not
equip school professionals to
perform in new ways then as
surely as 5th grade follows
4th grade, most educators
will continue to regard
teaching as show and tell,
learning as passive listening,
knowledge as a litany of
facts, tests as memory
samples, and accountability
as something about which
only students must concern
themselves.

THE HOLMES GROUP,

Tomorrow's Schools of
Education, 1995, p. 9.

Rarely do programs enroll administra-
tors or a team of teaching professionals
from the same school, inhibiting the
development of a cadre for in-house
reinforcement.

The Holmes Group is equally harsh
in its assessment of teacher preservice
education in the United States. Included
in its criticisms is piecemeal reform that
"has proven inadequate because of the
web of connections among the system's
various parts — curriculum, pedagogy,
assessment, texts and materials, and
professional development" (The Holmes
Group 1995, p. 9)- The report goes
on to say that, "Students in education
programs must experience learning
environments where learners search for
meaning, appreciate uncertainty, and
inquire responsibly so they can recreate
such circumstances for their own stu-
dents" (The Holmes Group 1995, p. 12).

Providing a design-based education
for teachers may be more difficult than
it appears. On college campuses with
design programs, faculty and adminis-
trators use already scarce resources to
teach small studio classes to future
design professionals. Access to design
study for majors in nondesign disci-
plines, such as education, is limited.
The studio classes generally involve
making design objects with groups of
15-20 students in highly specialized
work environments and vertical course

structures that require extensive pre-
requisite study. Education majors rarely
compete successfully for registration in
such classes. Clearly, design professors
interested in broader application of
their pedagogical approach should work
with education professors to develop
courses for teachers that illustrate the
design process and its connections to
teaching.

While it is unlikely that expensive
studio-based instruction will be offered
to help reform teacher education, lec-
ture courses present an opportunity
to acquaint prospective teachers with
reflective study where design is a sub-
ject of investigation rather than a
process for making something. However,
most art history or arts studies classes
rarely include a discussion of design in
the syllabus. In the rare instances where
design is a subject of investigation in
these classes, it is usually viewed as a
subspecialty of art and described in
aesthetic terms, apart from issues of
use, social context, and process. College
and university art and design programs
must encourage enrollment of non-
majors in general courses and develop
substantive discussions of critical issues
in design so that teachers can be better
prepared to involve students in the
reflective study of design and to include
them in evaluating and discussing
design's impact on the quality of life.

The job of preparing teachers in
design-based learning strategies, how-
ever, cannot be left to schools of design.
Most are underfunded and struggling
to maintain their traditional studio
teaching practices in academic environ-
ments increasingly influenced by the
efficiency standards that argue in favor
of large lecture classes. They are unlikely
to expand their missions significantly
without additional resources.
Furthermore, schools of design are not
always in proximity to the strongest
education programs. While there are
as many as 500 four-year art and design
programs that teach at least some courses
in graphic design, many of the most
effective are in private art colleges
where there are no teacher education
programs. Architecture programs exist
in 100 institutions, and industrial
design is an even smaller discipline
of study with fewer than 50 programs.
Collaborations between schools of
education and schools of design — and
broader access to design courses for
education majors — is a fundamentally
sound strategy that should be encour-
aged,, but the small numbers of design
faculty argue against this approach as
a means for expanding design-based
practices in U.S. schools.

The most promising approach is
to introduce design-based instruction
into schools of education. By training

110

education professors in the content
and methods of design, or by hiring
designers as part of their teaching staffs,
college and university education pro-
grams can support the development of
well-informed teaching professionals
who use design-based methods in their
schools.

The most obvious place for such
integration is in teaching methods
courses. The first university design
and education Master's degree program
began in 1995 at California State
Polytechnic University at Pomona.
Doreen Nelson, with a joint teaching
appointment in the Colleges of
Education and Environmental Design,
launched a Master of Arts program in
education, focusing on design and cre-
ativity. Smaller scale efforts include the
work of Charles Burnette and Jan
Norman at the University of the Arts
in Philadelphia; Susan Dunn at Lewis
and Clark College in Portland, Oregon;
and Meredith Davis and Robin Moore
at North Carolina State University in
Raleigh. Clearly, others will emerge. To
maximize and sustain impact, however,
it is important that these programs not
become islands of specialization within
an otherwise unchanged system of
teacher preparation. The achievements of
teachers who use design-based pedagogy
show promise that other teachers' work
can be enhanced by design education.

By hiring designers as part of their teaching
staffs, education programs can support the
development of well-informed teaching profes-
sionals who use design-based methods in their
schools.

Ill

Supporting Systemwide Change

THIS BOOK points out the importance
of systemwide support for the work
of design-based teachers and learners.
Across the history of the design in
education movement, we find many
examples of successful teachers abandon-
ing design-based strategies because the
energy required to sustain innovative
teaching in the face of administrative
indifference was too great. In many
cases, these teachers also lacked teach-
ing peers who shared their interest in
design; they had no counsel for their
own teaching problems and no follow-
up support for their students. Just as
important, their school systems lacked
reference materials and substantive
research to support the decision to
pursue a design approach to teaching.
As reported throughout this study,
teachers who have administrative sup-
port for the use of design in classrooms
achieve rich outcomes with their students
and sustain success across the school

Administrative support includes knowledgeable
principals and curriculum specialists who understand
the fundamental processes of design.

112

year and from one year's class to the
next. Such schools support an atmos-
phere of innovation and the creative
involvement of teachers in curriculum
development. These educators also are
effective members of teaching teams
because their school ensures conditions
that foster joint planning, instruction,
and assessment. Student achievements
build progressively from one class to
the next and from year to year because
the school consistently places high value
on thinking and open-ended inquiry,
rather than on the acquisition of facts
and mastery of skills detached from
holistic problem solving.

Administrative support includes
knowledgeable principals and curric-
ulum specialists who understand the
fundamental processes of design inquiry
and the impact of design-based teaching
and learning. They are able to make
changes in the structure of the school
day, allocate resources, and hire teacher
colleagues who facilitate the use of
design in the classroom. They share
responsibility for, rather than dictate,
curriculum, and they include a broad
set of performances in their definitions
of teacher assessment. In student
assessment, they show more interest
in substantive learning results than
in reporting; they see assessment as
ongoing feedback about student learning
accomplishments that helps teachers

confirm or redirect strategies. They are
slow to make judgments on the basis of
a single activity and support innovation
in the interest of long-term achievement.

Through well-communicated presen-
tations of philosophy and goals, these
strong administrators use their positions
to attract community professionals and
parents into the classroom. They involve
themselves in the active life of the school
and make frequent visits to classrooms
and student presentations. Evidence of
student work fills the physical environ-
ment of their schools, and they tolerate
rearrangement of rooms and furniture.
They provide a well-articulated vision
of teaching and learning that inspires
teachers and sustains focused commit-
ment across time.

To become such an administrator
requires experience and education.
To date, most design-based training
programs are for classroom teachers;
curriculum specialists occasionally
participate. While principals often
endorse teacher participation in design
education programs, they themselves
rarely attend lectures and workshops
as students of this approach. Further-
more, existing workshops fail to address
the pressing concerns of principals and
other school, district, and state admin-
istrators: raising test scores, the success
rate of graduates, keeping children in
school, and working with decreasing

Substantiating Achievement Through
Credible Assessment

budgets. Workshops that show admin-
istrators how design-based programs
contribute to meeting school-level
challenges are necessary to expand the
influence of these practices in schools.
Research that analyzes and documents
successful implementation of design-
based approaches in other schools is
needed to convince and support
administrators who decide to pursue
alternative strategies.

Just as design-based teaching depends
on supportive administration in schools,
principals of schools that use design
look for confirmation that districts and
states value their schools' teaching and
learning achievements. District and
state departments of public instruction
should lead and foster educational
reform to prevent single schools from
becoming refreshing oases in an other-
wise mediocre educational environment.
To accomplish this, state administrators
should fund and pilot studies and pub-
lish research in the use of design-based
strategies. They should promote the
successes of design-based learning and
provide training for schools that wish
to learn about its methods and out-
comes. Because of the movement to
site-based management of schools,
administrators also should educate
the public about design approaches
to learning before wider adoption can
take place.

THE ANECDOTAL information pro-
vided by the committed, professional
educators contacted for this study, as
well as the on-site observations and
numerous interviews conducted by the
research team, reveal compelling evi-
dence of the benefits of design-based
teaching and learning. Furthermore,
there are strong correlations between
design education methods and many
of the curricular objectives and instruc-
tional approaches being advocated by
leading researchers and education
reformers today.

Nevertheless, before schools, districts,
states, and teacher education programs
embrace the use of design in the class-
room, they must be convinced of its
success. This study only opens the door
onto a subject with a myriad of educa-
tional dimensions to explore. To broaden
the influence of design in education in
the United States and extend its benefits
to more of the nation's students, educa-
tors must go beyond telling stories to
develop appropriate, authentic instru-
ments for determining student and
program success.

Developing and maintaining the
administration of performance-based
tests, in which the form of the test
demands application of the skills and
content being tested, will not be easy.
Myron Atkin at Stanford University
notes: "There is a lot of nostalgia

about assessment. People support
tests that look like tests used to look.
California has experimented with
performance-based assessment, but it is
very expensive and people are impatient.
They turn to something else when
results are not immediate. What we're
looking at in education today won't be
there six or seven years from now; the
political cycles exert pressure to deliver
quick results. Politicians believe they
have a strong role to play in what edu-
cators do. This is not true in Europe,
where the teaching profession is more
highly respected, so you will see much
greater strides in reform and assess-
ment in other countries."

Kathryn Loncar, Associate Professor
of Education at the University of
Missouri, conducted a review of Ginny
Graves' design-based curriculum, Walk
Around the Block. Her study confirms
that rigorous assessment is one chal-
lenge facing proponents. She says, "To
be convincing and to promote design in
education, we need documentation of
student performance on standardized
tests." She feels the anecdotal evidence
is persuasive, but in the current political
climate, numbers count.

Susan Dunn, former instructional
coordinator at Willamette Primary
School, says her current school gives
standardized tests, but fewer than
before the adoption of design-based

In research terms, the major
dependent variables of
schooling are not scores on
standardized tests, whether
norm- or criterion-referenced:
they are the kinds of ideas
children are willing to explore
on their own, the kinds of
critical skills they are able
to employ on tasks outside
classrooms, and the strength
of their curiosity in pursuing
the issues they will inevit-
ably encounter in the course
of their lives.

ELLIOT EISNER, What Really
Counts in Schools

113

sharing with

Others what you
have done

approaches. They are used more as an
audit of how well everyone is doing.
She believes, however, that assessment
is "sharing with others what you have
done, which includes people who hold
evaluation responsibility," such as prin-
cipals and instructional coordinators.
Dunn says, "This evaluation can't be
punitive and must encourage risk taking.
Furthermore, administrators need to be
teaching in the classroom to assess this
approach." Dunn also encourages her
teachers to talk about learning in their
classrooms with the phrase "When our
students are doing design. . . " rather
than saying, "Our children do design."
This forces teachers to complete the
phrase with a description of learning
outcomes that gives outsiders a better
picture of student achievement and
frames their accomplishments in terms of
thinking skills, rather than cute products.

Educational psychologist Leona
Schauble comments that, "Design
externali7.es evidence of how students
think and lets how they think govern
teaching. The evaluation criteria are
public in the classroom, unlike other
forms of assessment."

As demonstrated by the schools
in this study, performance-based and
portfolio assessment seem appropriate
methods for measuring individual
student learning. These methods are
consistent with the latest research in
learning and assessment, and they
provide useful feedback to teachers,
students, and parents. They also employ
dimensions critical to the design
process, including:

- evaluation of holistic problem solving
in which thinking and doing are as
important as the products of thought
and action;

- assessment across time, rather than as
single measurement at one moment in
time; and

- accommodation of differences in stu-
dents' learning preferences and ways of
demonstrating mastery.

Yet there is little agreement within
and among these schools, even in
similar subject areas and grade levels,
about what constitutes an appropriate
portfolio of work, the criteria against
which teachers and schools measure

excellence, and the ways in which
teachers and schools report individual
learning achievements. While many
of the teachers in our study are clear
about assessment criteria and strategies
for individual projects, they offer little
insight as to how the projects fit into
the overall assessment of student perfor-
mance in their subject area or among
subjects where cross-disciplinary strate-
gies occur.

Further, design-based educators
have yet to develop effective ways for
linking individual student assessments
to the evaluation of schools and dis-
tricts. While the work in the United
Kingdom offers insight into large-
scale assessment, the British adoption
of a national curriculum has no parallel
in U.S. education. Despite promotion
of voluntary national standards in core
subjects, movement toward site-based
management and local curriculum
control present even greater challenges
to reporting statistically significant
outcomes from the use of design in
U.S. classrooms.

Because design is frequently the
method of inquiry, rather than the sub-
ject of inquiry, it is often difficult to
attribute learning achievements to the
presence of design in the curriculum
through periodic assessment in core
subjects. The New Standards project
(described in Appendix A) shows

114

Teacher Resources

promise in capturing this type of learn-
ing success through its assessment of
Applied Learning. In these performance-
based exercises, students test a range
of problem-solving skills that are not
linked to specific school subjects and that
share much in common with the design
activities described earlier in this report.
Clearly, the task ahead is to develop
and implement assessment criteria and
strategies that will produce reliable and
valid evidence of design-based educa-
tion's value, in terms understandable
to parents as well as educators. This
must be done within the current con-
text of "reporting and accountability"
that characterizes U.S. education, while
remaining true to the nature of design
activity and learning. At the same time,
the advocates and practitioners of
design-based education should demon-
strate the common elements among
national voluntary standards in core
subjects — problem-solving mastery,
communication skills, critical thinking,
linking school with life and work — and
connect their achievement to design-
based teaching strategies and curricula
through credible assessment.

THOSE WHO TRAIN teachers in
design-based methods report frequent
requests for reference materials on design
and teaching design to help educators
continue their study after workshops
end. Other teachers comment that wider
availability of design- based lesson plans
in various disciplines would provide use-
ful models from which they could build
their own projects.

Plainly, there are few resources
through which teachers and adminis-
trators can learn about design and the
use of design in education. The publi-
cations that do exist are hard to find
and not widely publicized in teacher
journals. While experts debate the
advisability of developing prepackaged
programs that do not take into account
the characteristics of individual schools
and classrooms, it is clear that litera-
ture to support instruction is needed
if college and university teacher educa-
tion programs are to invest in design-
based curriculum development.

While some publishers include more
project suggestions in the teacher's
editions of their books in response to
increased interest in active learning,
most write textbooks as if they were
lectures. Even many interactive media
products organize content in structures
that resemble passive books, not inter-
active hypertext environments. These
products often ignore divergent learn-

ing strategies that allow students to
move through content in a self-deter-
mined order according to their specific
needs. Rarely are interactive media
programs linked to physical activity
outside the computer or to solving a
problem for which the programmer
has no predictable solution. The next
move for authors of design-based cur-
ricula should be to collaborate with
textbook publishers and developers of
curriculum materials. Once textbooks
reflect these innovative strategies, there
will be wider use of design methods.

Among the resources teachers need
is a network of other teachers using
design in the classroom. Curriculum
control necessarily resides at state and
local levels in the United States, yet

Participants in a
Cooper-Hewitt
National Design
Museum workshop
test their creation.

115

A teacher, ideally conceived,
is a designer who helps
learners to design
themselves.

DAVID PERKINS, Knowledge as
Design, p. 230

elementary and secondary teachers any-
where in the country have a wealth of
support systems to rely upon and can
benefit from the insights and innova-
tions of their peers in areas such as
curriculum development, instructional
practice, and assessment techniques.
Among these support systems are state
and district specialists in various disci-
plines, state and national associations
linking members by grade level or
subject area, technical assistance hot-
lines, Web sites, and workshops offered
by textbook and software publishers,
and newsletters distributed by various
education reform initiatives.

In contrast, teachers attempting to
integrate design topics and methods
into their practice are relatively isolated
from one another and from researchers,
curriculum developers, and other advo-
cates of design-based learning. At
present, no organization coordinates
a national network of teachers, work-
shops, or the distribution of materials
related to the use of design in K-12
classrooms. Nor have special interest
groups focusing on design methods
emerged within the major discipline-
based teacher associations.

Instead there are numerous comple-
mentary, but generally unconnected,
efforts relating to design-based educa-
tion. As recounted earlier in this book,
some are based in community institu-

tions such as museums or local chapters
of professional design associations; others
are tied to schools of education, schools
of design, or nonprofit organizations
with a regional or national scope. Still
others are short-lived, multiyear pro-
jects funded by federal agencies or
foundations. In each case, the indivi-
duals involved may develop and even
publish curriculum materials relating
to design in education. But often these
materials are printed in limited editions
or receive insufficient marketing to
attract a national audience.

The institutions that house pioneer-
ing design education programs also

may present unintended impediments
to the broad dissemination of their work.
Some authors of relevant curricula are
designers who teach part-time in schools
of education, or they may be the only
faculty with K-12 interests in schools of
design. Professional design associations,
while supportive of K-12 initiatives,
have other concerns that frequently
take budget and program precedence
over primary and secondary education.
Furthermore, these associations generally
focus on one design discipline, and their
school programs follow suit.

Public and private sector funders of
pilot projects, curriculum development,

116

Reference

or other research directly focused on
design in education may also be unaware
of their overlapping interests and not
informed of the progress made by each
other's grantees. At the federal level
alone, the Department of Education,
Department of Energy, Environmental
Protection Agency, National Endowment
for the Arts, National Endowment for
the Humanities, National Science
Foundation, and other agencies have
all funded projects relevant to design
in education (whether or not their
design dimensions were fully articulated
and explored). Similarly, relevant pro-
jects receive funding from numerous
private and corporate foundations,
sometimes under the aegis of science
and math reform, at other times in the
areas of art education, technology, and
school-business partnerships. With
rare exceptions, however, few of these
hinders work jointly across disciplines.
Neither do they support pilot projects
or research efforts with adequate
resources or over sufficient periods of
time to enable painstaking assessment
of learning outcomes, longitudinal
study of student populations, or wide-
spread dissemination of results.

As this book shows, however,
teachers who see the relevance of design
to their practice and its multiple bene-
fits to their students' lives and learning
can be found in all corners of the
United States, teaching all grade levels
and subject areas, working both alone
and with other teachers, and reaching
all types of students. Surely there is a
critical mass of developing interest,
which — if supported by strategic
investments in networking, preservice
training, resource dissemination, and
further research — will lead to a quan-
tum leap in the integration of design
methods across the spectrum of U.S.
education. Design will then have a
positive, catalytic influence not only
on students' learning, but also on U.S.
schools and communities.

The Holmes Group. (1995). Tomorrow's
Schools of Education. East Lansing,
Michigan: The Holmes Group, Inc.

1 In 1996. The Holmes Group became The Holmes Partnership, 101 Willard Hall Education Building, University of Delaware,
Newark, Delaware 19716.

117

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Appendix A

DESIGN EDUCATION

in the Context of Education
Reform

the relevance of a design approach
to teaching and learning is evident
when viewed within the context
of education reform. After more than a
decade of heralding the need to improve
schools, educators still search for prac-
tical strategies for achieving reform
goals. This summary of recent reform
initiatives illustrates the connections
between our national aspirations for
improving education and the outcomes
of incorporating design experiences in
K-12 classrooms.

A Nation at Risk

the 1983 report of the National
Commission on Excellence in Education
expressed what many educators and
policymakers long believed: Deteriorat-
ing academic performance would soon
lead to significant social and economic
problems in the United States. The
report was blunt about the implications
for the country. "Our once unchallenged
preeminence in commerce, industry,
science and technological innovation
is being overtaken by competitors

throughout the world." This powerful
report focused national attention on the
fact that our schools were no longer
adequate to prepare students for suc-
cessful adult lives.

Despite considerable debate over
the possible reasons for the decline in
U.S. education — including insufficient
funding for schools, decline in standards
of excellence, increase in the number of
students placed at risk, loss of common
values, poor teacher training, inadequate
leadership, irrelevant curricula, and
lack of community support — several

119

...deliberately linked the nation's future
economic prosperity to the quality of
today's education

areas of consensus have emerged over
the past decade. Parents, teachers,
administrators, and community leaders
in the debate tend to agree that:

- Many schools do not develop in
children the basic skills, knowledge,
and attitudes necessary to become
productive adults.

- All schools must build connections
among the academic disciplines and
between in-school experiences and the
rest of children's lives.

- A successful life in the 21st century
will depend less on mastery of specific
facts and more on skill in accessing,
analyzing, organizing, and acting upon
information. There is an increasing need
to use knowledge, rather than simply
acquire it.

- All schools must engage students in ways
that respond to their natural curiosity and
individual ways of learning, providing
multiple points of entry into subject
matter and a variety of assessment
strategies.

Attempts to achieve these reform
goals began in the United States in the

1980s. Initial efforts tightened, and in
the case of the arts increased, high school
graduation requirements and increased
periodic standardized testing of students
at all levels. Later came the decentraliza-
tion of program management in many
school systems, providing principals,
teachers, and parents a greater say in
what is taught, by whom, and how.
Experiments in site-based management
empowered teachers to make local deci-
sions about curriculum, assessment, and
educational policy. A few districts have
extended the school day or lengthened
the school calendar in the belief that
time in the classroom contributed to the
quality of student performance. More
recently, even greater numbers of dis-
tricts have instituted "block schedules,"
lengthening the time spent on a subject
in a single period in high school, but
requiring only a total of four subjects
per day.

However, in spite of these and other
developments since 1983, as Diane

Massell and colleagues (Massell,
Fuhrman, Kirst, Odden, Wohlstetter,
Carver, and Yee 1993, p. 5) observe in
their review of education reform over
the last decade, "The kind of standard-
setting launched by A Nation at Risk
did not directly address the academic
content of schooling. It required more
seat time in courses labeled science
and mathematics, for example, but
did not insure the quality of science
and mathematics courses that students
would receive."

As reform efforts have continued,
educators have placed increasing
attention on the nature and content
of instruction. In 1988, the National
Council of Teachers of Mathematics
(NCTM) issued a set of grade-specific
standards for mathematics. These stan-
dards remain the model for defining
national content objectives in other
disciplines.

A watershed event in efforts to estab-
lish national priorities for education
improvement was the 1987 publication
of Workforce 2000: Work and Workers for
the 21st Century. This report established
a national framework for what students
must achieve, and it deliberately linked
the nation's future economic prosperity
to the quality of today's education. In
response to this overarching summary
of the nation's need for a well-educated
.and occupationally flexible workforce,

120

The Goals in Brief

Goals 2000

a number of public and private-
sponsored commissions and task forces
went to work devising strategies to meet
the challenges posed in this seminal
report. Three have direct relevance to
design-based learning. They are: Goals
2000 and the formalization of national
education policy, The Secretary's
Commission on Achieving Necessary
Skills (SCANS), and voluntary national
content standards in basic subjects,
including the arts.

More recently, the work of the New
Standards Project, a collaboration of
the Learning Research and Development
Center (LRDC) at the University of
Pittsburgh and the National Center on
Education and the Economy (NCEE),
holds promise for building an assessment
system that measures student progress
in meeting national standards. The
assessment system has three components:
performance descriptions in English/
language arts, mathematics, science,
and applied learning; an on-demand
examination; and a portfolio assess-
ment system. Of particular relevance
to the discussion of design approaches
to teaching and learning are the perfor-
mance descriptions in applied learning
and the portfolio assessment.

from a historic summit in 1989,
jointly convened by the National
Governors Association and President
George Bush, came national goals for
education that, with some revisions,
Congress codified as Federal policy in
1994 in the Goals 2000: Educate
America Act. These eight goals describe
the conditions and outcomes for educa-
tion and list core subjects in which all
students must achieve mastery of skills
and knowledge. The Goals 2000 legis-
lation added two goals to the original
six developed in 1989 and includes
the arts among the core subjects out-
lined in Goal 3. The use of design in
education holds great significance for
achieving several of these goals.

The full language of Goal 3 expresses
concern for students' thinking and
problem-solving skills by indicating that
"all students learn to use their minds
well." The implication is that schools
currently pay less attention to building
students' full range of cognitive abilities
than to the subjects of their thought.
Design-based learning, on the other
hand, places a high value on examining
modes of inquiry and developing
flexible thinking skills that are useful
across disciplines. Furthermore, more
children succeed in classrooms when
the instructional approaches tolerate
and encourage a variety of learning
styles and modes of inquiry.

Goal 4 calls for excellent preservice
and inservice training of teachers. While
most college programs prepare teachers
in the subjects they will later teach,
college curricula lag behind in develop-
ing and disseminating new teaching
methods that respond to the most recent
research about how children learn.
Many teacher education programs fail
to equip teachers with the thinking
skills necessary to invent new learning
experiences or a vision of themselves as
more than the repositories of data.

As this book illustrates, there is
impressive evidence that teachers who
use design in their classrooms are more
excited about teaching and view them-
selves as creative professionals. There is
also confirmation that these teachers
acquire their skill with innovation
through sources other than their college
or university education and that they
are ambassadors for a design approach
with their teaching colleagues. Because
design-based approaches to teaching
transcend the boundaries of subject
matter, address the diversity of student
learning styles, and actively engage
teachers in building innovative curricula,
design education shows great promise as
a model for reforming teacher education.

Goal 6 emphasizes the creation of
a literate and productive workforce,
prepared for competition in the global
economy and active in the life of the

By the year 2000 . . .

Goal 1: All children in
America will start school
ready to learn.

Goal 2: The high school
graduation rate will increase
to at least 90%.

Goal 3: All students will
Leave grades 4, 8, and 12
having demonstrated
competency over challenging
subject matter including
English, mathematics, science,
foreign languages, civics and
government, economics, the
arts, history, and geography.

Goal 4: U.S. students will
be first in the world in
mathematics and science
achievement.

Goal 5: Every adult American
will be literate and will pos-
sess the knowledge and skills
necessary to compete in a
global economy and exercise
the rights and responsibilities
*of citizenship.

Goal 6: Every school in the
United States will be free of
drugs, violence, and the
unauthorized presence of
firearms and alcohol, and
will offer a disciplined
environment conducive
to learning.

Goal 7: The nation's teaching
force will have access to
programs for the continued
improvement of their profes-
sional skills.

Goal 8: Every school will
promote partnerships that
will increase parental
involvement and participa-
tion in promoting the social,
emotional, and academic
growth of children.

Design activities teach
children to make intelligent
choices about technology, to
design technology to

solve, pn.ablems,

and to deil 11 6 the preferred
role of machines
in their lives.

community. The use of design in the
classroom achieves these objectives.
Ours is an increasingly visual world;
literate adults are those who can inter-
pret, judge, and act upon visual as well
as verbal and quantitative information.
Television, magazines, and newspapers
like USA Today demand discriminating
readers of visual messages. Design
activities teach students to communi-
cate fluently in both visual and verbal
modes of expression and to be critical
readers of information in all forms.
Design experiences frequently employ
modeling and diagramming that reveal
the true nature of information and the
complex relationships among ideas. If
students are to be masters of informa-
tion and not unknowing victims of
persuasion, they must develop visual
literacy at levels equal to their command
of verbal language.

Technological literacy will be equally
important in the next century. Citizens
without access to information networks
risk exclusion from democratic processes
and decision making in their work and
communities. A technologically
unskilled workforce faces extinction. Yet

simply acquiring software skills is not
sufficient to address the goal of tech-
nological literacy. Literacy also is about
knowing what to say and how to say it.
Students must know when to use spe-
cific technologies and how to account
for the degree to which tools determine
outcomes. They need to be critical users
of technology who demand human-
centered, rather than machine-centered,
approaches to solving problems.

Design experiences integrate
technology instruction with the goal of
solving human dilemmas. Designers
think of technology as "a choice about
the way to do things," rather than as a
predetermined method of operation or a
tool. Their models can be sophisticated
three-dimensional computer diagrams or
wooden sticks held together with glue.
Each informs its creator and others in
different ways. Design activities teach
children to make intelligent choices
about technology, to design technology
to solve problems, and to define the
preferred role of machines in their lives.

Exercising the rights and responsi-
bilities of citizenship demands a range
of skills not often fostered by traditional
teaching practices. Schools usually
encourage individual performance at
the expense of shared accomplishment.
Where team assignments exist, they
frequently lack an explicit framework
for working together and leave stu-

dents skeptical about relinquishing
control of tasks to their peers. Design
activities, on the other hand, involve
students in the process of choice,
usually as members of teams focused on
solving a single problem. The design
process guides their work, introducing
structured critique and collective judg-
ment throughout the process. Through
such experiences, children learn team-
work and strategies for participation in
issues and labor that involve differing
points of view. The design process
provides a clear structure for generating
alternatives, making choices, and
resolving conflicts of opinion.

Design activities also challenge stu-
dents to explore the social and cultural
contexts implicit in their design tasks.
The subjects of their investigation are
often the very issues they will confront
as adults: the location of a city park,
the match between the architecture of
a public building and the values of a
community, solutions to community
recycling of discarded products, and
visual communications that encourage
and inform public debate on important
issues. Design experiences, unlike those
in many other academic disciplines,
require no special translation to life
outside of school. They engage students
in content and model practical
processes that are intrinsic to life as
responsible citizens.

122

The Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS)

THE U.S. DEPARTMENT of Labor

convened representatives from education,
business, labor, and government to
identify the skills and competencies
that workers of the future will need "to
encourage a high performance economy
characterized by high-skills, high-wage
employment." The final report, issued
in July 1992, named five competencies
and a three-part foundation of skills
and personal qualities the Commission
believed necessary for strong future job
performance (see Figure A-l).

Figure A.l

The SCANS recommendations
provide curricular and pedagogical
frameworks for preparing students
for adult life and pose a substantial
challenge to the major institutions
charged with responsibility for devel-
oping worker competencies. The report
distinguishes, in a commonsense way,
the elements of being "educated" and
then introduces a set of higher-order
competencies necessary for successful
participation in future economics and
politics.

Of particular relevance to the use of
design in schools are the five competen-
cies identified by the National Board
on Workplace Skills as central to the
productive workforce of the future:

- use and manipulation of information,

- use and allocation of available resources,

- use of technology,

- understanding and use of systems, and

- use of interpersonal skills.

Key Worker Competencies, Skills, and Qualities Identified by Scans

Competencies for Productive Work

The Foundation for
Effective Mastery and Use of Key Competencies

Use of Resources
Use of Information

Interpersonal Skills

Using Systems
Using Technology

Allocates time, money, materials, space, and staff to
achieve desired ends

Acquires and evaluates information; Organizes and
maintains information; Interprets and communicates
information; Uses computers to process information

Participates as a member of a team; Teaches others;
Serves clients/customers; Exercises leadership;
Negotiates to arrive at a decision; Works with
people with culturally diverse backgrounds

Understands systems; Monitors and corrects
performance; Improves and designs systems

Selects technology; Applies technology to task;
Maintains and trobleshoots technology

Basic
Skills

Thinking
Skills

Personal
Qualities

Reading

Creative thinking

Responsibility

Writing

Decision-making

Self-esteem

Arithmetic

Problem-solving

Sociability

Mathematics

Seeing things
in the mind's eye

Self-management

Listening

Knowing how
to learn

Integrity /honesty

Speaking

Reasoning

Source: The Secrerary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills, What Work Requires of Schools: A SCANS Report for America 2000
(Washington D.C.: U.S. Department of Labor).

123

Many of the reasons for using design
activities to achieve SCANS objectives
are the same as those discussed with
reference to Goals 2000, yet a few
require elaboration in terms of how
design relates to the SCANS report.

While a literate citizenry knows
how to interpret, judge, and act on
information, its members also must be
active makers of messages and able to
manipulate information in ways that
lead to the discovery or application
of new knowledge. Design activities

develop the ability to enhance and
transform ideas through the visualiza-
tion, manipulation, and application
of data to problem solving. Through
design projects, students learn to reveal
meaning in facts, to view the same
information from many viewpoints, and
to expose various dimensions of data
through alternate forms of presentation.

While the role technology plays in
this manipulation and application of
data is increasingly important to work,
so is the development of technology

itself. Design projects encourage the
invention of new ways of doing work
more efficiently. Beginning with sim-
ple projects and moving to complex
technological solutions, design-based
education encourages students not to
accept the limitations of current tech-
nology in the solution of problems.
Instead, they should invent the means
for doing something, as well as the
solution itself.

Also among the strengths of design-
based education is student learning
about the use and allocation of resources.
Through design projects, students gain
firsthand experience in closing the dis-
tance between the resources they think
are necessary for the very best solution
to the problem and what they can
afford. They learn to view objects and
environments in terms of their total life
cycle (from raw materials to disposal or
reuse), increasing their awareness of the
environmental, social, and economic
consequences of design decisions.
Students also learn to assess quality in
terms of the integrity of materials and
the processes that shape them. Finally,
students learn about human resources
and that the solution to a problem
may not be physical but social. They
discover the efficiency and effectiveness
of teamwork and planning, as well as
the economic value of processes such as
prototyping and formative evaluation.

124

Voluntary National Content
and Performance Standards

the third major initiative for U.S.
national education reform in the early
to mid-1990s was the development of a
coordinated effort to articulate curricu-
lar expectations for core subjects in the
schools. Following the announcement
of national education goals by
the governors and the White House in
1989, a working group of governors
recommended voluntary national stan-
dards as a yardstick against which to
measure achievement. In response,
Congress established a special council
to examine expert opinion regarding
appropriate high-level standards of
achievement in various disciplines. The
intent was "to raise the ceiling for stu-
dents who are currently above average
and to lift the floor for those who now
experience the least success in school,
including those with special needs"
(The National Council on Education
Standards and Testing 1992).

The National Council of Teachers
of Mathematics published its suggested
standards for mathematics in 1988.
Based in part on the conclusions and
recommendations of the report of the
National Council on Education Standards
and Testing, the U.S. Department of
Education solicited proposals and
awarded grants for standard-setting
projects in a number of core subjects.
Voluntary national standards in the arts
(dance, music, theatre, and the visual

arts) were completed and disseminated
in early 1994, followed by voluntary
standards in U.S. and world history,
geography, civics and government,
science, and English/language arts.

The standards describe what every
American student should know and be
able to do in various disciplines, repre-
senting "a common vision of competence
and educational effectiveness . . . not how
those results ought to be delivered"
(Consortium of National Arts Education
Associations 1994, p. 12). Through a
consensus process, organizations charged
with developing standards articulated
content and achievement standards for
students at grades 4, 8, and 12. While
developers of the National Standards for
Arts Education made efforts to include
design, the work of other disciplines
also reflects competencies that can be
achieved through design-based strate-
gies and teaching attitudes that are
consistent with a design approach.

As the voluntary standards in the
core subjects of the National Education
Goals emerge, as well as the expecta-
tions they convey for what students
should know and are able to do, they
must inform the design and implemen-
tation of assessments. The means for
gauging our progress as a nation toward
achieving these high expectations in
core subjects is through the National
Assessment of Educational Progress

. children [earn

how

children

(NAEP), which is funded by Congress
and commonly referred to as The
Nation's Report Card. NAEP periodi-
cally assesses students in grades 4, 8,
and 12 in the core subject areas listed
in the National Education Goals. The
National Assessment of Educational
Progress in the Arts, scheduled for
1997, is one of the first NAEP subject
assessments to be based on the volun-
tary national standards and to use
performance-based projects in visual art
and design. The next comprehensive
NAEP assessment in the arts is sched-
uled for 2007.

National reform efforts reflect gov-
ernment and industry concern that
our schools view their decisions about
instruction and curriculum within the
context of the society in which students
will perform as adults. They also
acknowledge that emphasis must shift
from acquiring discrete facts to learning
processes that help people succeed
within an environment characterized
by a rapidly changing knowledge base.
While the preceding initiatives focus
on what children learn, others look for
greater understanding of how they learn.

125

New Performance Standards
in Applied Learning

J J how good

is good enough?

"CONTENT STANDARDS Specify 'what

students should know and be able to
do'; petfotmance standatds go the next
step to specify 'how good is good
enough'" (National Center on Educa-
tion and the Economy [NCEE] and the
University of Pittsbutgh 1997, p. 3).
Unlike discipline-specific standards,
the performance standards in applied
learning focus on "connecting the work
students do in school with the demands
of the twenty-first century workplace . . .
on the capabilities people need to be
productive members of society, as
individuals who apply the knowledge .
gained in school and elsewhere to ana-
lyze problems and propose solutions, to
communicate effectively and coordinate
action with others, and to use the tools
of the information age in the work-
place" (NCEE 1997, p. 5).

By drawing attention to distinct
performance standards for applied
learning, the authors establish a
"domain for assessment and reporting
student achievement" (NCEE 1997, p.
112). Assessing students' performance
in applied learning is not an appeal for
a new subject in American classrooms,
but acknowledgment that such areas
of competence apply to all subjects and
within the context of cross-curricular
learning experiences.

Problem solving is a primary con-
cern of the standards. The performance

description focuses on productive
activity and three kinds of problem
solving. Middle school students must
conduct projects in at least two of the
following:

- Design a product, service, or system in
which the student identifies needs that
could be met by new products, services,
or systems and creates solutions for
meeting them;

- Improve a system in which the student
develops an understanding of the way
systems of people, machines, and
processes work; troubleshoots problems
in their operation and devises strategies
for improving their effectiveness;

- Plan and organize an event or activity in
which the student takes responsibility for
all aspects of planning and organizing
an event or an activity from concept to
completion (NCEE 1997, p. 112).

Standards related to "tools and tech-
niques" center on the problem-solving
standard and are "only meaningful
when considered in the context of work
that has a genuine purpose and audience"
and "put to use in an integrated way"
(NCEE 1997, p. 112). The standards
calling for students to make effective
use of information technology and to
present project plans or results to audi-
ences beyond the school overlap with
other areas of competence. However, in
all cases, evidence of achievement in
these standards must be concrete and
demonstrated through a work product.

126

References

Assessment activities aimed at evalu-
ating student mastery of the performance
standards bear striking resemblance to
design projects mentioned earlier in this
book. Designing and building a wheel-
chair access ramp, conducting an energy
audit of the classroom and developing
procedures for reducing waste, designing
and conducting a community survey to
inform local city or county council
decisions about the future use of a
community-owned building, and pub-
lishing a brochure advertising the
school for new students are consistent
with the activities developed by teachers
identified through this study.

In the 1995-96 testing of applied
learning portfolios, however, developers
found most of the teachers and students
in the 50 middle school test classrooms
had no prior experience with such pro-
jects. Yet the development of assessment
systems have a powerful effect on
teaching practices and curricula in the
United States. Assessments signal what
society values in education and provide
a means for describing the achievement
of goals, effectiveness of practices, and
relevance of outcomes. As future assess-
ment strategies, whether at national,
state, or local levels, value the knowledge
and skills developed through design
experiences, it is hoped that more
teachers will apply design-based
approaches in their classrooms.

Consortium of National Arts
Education Associations. (1994).
National Standards for Arts
Education. Reston, Virginia:
Music Educators National
Conference.

Massell D., Fuhrman S., Kirst, M.,
Odden, A., Wohlstetter P.,
Carver, R., and Yee, G. (1993).
Ten Years of State Education
Reform, 1983-1993. New
Brunswick, New Jersey:
Consortium for Policy Research
in Education.

National Assessment Governing
Board. (1994). NAEP Arts
Education Consensus Project, Arts
Education Assessment Framework
(Pre-publication edition).
Washington, D.C.: The Chief
State School Officers with the
College Board and the Council
for Basic Education.

National Center on Education and
the Economy and the University
of Pittsburgh. (1997).
Performance Standards, Volume 2,
Middle School. Washington,
D.C.: National Center on
Education and the Economy.

National Commission on Excellence
in Education. (1983). A Nation
at Risk: The Imperative for
Educational Reform. Washington,
D.C.: National Commission on
Excellence in Education.

The National Council on Education
Standards and Testing. (1992).
Raising Standards for American
Education. Washington, D.C.:
Superintendent of Documents
and Government Printing
Office.

National Council of Teachers of
Mathematics. (1989). Curriculum
and Evaluation Standards for
School Mathematics. Washington,
D.C.: Working Groups of the
Commission on Standards for
School Mathematics of the
National Council of Teachers
of Mathematics.

National Endowment for the Arts.
(1994). Goals 2000: Opportunities
for the Arts. Washington, D.C.:
National Endowment for the
Arts, U.S. Department of
Education, and National
Assembly of State Arts Agencies.

The Secretary's Commission on
Achieving Necessary Skills.
(1991). What Work Requires of
Schools: A SCANS Report for
America 2000. Washington,
D.C.: U.S. Department of Labor.

United States Department of Labor.
(1992). Skills and Tasks for Jobs,
A SCANS Report for America
2000. Washington, D.C.: United
States Department of Labor.

United States Department of Labor,
Employment and Training
Administration. (1987).
Workforce 2000: Work and
Workers for the 21st Century.
Washington, D.C.: prepared by
the Hudson Institute for the
Department of Labor,
Superintendent of Documents.

127

Appendix B

SOURCES OF

Information and Assistance

there is no single source in the
United States for information or
assistance on the uses of design
in elementary and secondary educa-
tion. Just as many different elements —
products, graphic communications,
buildings, landscapes, and urban plan-
ning— go together to create the designed
environment, so too do many different
individuals and institutions constitute
the web of allies upon which educators
can draw.

At the most personal level, teachers
in communities large and small usually
can find design professionals who stud-
ied one or another of the disciplines
mentioned above. Graphic designers,
for example, may work for advertising
agencies, publishers, corporate and uni-
versity communications departments,

or in their own design firms. Planners,
architects, and landscape architects may
work for city and county governments,
real estate development companies,
conservation organizations, or in their
own firms. Many design professionals
are eager to help young people explore
the many dimensions of design all
around them and experience the excite-
ment of creating new forms. While
such professionals may be able to assist
in integrating design topics and activi-
ties into the curriculum, they may also
need some instruction themselves about
the teacher's content and assessment
objectives and about the abilities of
children at various stages of cognitive
and social development.

Beyond the level of individuals,
many communities in the United

States have nonprofit organizations and
institutions with expertise in design
and an educational mission that includes
working with elementary and secondary
schools. Among these may be local or
state chapters of professional design
associations, schools of design, museums,
and various nonprofit organizations dedi-
cated to raising awareness about cultural
heritage or environmental design quality.

In many cities and counties there
may be a historic preservation organi-
zation with education staff or trained
volunteers who can help students explore
the evolution of their own community,
its buildings, and surrounding land-
scape. While some programs focus
specifically on understanding how con-
struction techniques and architectural
styles changed over time, others engage

128

young people in the examination of
contemporary planning, design, and
preservation issues in both town and
countryside. Similarly, local environ-
mental groups and nature centers may
be sources of information and activities
enabling students to explore the many
connections between natural resource
issues and the design of products and
places.

Serving larger cities and metropoli-
tan regions there may be additional
institutions with information and
educational expertise in one or more
aspects of design. Many children's
museums and science and technology
centers, for example, have interactive
exhibits on such subjects as architec-
ture and engineering, product design,
and graphic design in print and
electronic forms. Art museums and
history museums may have collections
encompassing one or more of the design
disciplines. In addition to their on-site
resources, many of these institutions may
have outreach programs specifically
tailored to K-12 schools, including
inservice workshops for teachers,
curriculum units for classroom use, and
periodic in-school learning activities. At
a minimum, the education staff at such
museums are good sources of informa-
tion about other organizations that can
assist teachers interested in developing
more expertise in using design.

At the national level, there are a few
non-profit institutions and organiza-
tions specifically devoted to advancing
the use of design in elementary and
secondary schools. Many of these have
newsletters, publish or distribute cur-
riculum materials, and conduct teacher
education. Other organizations may
focus primarily on reaching and edu-
cating leaders in business and govern-
ment about the importance of design
to the nation's economy and the quality
of life in its communities. These groups
also may have materials that teachers
can use with secondary school students
or adapt for younger grades.

Each of the design disciplines has
one or more national organizations.
At a minimum they distribute general
information about their field, career
opportunities, and accredited colleges
and universities. Many have publica-
tion catalogs or bookstores that carry
print and audio-visual materials on
design topics for a general audience,
as well as more technical materials
for design professionals. Increasingly,
national design organizations reach
out to young people in both formal
and informal educational settings.
Some include print and audio-visual
materials specifically for children in
their catalogs. A few have taken the
next step by carrying curriculum mate-
rials for K-12 teachers or by working

with educators to develop new materi-
als for classroom use.

While national design organizations
may encourage their state and local
affiliates to work with elementary and
secondary schools, such programs are
usually at the discretion of individual
chapters or members. State and local
chapters, or components, of the
American Institute of Architects have
been particularly active in establishing
on-going programs to assist teachers
in many parts of the country. Often
these are administered by a separate
non-profit organization or "foundation"
established by the chapter to carry out
public awareness-raising activities and
more formal educational programs.

In addition to institutions with
expertise in one or more of the design
fields, organizations dedicated to
design in K-12 education, and the
design professions themselves, there
are a myriad of professional education
groups whose interests overlap design
to one degree or another. As this book
has shown, teachers in every academic
area and at every grade level have found
that the use of design benefits their
practice and their students' learning.
While few education organizations
have specific programs devoted to
design, they may have staff expertise,
materials, and inservice opportunities
in one or more related areas, such as

129

project-based learning, performance
assessment, or school-to-work transi-
tion, that teachers using design
within a single discipline or in an
interdisciplinary program might
find useful.

The following list, while selective,
attempts to encompass the wide
range of organizations to which
teachers can turn for information,
assistance, or simply just for com-
munication with their colleagues
about various aspects of design in
K-12 education. As that dialogue
increases across discipline boundaries,
grade levels, and even international
borders, it will undoubtedly stimu-
late new approaches to the use of
design across the curriculum,
innovative collaborations, and
ultimately excellent practice in
America's classrooms.

Sources in the United
States

American Center for Design

325 W. Huron Street, Suite 711

Chicago, IL 60610

312-787-2018

fax:312-649-9518

e-mail: acd@aol.com

http://www.ac4d.org

American Association for the

Advancement of Science, Project 2061

1333 H Street, NW

Washington, DC 20005

202-326-6666

http://www.aaas.org

American Institute of Architects

and American Architectural Foundation

(Learning by Design Program)

1735 New York Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20006

202-626-7300

http://www.aiaonline.com

American Institute of Graphic Arts

164 Fifth Avenue

New York, NY 10010

212-807-1990

fax: 212-807-1799

e-mail: AIGAnswers@aiga.org

http://www.aiga.org

American Planning Association
122 S. Michigan Avenue, Suite 1600
Chicago, IL 60603
312-431-9100
fax: 312-431-9985

American Society of Interior Designers
608 Massachusetts Avenue, NE
Washington, DC 20002-6006
202-546-3480
http://www.asid.org

American Society of Landscape Architects

636 Eye Street, NW

Washington, DC 20001

202-898-2444

http://www.asla.org

ArtsEdge

A National Arts Education

Information Network

202-416-8871

http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/

Association of Science

and Technology Centers

1025 Vermont Avenue, NW, Suite 500

Washington, DC 20005

202-783-7200

http://www.astc.org/astc

Association for Supervision and
Curriculum Development
1250 North Pitt Street
Alexandria, VA 22314-1453
703-549-91 10 or 1-800-933-2723
http://www.ascd.org

Building Connections

730 E. Three Fountains Dtive #84

Murray, UT 84107-5250

801-262-4449

Building Environmental
Education Solutions, Inc.
685 College Road East
Princeton, NJ 08543-7201
609-243-4507
fax:609-951-8410
http://www.bees.org

Center for City Building Education

2118 Wilshire Boulevard #303

Santa Monica, CA 90403

310-471-0090

fax:310-471-1955

e-mail: doreennelson@earthIink.net

http://www.citybuilding.edu

Center for Civic Education
5 146 Douglas Fir Road
Calabasas, CA 91302-1467
818-591-9321
fax: 818-591-9330
http://www.primenet.com/~cce

Center for Understanding
the Built Environment
5328 W 67th Street
Prairie Village, KS 66208
913-262-0691
fax: 913-262-8546
e-mail: ginny@cubekc.org
http://www.cubekc.org

Chicago Architecture Foundation
224 S. Michigan Avenue
Chicago, IL 60604-2507
312-922-3432
fax: 312-922-0481
http://www.architecture.org

Connecticut Architecture Foundation,

Architecture Resource Center

87 Willow Street

New Haven, CT 065 11

203-865-2195

fax: 203-562-5378

Cooper-Hewitt, National Design
Museum, Smithsonian Institution
2 E. 91st Street
New York, NY 10128
Education Department:
212-860-6868
fax: 212-860-6909
http://www.si .edu/ndm

130

Corporate Design Foundation

CHECK

20 Park Plaza, Suite 321

Boston, MA 02116

617-350-7097

fax:617-451-6355

e-mail: admin@cdf.org

http://www.cdf.org

Design Based Education K-12
University of the Arts
Art Education Department
320 S. Broad Street,
Philadelphia, PA 19102
215-875-4881
fax: 215-875-5467
http://www.uarts.edu/~arrs

Design Management Institute

29 Temple Place

Boston, MA 02111-1350

617-338-6380

fax: 617-338-6570

e-mail: dmistaff@dmi.org

http://www.dmi.org

Getty Education Institute for the Arts
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 600
Los Angeles, CA 90049-1683
310-440-7315
fax: 310-440-7704
http://www.artsednet.getty.edu/

Goals 2000 Arts Education Partnership
One Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Suite 700
Washington, DC 20001-1431

Foundation for Architecture, Architecture

in Education Program

1617 JFK Boulevard, Suite 1165

Philadelphia, PA 19103

215-569-3187

fax: 215-569-4688

e-mail: aie@whyy.org

http://www.whyy.org/aie

The Holmes Partnership

101 Willard Hall, Education Building

University of Delaware

Newark, DE 19716

302-831-2557

fax: 302-831-3013

http://www.udel.edu/holmes/

Industrial Designers Society of America

1 142 Walker Road, Suite E

Great Falls, VA 22066

703-759-0100

fax: 703-759-7679

e-mail: idsa@erols.com

http://www.idsa.org

Institute for Research on Learning

66 Willow Place

Menlo Park, CA 94025-3601

415-614-7900

fax:415-614-7957

http://www.irl.org

International Technology Education

Association

1914 Association Drive

Reston, VA 20191-1539

703-860-2100

fax: 703-860-0353

e-mail: itea@iris.org

http://www.iteawww.org

Kennedy Center Alliance for Art
Education Network
John F. Kennedy Center
Education Department
Washingron, DC 20566-0001
202-416-8845
fax: 202-416-8802
http://kennedy-
center.org/learn/html/kcaaen.html

National Art Education Association
1916 Association Drive
Reston, VA 20191-1590
703-860-8000
http://www.naea-reston.org

National Association for

Community Education

3929 Old Lee Highway, Suite 91 -A

Fairfax, VA 22030-2401

703-359-8973

fax: 703-359-0972

National Building Museum
401 F Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001
202-272-2448
http://www.nbm.org

National Center for Improving

Science Education

2000 L Street, NW, Suite 603

Washington, DC 20036

202-467-0652

fax: 202-467-0659

e-mail: info@ncise.org

National Center on Education

and the Economy

New Standards

700 1 1th Street, NW, Suite 750

Washington, DC 20001

202-783-3668

fax: 202-783-3672

e-mail: info@ncee.org

http://www.ncee.org

National Council for Geographic

Education

1 6-A Leonard Hall

Indiana University of Pennsylvania

Indiana, PA 15705-1087

412-357-6290

http://multimedia2.freac.fsu.edu/ncge

National Council for the Social Studies
3501 Newark Street, NW
Washington, DC 20016
202-966-7840
http://www.ncss.org/home/ncss

National Council of Teachers of English

1111 West Kenyon Road

Urbana, IL 61801

1-800-369-6283

http://www.ncte.org

National Council of
Teachers of Mathematics
1906 Association Drive
Reston, VA 20191-1593
703-620-9840
http://www.nctm.org

National Endowment for the Arts,

Education and Access Division

1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Room 702

Washington, DC 20506

202-682-5438

fax: 202-682-5002 or 5612

http://arts.endow.gov

National Science Teachers Association

1840 Wilson Boulevard

Arlington, VA 22201

703-243-7100

http://www.nsta.org

National Trust for Historic Preservation

1785 Massachusetts Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20036

202-588-6164

e-mail: response@nthp.org

http://www.nthp.org

North American Association for
Environmental Education
1255 23rd Streer, NW, Suire 400
Washington, DC 20037
202-884-8912
fax: 202-884-8701
http://eelink.umich.edu/naaee.html

131

Package Design Council
481 Carlisle Drive
Herndon, VA 20170
703-318-7225
fax: 703-318-0310
http://www.packinfo-world.org

President's Council on
Sustainable Development
730 Jackson Place, NW
Washington, DC 20503
202-408-5296
fax: 202-408-6839
http://www.whitehouse.gov/PCSD

Project UPDATE and TIES Magazine
Department of Technological Studies
The College of New Jersey
103 Armstrong Hall
Trenton, NJ 08650-4700
609-771-3333
fax: 609-771-3330
http://www.tcnj.edu/teched

Quill and Scroll Society

School of Journalism and Mass

Communication,

University of Iowa

Iowa City, IA 52242

319-335-5795

e-mail: quill-scroll@uiowa.edu

http://www.uiowa.edu/~quill-sc

Salvadori Educational Center on the Built

Environment CCNY

138th St. and Convent Avenue, Room 202

New York, NY 10031

212-650-5497

fax: 212-650-5546

Scholastic Art and Writing Awards
(design awards)

Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, Inc.

555 Broadway

New York, NY 10012-3999

212-343-6891

fax: 212-343-6484

School Zone Institute, College of
Architecture and Planning
University of New Mexico
2414 Central, SE
Albuquerque, NM 87131
505-277-5058
fax:505-277-7113

Second Nature

44 Bromfield Street, 5th Floor

Bosron, MA 02108

617-292-7771

fax:617-292-0150

http://www.2nature.org

SIGGRAPH (Special Interest Group
on Computer Graphics)

Association for Computing Machinery
1515 Broadway
New York, NY 10036
212-626-0500
http://www.siggraph.org

Society for Environmental Graphic Design

401 F Street, NW, Suite 333

Washington, DC 20001

202-638-5555

fax: 202-638-0891

e-mail: SEGDOffice@aol.com

Society of Newspaper Design
129 Dyer Street
Providence, RI 02903
401-276-2100
e-mail: snd@snd.org
http://www.snd.org

Urban Land Institute

1025 Thomas Jefferson Street, NW

Suite 500 West

Washington, DC 20007-5201

202-624-7000

fax: 202-624-7140

http://www.uli.org

The Urban Network, College of
Architecture & Urban Planning
3021 Art & Architecture Building
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2069
313-936-0201
fax: 313-763-2322
e-mail: sesut@umich.edu

Ventures in Education (Architectural

Youth Program)

245 Fifth Avenue, Suite 802

New York, NY 10016

212-696-5717

fax: 212-696-5726

Worldesign Foundation
186 W 80th Street
New York, NY 10024
212-769-0330
fax: 212-769-9954

Other Sources

Design and Technology Association

(Journal of Design and Technology)

16 Wellesbourne House,

Walton Road Wellesbourne, Warwickshire

CV35 9JB, England

1789-470-007

fax: 1789-841-955

e-mail: data@dandt.demon.co.uk

Design Dimension Educational Ttust

Dean Clough, Halifax HX3 5AX England

1422-250-250

fax: 1422-341-148

e-mail: linda@design-dimension.co.uk

Goldsmiths College, University of London

Design Studies Department,

Technology Education Research Unit

1 3 Laurie Grove, New Cross

London SE 14 6NH

0171-919-7788

fax:0171-919-7783

IDATER, International Conference
on Design and Technology Educational
Research and Curriculum Development
(see address for Loughborough University below)

1509-222-644

fax: 1509-223-999

e-mail: E.Harvard-Williams@lboro.ac.uk

http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/ed/

International Institute
for Information Design
Joergersrrasse 22/2
A/1170 Vienna, Austria
43-1-403-6662
fax: 43-1-408-8347
e-mail: ps.id@magnet.at

Loughborough University

Department of Design and Technology

Loughborough, Leicestershire

LEU 3TU, England

1509-222-650

fax: 1509-223-999

e-mail: P.H.Roberts@lboro.ac.uk

http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/cd

132

Appendix C

SCHOOLS

Cited in this Study

Atwood-Tapleq School Oakland, Maine*
Banksville Gifted Cencer Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania *
Beacon Heights Elementary School Salt Lake City, Utah
Beaver Acres School Beaverton, Oregon *
BEES, Inc. Schools New Jersey

Granville Academy

Hun School

Hunterdon Central Regional High School

Trenton Central High School
Bogle Junior High School Chandler, Arizona
Cape Henlopen High School Lewes, Delaware *
Crossroads High School Santa Monica, California *
Daniel Webster Magnet School New Rochelle, New York *
Derby Middle School Birmingham, Michigan
Dranesville Elementary School Herndon, Virginia**
Dyker Heights Intermediate School Brooklyn, New York**
Eagle Ridge Junior High School Savage, Minnesota *
El Modena High School Orange, California*
Epiphany School Seattle, Washington**
Ethical Culture School New York, New York*
Fillmore Central School Fillmore, New York*
Gaithersburg Intermediate School Gaithersburg, Maryland*
Glasgow High School Newark, Delaware*
Greenwich High School Greenwich, Connecticut
Haggard Middle School Piano, Texas
Hawthorne Elementary School Madison, Wisconsin*
Hawthorne Elementary School Salt Lake City, Utah
Hillside High School Durham, North Carolina

Holland Christian Middle School Holland, Michigan *

Institute for Research on Learning Menlo Park, California**

Lakeview High School Columbus, Nebraska

Lincoln High School Philadelphia, Pennsylvania*

Locust Valley Intermediate School Locust Valley, New York *

Louis Armstrong Middle School East Elmhurst, New York *

Marlton Middle School Marlton, New Jersey *

Meadowthorpe Elementary School Lexington, Kentucky**

Oak Harbor High School Oak Harbor, Ohio*

Open Charter Magnet School Los Angeles, California**

Public School 145 New York, New York*

Rice Lake Middle School Rice Lake, Wisconsin*

Sam Houston High School Lake Charles, Louisiana *

San Jose Middle School Novato, California**

Sequoyah Middle School Broken Arrow, Oklahoma*

Simsbury High School Simsbury, Connecticut*

Smoky Hill High School Aurora. Colorado**

Soledad Canyon Elementary School Canyon Country, California *

Special Education Learning Center Hartford, Connecticut*

Stilwell Elementary School Kansas City, Kansas*

Tippecanoe Elementary School for the Humanities Milwaukee, Wisconsin**

Union Grove High School Union Grove, Wisconsin *

Warren County Middle School Warren County, North Carolina

Willamette Primary School West Linn, Oregon**

Willis Intermediate School Delaware, Ohio**

* Respondents to Endowment survey

** Respondents to Endowment survey and site-visit school

133

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Credits:

We are grateful to the following
for providing the photography and
artwork that appears throughout
this book. We regret that we were
unable to publish all of the excellent
artwork we received from the many
outstanding educators participating
in this project.

Penny Archibald-Stone, Autodesk,
Brochocka Baynes, Teresa F. Bettac,
Lisa Bloomfield, Pauline Bottrill,
Steve Brady, Patrick Buechner, Shirl
Buss, Pamela Carunchio, Chicago
Architecture Foundation, Cooper-
Hewitt National Design Museum,
Meredith Davis, Susan Dunn, Pete
Ellenzweig, Wendy Fein, Will Fowler,
Manette Gampel, Ania Greiner, Katie
Mead Griffiths, Michael Hacker, Peter
Hiller, Historic Landmarks Foundation
of Indiana, Paul Hobson, K. Holtgraves,
Patricia Hutchinson, Daniel Iacofano,
Richard Igneri, Hettie Jordan- Vilanova,
Mary Ann Keith, KIDS Consortium,
James J. Kirkwood, Stephan Knobloch,
Janice Leonetti, Maxis Software, Robin
Moore, Doreen Nelson, Julie Olsen,
Lynn Olson, Dolores Patron, Brenda
Peters, Julie Ritter, Marvin Rosenblum,
Jan Rothschild, Anna Sanko, Mark
Sokol, Suzanne R. Stanis, Jane Stickney,
Jan Striefel, Joseph Sweeney, Anne
Taylor, Catherine Teegarden, Terry
Thode, Ann Tucker, Ventures in
Education, Inc., Yu-Wen Wang, Paula
White, Lorraine Whitman, Val
Wiebeck, Karen Wintress.

144

About the Authors

Meredith Davis is Professor of
Graphic Design at North Carolina
State University where she teaches
graduate courses on design and cogni-
tion. She is also an author, lecturer,
and consultant on the relationship
between design and K-12 education.
Davis holds an M.F.A. from Cranbrook
Academy of Art and a B.S. and M.Ed,
in art education from Pennsylvania
State University.

Peter Hawley develops public
education and partnership projects
at the American Planning Association
in Washington, D.C. Previously, he
directed a number of education initia-
tives at the Design Program of the
National Endowment for the Arts,
including Design as a Catalyst for
Learning. Hawley holds a master's
degree in education from the University
of Massachusetts, a master's degree
in historic preservation from the
University of Vermont and an under-
graduate degree in history from
Princeton University.

Bernard J. McMullan, Ph.D. has

more than 1 5 years experience in the
design and assessment of educational
reform strategies with a focus on study-
ing institutional change collaborations
at the secondary and post-secondary
levels. He has worked with the National
Endowment for the Arts and the
Mississippi Arts Commission assessing
the educational benefits of arts-infused
education on student achievement and
school improvement.

Gertrude J. Spilka is Associate
Director of the OMG Center for
Collaborative Learning in Philadelphia
where she has directed several research
projects that explore the role of the arts
in education reform. She is currently
directing an assessment of ArtsEdge,
a Web site sponsored by the John F.
Kennedy Center for the Performing
Arts, the National Endowment for
the Arts, and the U.S. Department of
Education to disseminate information
to advance arts education and education
reform objectives.

145

About the NEA

The National Endowment for
the Arts

Established by Congress in 1965,
the National Endowment for the Arts
is an independent agency of the federal
government. The Endowment's mission
is to foster the excellence, diversity, and
vitality of the arts in the United States,
and to broaden public access to the arts.

The Endowment carries out that
mission through grants, leadership
initiatives, partnership agreements
with state and regional organizations,
partnerships with other federal agencies
and the private sector, research, arts
education, access programs, and advocacy.

Since 1996, the Arts Endowment
has considered applications and
proposals from eligible individuals and
organizations in four ways: grants to
organizations, grants to individuals,
partnership agreements, and leadership
initiatives. Grants to organizations
include four categories: Heritage and
Preservation, Education and Access,
Creation and Presentation, and Planning
and Stabilization. Applications are
reviewed by rotating groups of arts
experts including professional artists,
arts educators, arts administrators, and
knowledgeable laypersons.

For more information, visit the
Endowment online at http://www.arts
.endow.gov/ or call 202/682-5400.

The Endowment and Arts
Education

Almost from its inception, the Arts
Endowment has encouraged and suppor-
ted efforts to increase opportunities in
and improve the quality of arts education
for America's children, youth, and adults.
Since 1988, when the Endowment
published the landmark report on the
status of American arts education,
Toward Civilization, the agency has
been particularly committed to making
the arts a part of the basic education of
every student in grades K to 12.

At the national level, the Arts
Endowment in recent years has supported
the development of the National
Standards for Arts Education, and the
1997 National Assessment of Educational
Progress (better known as NAEP or the
Nation's Report Card) Arts Assessment.
In cooperation with the U.S. Department
of Education, the Endowment has
supported the Goals 2000 Arts Education
Partnership, which is comprised of
more than 100 national organizations
from the education, arts, business, and
government sectors working to ensure a
vital role for the arts in state-and local-
level educational improvement. For
information about the Partnership, call
202/326-8693 or visit the Partnership
online at http://artsedge.kennedy-center.
org/aep/aep.html/ .

To increase access to information
about arts teaching and learning, the
Arts Endowment, in partnership with
the Department of Education, supports
ArtsEdge, an electronic network
sponsored by the John F. Kennedy
Center for the Performing Arts. Arts-
Edge services include arts education
news, a Search Lab for access to docu-
ments, directories, and resources; and a
Curriculum Studio designed to provide
teachers and artist-educators with
examples of innovative programs and
practices. For more information, visit
online at http://artsedge.kennedy-center
.org/ or call 202/416-8871.

146

About ASCD

ASCD

Founded in 1943, the Association
for Supervision and Curriculum
Development is a nonpartisan, nonprofit
education association, with international
headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia.
ASCD's mission statement: ASCD, a
diverse, international community of educators,
forging covenants in teaching and learning
for the success of all learners.

Membership in ASCD includes a
subscription to the award-winning
journal Educational Leadership; two
newsletters, Education Update and
Curriculum Update; and other products
and services. ASCD sponsors affiliate
organizations in many states and inter-
national locations; participates
in collaborations and networks; holds
conferences, institutes, and training
programs; produces publications in a
variety of media; sponsors recognition
and awards programs; and provides
research information on education
issues.

ASCD provides many services to
educators — pre-kindergarten through
grade 12 — as well as to others in the
education community, including parents,
school board members, administrators,
and university professors and students.
For more information, contact ASCD
via telephone: 1-800-933-2723 or
703-549-9110; fax: 703-299-8631; or

e-mail: member@ascd.org. Or write to
ASCD, Information Services, 1250 N.
Pitt St., Alexandria, VA 22314-1453
USA. You can find ASCD on the World
Wide Web at http://www.ascd.org.

ASCD's Executive Director is Gene
R. Carter.

1997-98 ASCD Executive Council

President: Edward Hall, Dean, Division
of Social and Professional Studies,
Talladega College, Talladega,
Alabama

President-Elect: Thomas Budnik,

Heartland Area Education Agency,
Johnston, Iowa

Immediate Past President: Frances

Faircloth Jones, Executive Director,
Piedmont Triad Educational
Consortium, University of North
Carolina, Greensboro, North
Carolina

M. Kay Await, Associate

Superintendent, Franklin Special
School District, Franklin, Tennessee

Bonnie Benesh, Change Consultant,
Newton, Iowa

Bettye Bobroff, Executive Director,
New Mexico ASCD, Albuquerque,
New Mexico

Marge Chow, Director, Master in
Teaching, City University, Renton,
Washington

John Cooper, Assistant Superintendent
for Instruction, Canandaigua City
School District, Canandaigua,
New York

Michael Dzwiniel, Teacher, Edmonton
Public Schools, Alberta, Canada

LeRoy Hay, Assistant Superintendent
for Instruction, Wallingford Public
Schools, Wallingford, Connecticut

Joanna Choi Kalbus, Lecturer in

Education, University of California
at Riverside, California

Raymond McNulty, Superintendent
of Schools, Windham Southeast
Supervisory Union, Brattleboro,
Vermont

Judy Stevens, Executive Director of
Elementary Education, Spring
Branch Independent School District,
Houston, Texas

Sherrelle J. Walker, Assistant

Superintendent, Federal Way School
District, Federal Way, Washington

Robert L. Watson, High School

Principal, Spearfish 40-2, Spearfish,
South Dakota

147

■■^M

^■M

Ed ii i

Design as a Catalyst for Learning

The design process can lead to a deep under-
standing of the abstract concepcs taught in
schools. It puts ideas to work in situations
that allow students to test themselves and
the value of learning in everyday life.

When children are engaged in the process
of designing — a product, a building, a city
plan, or any object — they are learning to
identify needs, frame problems, work collabo-
ratively, explore and appreciate solutions,
weigh alternatives, and communicate their
ideas verbally, graphically, and in three dimen-
sions. With periodic self-assessment and
critiques of work in progress, students come to
understand that performance testing and con-
tinual improvement are as fundamental to the
design process as they are to lifelong learning.

Teachers nationwide are using design as a
problem-solving tool to integrate curriculum,
teach thinking and communication skills, and
encourage students to apply academic concepts
in authentic tasks. This ground-breaking book-
developed in cooperation with the National
Endowment for the Arts provides an introduc-
tion to effective design activities and strategies
for every grade level and subject area.

VISIT US ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB
http://www.ascd.org

development

ISBN 0-a?lED-EflM-D

90000

9 780871"202840I

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