Asee peer logo

Examining Beginning Designers' Design Self-regulation Through Linkography

Download Paper |

Conference

2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Tampa, Florida

Publication Date

June 15, 2019

Start Date

June 15, 2019

End Date

June 19, 2019

Conference Session

Design in Engineering Education Division: Student Empathy & Human-centered Design

Tagged Division

Design in Engineering Education

Page Count

20

DOI

10.18260/1-2--32774

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/32774

Download Count

424

Request a correction

Paper Authors

biography

Andrew Jackson Yale University Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0003-2882-3052

visit author page

Andrew Jackson is currently a postdoctoral associate at Yale University, developing and assessing secondary engineering curriculum with the aim to broaden participation in engineering. He received a PhD in Technology through Purdue's Polytechnic Institute, with an emphasis on Engineering and Technology Teacher Education. His teaching and research interests are to support students' development as designers and the day-to-day practices of technology and engineering educators. His contributions toward these goals have adopted quantitative-, qualitative-, and mixed-methods, grounded by a pragmatic focus on results. Andrew is the recipient of a 2015 Ross Fellowship from Purdue University and has been recognized as a 21st Century Fellow by the International Technology and Engineering Educators Association. He previously taught middle school and undergraduate technology courses, accompanying both experiences with classroom research to improve practice.

visit author page

biography

Nathan Mentzer Purdue University, West Lafayette

visit author page

Nathan Mentzer is an assistant professor in the College of Technology with a joint appointment in the College of Education at Purdue University. Hired as a part of the strategic P12 STEM initiative, he prepares Engineering/Technology candidates for teacher licensure. Dr. Mentzer’s educational efforts in pedagogical content knowledge are guided by a research theme centered in student learning of engineering design thinking on the secondary level. Nathan was a former middle and high school technology educator in Montana prior to pursuing a doctoral degree. He was a National Center for Engineering and Technology Education (NCETE) Fellow at Utah State University while pursuing a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction. After graduation he completed a one year appointment with the Center as a postdoctoral researcher.

visit author page

biography

Allison Godwin Purdue University, West Lafayette Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0002-0741-3356

visit author page

Allison Godwin, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Engineering Education at Purdue University. Her research focuses what factors influence diverse students to choose engineering and stay in engineering through their careers and how different experiences within the practice and culture of engineering foster or hinder belongingness and identity development. Dr. Godwin graduated from Clemson University with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and Ph.D. in Engineering and Science Education. Her research earned her a National Science Foundation CAREER Award focused on characterizing latent diversity, which includes diverse attitudes, mindsets, and approaches to learning, to understand engineering students’ identity development. She has won several awards for her research including the 2016 American Society of Engineering Education Educational Research and Methods Division Best Paper Award and the 2018 Benjamin J. Dasher Best Paper Award for the IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference. She has also been recognized for the synergy of research and teaching as an invited participant of the 2016 National Academy of Engineering Frontiers of Engineering Education Symposium and the Purdue University 2018 recipient of School of Engineering Education Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching and the 2018 College of Engineering Exceptional Early Career Teaching Award.

visit author page

biography

Scott R. Bartholomew Purdue Polytechnic Institute

visit author page

Scott R. Bartholomew, PhD. is an assistant professor of Engineering/Technology Teacher Education at Purdue University. Previously he taught Technology and Engineering classes at the middle school and university level. Dr. Bartholomew’s current work revolves around Adaptive Comparative Judgment (ACJ) assessment techniques, student design portfolios, and Technology & Engineering teacher preparation.

visit author page

biography

Greg J. Strimel Purdue Polytechnic Institute Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0002-4847-4526

visit author page

Dr. Greg J. Strimel is an assistant professor of engineering technology teacher education in the Purdue Polytechnic Institute at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. His prior teaching experience includes serving as a high school engineering/technology teacher and a teaching assistant professor within the College of Engineering & Mineral Resources at West Virginia University.

visit author page

Download Paper |

Abstract

Design process representations often attempt to show the iterative pattern of design through a circular or spiral representation. Expert designers iterate, constantly refining their understanding of both the design problem and solution. In other words, a designer’s ability to manage the design process—plan, reflect, and incorporate new insights—may be indicative of proficiency in design. When first ideas do not work, these abilities can be leveraged to learn from failure and generate new solution attempts.

Despite instruction and representation indicating the cyclical nature of design processes, beginning designers often work in a step-by-step, regimented way. Among beginning designers, reactions to failed ideas are wide-ranging: some positive and some negative; some leading to action and some leading to apathy; some toward dedication and some toward disinterest. In short, how the designer frames failure experiences can determine whether or not each experience will be a benefit to their learning and final design. In light of the disconnect between beginning designers’ capacity to manage failure in design iteration, further study of the cognitive processes of beginning designers as they encounter failure is needed to strengthen design education.

This case study describes patterns of self-regulation used by high-school design students as they navigate failure and iteration in a five-day design challenge. We present a framework that aligns constituent parts of design—analysis, synthesis, and evaluation—and phases of self-regulation—forethought, performance, and self-reflection. Furthermore, instances of failure or success in these cyclical phases are identified. Then, using think-aloud data from a pair of design students, linkography is applied to represent the process as a network of interconnected actions while designing. Connections forward and backwards in the design process are interpreted as instances of forethought or reflection.

The linkographic representation of the design process, corroborated with analysis of documentation in design journals and design artifacts, supports conclusions regarding the self-regulation strategies of beginning designers. Though contextualized and limited to one design team, the account of these designers is a useful starting point for coming to understand how beginning designers experience failure in design. These findings also offer insight into the design of educational experiences where failure may occur.

Jackson, A., & Mentzer, N., & Godwin, A., & Bartholomew, S. R., & Strimel, G. J. (2019, June), Examining Beginning Designers' Design Self-regulation Through Linkography Paper presented at 2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Tampa, Florida. 10.18260/1-2--32774

ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2019 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015