A Kirkpatrick evaluation of computer-integrated learning support material for technology education

The aim of this research is to establish which aspects influence students’ successful learning of design skills through contextually integrated learning support material for the design and technology education programme at the University of Pretoria. The purpose of the research is threefold: • The first aim is to investigate the extent to which the electronic tutorial, Design in Action (hereafter referred to as “the tutorial”) contributes to students’ (novice designers) design theory in a technological context i.e. to indicate whether the level of sophistication of the exemplary graphics and explanatory text is suited to the context. • The second aim is to establish the levels of learning achieved by learners as a result of the intervention using Design in Action in order to indicate the adequacy of the learning support material in achieving the learning outcomes of the unit. • The third aim is to establish possible improvements for the tutorial to increase its effectiveness in terms of curriculum, media&technology, learning&instruction and teacher education&didactics (Van den Akker, 1999). The findings of this preliminary study will be used in broader studies focused on the design and development of contextually integrated learning support material for design and technology education students. This research is a qualitative case study, including the evaluation of levels of learning of first year pre-service design and technology students, conducted in the interpretative paradigm, within the theoretical frame of socially responsible research (Reeves, 2000). The evaluation of the levels of learning was based on a model designed by Kirkpatrick (Kirkpatrick, 1994). The model delineates four levels of instruction (training) outcomes: reaction, learning, behaviour, and results.Dissertation (MEd (CIE))--University of Pretoria, 2005.Curriculum Studiesunrestricte

Learning from experts : fostering extended thinking in the early phases of the design process

Empirical evidence on the way in which expert designers from different domains cognitively connect their internal processes with external resources is presented in the context of an extended cognition model. The article focuses briefly on the main trends in the extended design cognition theory and in particular on recent trends in information processing and embodiment theory. The aim of the paper is to reflect on the implications of an understanding of expert design cognition as an extended system, which can account for complexity and non-linearity in design thinking and problem-solving, for technology and design education. This is achieved by showing the relevance of the cross-correlations and the dynamics involved at the intersection of cognitive phases, intention-driven decision making and embodiment principles of experts for novice education in technology and design. It is argued that twentieth century one-sided approaches to design education no longer adequately serve the needs of the twenty first century. It is further argued that a combined information-processing ? embodiment approach may be the answer. The article presents salient results of a case study using think-aloud-protocol studies in a quasiexperimental format that was used as it has proven to be a central instrument yielding scientific data in the cognitive science paradigm. Results suggested extended design environments may be particularly well-suited to the mediation of design thinking. Finally, based on these results, the article examines how educators can exploit the combined approach to advance the making of connections between the inner and outer world in design education.http://www.springer.com/journal/107982016-11-30hb201

Hierarchical thinking : a cognitive tool for guiding coherent decision making in design problem solving

This paper builds on two concepts, the first of which is the extended information processing model of expert design cognition. This proposes twelve internal psychological characteristics interacting with the external world of expert designers during the early phases of the design process. Here, I explore one of the characteristics, hierarchical abstraction, and adapt it into an alternative ontological model of decision making. The model serves as an in-depth descriptor of how designers from different domains transform their mental states using judgment and decision making through hierarchical abstraction. The second concept entails an expansion of the idea of synergistic vertical transformation as a framework for mapping expert designers’ design process. Here, I focus on hierarchical decision making as multi-directional, and inter-relating the internal and external world of designers. In doing so, I provide a coding tool for researchers interested in exploring designers’ complex decision making processes. Concurrently, the model serves as decision making tool in design and technology education classrooms. As such, the paper focuses on the ontology of conceptual structures that support the early phases of the design process. This was based on empirical research.http://www.springer.com/journal/107982017-09-30hb2016Science, Mathematics and Technology Educatio

Engineering education : an integrated problem-solving framework for discipline-specific professional development in mining engineering

This article is based on the premise that the purpose of engineering education, in general, is to deliver engineering practitioners who are intellectually capable of identifying, structuring, and solving complex problems, and that solving engineering problems is systemic. The solutions to problems are viewed as objects, tools, processes, and systems. The purpose of this article is, however, to specifically explore some of the aspects of the intangible world of mining engineering from a generic problem-solving perspective, which would also be applicable to any other engineering discipline. This is done by focusing on higher order intellectual processes when processing information in the problem-structuring and problem-solving space. As such, this article builds on a previous study in which the intangible world of the mining engineer was identified as worth investing in. We begin by briefly reviewing the complexity of the mining engineering problem-solving space and the background and role of a generic cognitive approach to problem solving in the mining engineering curriculum at the University of Pretoria (UP). Several dimensions of extended cognitive processing are then detailed, explaining why the early phases of problem solving are difficult to learn, and more difficult still to teach. An outline is given of the classification of types of mining engineering problems, and its determinant role in the dynamics of information processing. Conceiving, designing, implementing, and operating (CDIO) as an overarching engineering methodology is discussed, together with the subsequent mapping of cognitive phases onto CDIO stages. Finally, we pose an open research question that seems important to answer in order to identify the best pedagogical practices for improving problem-solving capabilities not only in mining engineering but also in other engineering disciplines.http://www.saimm.co.za/journal-papersam2018Materials Science and Metallurgical Engineerin

Hierarchical thinking : a cognitive tool for guiding coherent decision making in design problem solving

This paper builds on two concepts, the first of which is the extended information processing model of expert design cognition. This proposes twelve internal psychological characteristics interacting with the external world of expert designers during the early phases of the design process. Here, I explore one of the characteristics, hierarchical abstraction, and adapt it into an alternative ontological model of decision making. The model serves as an in-depth descriptor of how designers from different domains transform their mental states using judgment and decision making through hierarchical abstraction. The second concept entails an expansion of the idea of synergistic vertical transformation as a framework for mapping expert designers’ design process. Here, I focus on hierarchical decision making as multi-directional, and inter-relating the internal and external world of designers. In doing so, I provide a coding tool for researchers interested in exploring designers’ complex decision making processes. Concurrently, the model serves as decision making tool in design and technology education classrooms. As such, the paper focuses on the ontology of conceptual structures that support the early phases of the design process. This was based on empirical research.http://www.springer.com/journal/10798hj2019Science, Mathematics and Technology Educatio

The cognitive dynamics of socio-technological thinking in the early phases of expert designers' design processes

The descriptive purpose of this study was to explore and describe the manner in which expert designers transform and represent knowledge in the early phases of the design process. This was done by investigating the interaction between stored knowledge and direct perception in the early phases of the design process. The methodological purpose of the study was to explore innovative ways of extending current interactive design cognition theory on research methodology in design contexts, against the underlying context of conventional protocol studies. Theoretically, the study conceptualised extended design cognition theory. In this manner, the study adds to available literature on one sided computational theory and biased ecological approaches. The practical value lies in documenting ways of mirroring expert design behaviour in learning environments and problem solving spaces in higher education design curricula. The study furthermore may inform the design profession concerning expert practices that can improve the quality of design solutions through the consideration of expert design reasoning. Finally, the study provides methodological knowledge on the potential value of employing protocol studies within the context of creative problem solving by studying both verbal and visual representations. The conceptual framework of the study integrates a computational approach with embodiment-related principles. I followed a mixed methods approach and employed a case study design applying critical realist principles. I purposefully selected expert designers from three different design domains, with four of them working in pairs and three others as a team. Data collection consisted of three separately video recorded protocol studies (one architectural, one mechanical engineering and one industrial design task), during which verbal protocols and free hand conceptual sketches were produced. Observation and a field journal also formed part of the data collection and documentation strategies. Data analysis was guided by constructs derived from theory embedded in my conceptual framework. Five themes emerged subsequent to qualitative data analysis. The first theme revolved around the hierarchical order in which expert designers tended to think about various things. They considered abstract design aspects which they then linked with functional intentions as required by the client, or that they reversed and formulated into their own preferred functional ideas. They incrementally concretised their abstract aspectual and functional thoughts by connecting them with physical elements. Once expert designers had exhausted their aspectual and functional intentions, they moved onto considering implementation intentions, which involved practical plans to satisfy their intentions. The second theme which emerged relates to the dominant role that the personalisation of intentions played in the design processes. Intentions served as internal cognitive mechanisms and their functions in the various cognitive phases of the design process. Participants’ awareness of intentions and their subsequent alignment of decisions, activities and objects, played a dominant role. When they disagreed with intentions articulated by the client, they formulated their own preferred intentions, whereby they reversed the direction of transformation. The third emerging theme centred on the incremental development of artefacts. This was made possible by the dual nature of the participants’ design sketches. The internal nature of sketches allowed the participants to instantiate mental states (e.g. intentions). The fourth theme relates to the multi-directional nature of participants’ thinking. Participants transformed their ideas by integrating new perceived information. Existing internal knowledge resulted in their sketches connecting their internal and external worlds. Finally, the fifth theme that emerged concerns participants’ transformations, constructing and manipulating models. In this regard a close connection between participants’ involvement in their sketches, making and propagating commitments, visualisation knowledge, lateral and vertical transformations, and subsequent prolonged duration of attention spans was evident. Quantitative analysis of the data on task environments and problem solving space of expert designers indicate the participants’ distinct and overlapping cognitive phases. During these overlaps ‘leaky phases’ created cognitive links between the experts’ problem structuring and problem solving activities as they clarified the various intentions at hand. Secondly, the tendency of experts to extensively use external resources came to the fore. External resources played an important role in influencing the participants’ conduct controlling attitudes, as seen in the decisions they took and commitments they made. Thirdly, the synergetic interaction between the participants’ internal and external processes and use of resources was evident. This tendency of expert design behaviour emphasised the complex relations between the various intentions which were held together by their ability to synergistically align their ideas with their intentions in a Gestalt manner. Based on the findings I obtained, I conceptualised ‘intention-permeation’ by defining this construct as the penetration of objectively, subjectively or opportunistically selected intentions and their alignment with designers’ subsequent behaviour. I propose ‘intention-permeation’ as one possibility of accounting for the way expert designers build conceptual and practical bridges between their inner and outer worlds when they solve complex real world design problems.Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2013.lk2013Educational Psychologyunrestricte

Uncovering learning outcomes : explicating obscurity in learning of aesthetics in design and technology education

Education and training interventions can be evaluated through the success of learning outcomes. Kirkpatrick's four-level model is a widely accepted and highly popular evaluation tool. However, some criticise the model's shortcomings. This article will examine the extent to which the four-level model can evaluate design and technology students' learning about aesthetics after an intervention by reporting our use of an augmented version of the four-level model. We examine the results in terms of students' reaction to the intervention, their long-term learning and their behaviour changes by studying their visual analyses and drawings through segment codes. We found that, in order to uncover the obscurities imbedded in aesthetics and to explicate the complexities, we could not use the four-level-model on its own, but had to revert to a more augmented version

Grade 9 technology teachers’ explication of critical thinking and its enactment in the classroom

The South African Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement for Technology stipulates that Technology should provide learners with the opportunity to solve authentic problems that are embedded in real-life experiences. Solving these authentic technological problems requires learners to use critical thinking skills and teachers are expected to support learners in this regard. Questions around teachers’ perspectives of what constitutes critical thinking and their ability to support the development of critical thinking skills in Technology classrooms are rarely asked. It is in this regard that this study sought to explore Grade 9 Technology teachers’ understanding of critical thinking and how they develop critical thinking skills in their classrooms through the use of a mini-Practical Assessment Tasks. The study applied a multiple case study design, in which a literal replication strategy was used to identify consistent patterns of description of the six participants’ understanding and enactment of critical thinking in practice. Facione’s framework for critical thinking was used to guide the analysis of interview and classroom observational data for various stages of the design process. The participants’ understanding of the notion critical thinking brought about four conceptions of critical thinking skills, namely interpretation, analysis, evaluation and inference. The results of the study show that there is a huge discrepancy between what Technology teachers say and what they do in reality, highlighting the difficulty of translating and employing critical thinking skills in the classroom setting.http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rmse202020-04-25hj2020Science, Mathematics and Technology Educatio

Naive designers’ information use during the design process in a low-resource classroom

Facilitating the design process in low-resource Technology classrooms has become increasingly challenging in the 21st century. This research focuses on the types of information sources used during learners’ design processes. We examine the information sources that nine South African Grade 9 learners from a low-resource school used while they were engaged in a mechanical systems and control design task. They worked in groups of three to design a machine to lift logs from the ground onto a truck. We utilised a Think Aloud Protocol Study to collect concurrent verbal, visual and temporal data. The results indicate that Grade 9 design teams were predominantly engaged in problem solving activities by using mostly external sources of information during the early phases of the design process. If designing is the backbone methodology of Technology education, attention should be given to the information sources that learners use during designing.The National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa.http://www.ejmste.comam2018Science, Mathematics and Technology Educatio

The impact of university incorporation on college lecturers

In South Africa, recent government plans to change the institutional landscape of higher education have resulted in mergers of colleges into universities or technikons. The research reported in this article focuses solely on the impact of a "college-into-university" incorporation as manifested in the personal, emotional and career experiences of these college staff members. It traces the changes in their perceptions and emotions during and after the incorporation process. It also identifies recurring themes and issues evident in the personal lives of those affected by this incorporation. A unique research methodology was engaged: The College staff who had been appointed to the university after the merger, identified seven critical themes and then designed and conducted 30 semi-structured interviews among themselves. This article thus documents the impact of incorporation into a university on the individual and collective lives of the researchers themselves. The data suggest that the emotional impact of incorporation was intense and that the uncertainty, especially, led to considerable trauma. The most important concern emanating from this joint research project is that while a certain degree of distress is unavoidable in any institutional merger, inattention to the management of human resources, emotions and aspirations could linger on, possibly having a negative effect on the ambitions for the transformation of the new entity.The original publication is available at www.springerlink.co