Today's changing context for design practice calls for new knowledge and skills within university programs, and this book looks at how the design curriculum must be developed in appropriate ways for contemporary teachers and learners.
The challenges of updating curricula at university means faculty are often tied to outdated assumptions and practices that they have inherited in their programs, rather than having the flexibility to reflect the nature of design in the twenty-first century. The result is a curricular pastiche, rather than a coherent, consensus-built framework through which students prepare for contemporary design challenges.
The proposed book will establish a connection between the shifting paradigm for design practice and theories of inquiry. It will call for a new era of curricular experimentation under overarching competencies for work at scales different from the artifact-driven model of the industrial era. It will identify cross-cutting knowledge and skills best acquired through degree study, not through fit-to-purpose certificate programs. It will articulate a clear framework for change that design faculty can use in conversations within and outside institutions. And it will offer assessment strategies for aligning curricular evaluations with course objectives and student performance.