Current projects include the use of social transport, e-technologies for older people, an FP7 project looking at the design of a passenger measurement tool for EU transport providers, and a project looking at the understanding of consent in young people. Supervisors: Professor Mike Tovey Address: Centre of Excellence for Product and Automotive Design (CEPAD) Coventry University CV1 5FB England
This paper briefly details the journey to date that the Centre of Excellence for Automotive and P... more This paper briefly details the journey to date that the Centre of Excellence for Automotive and Product Design (CEPAD) has taken toward identifying threshold concepts in design, one of three research strands outlined in the original 2005 project bid document (full details of this journey can be found in three published papers: Osmond et al 2009, 2008, 2007). The paper then proposes two questions for discussion that have arisen from the work with the aim of exploring the possible impact on the higher education art and design community.
"UK competitiveness within a global marketplace is recognised as being predicated on the lin... more "UK competitiveness within a global marketplace is recognised as being predicated on the link between business success and creativity. Similarly, the Asian hemisphere also recognises this link between creativity and innovation, thus triggering a focus on the creative thinking development. Specifically, the India pedagogic focus has moved from rote memorisation to conceptual understanding [1] and Chinese educational courses are being shaped to feed its creative industry. [2] At Coventry University (UK), the focus is on internationalising existing curriculum offerings to ensure inclusiveness as this not only empowers ethnically diverse students but also enhances the global dimension for all. [3] However, previous research has identified that international students sometimes struggle with the freedom offered by a creative subject such as industrial design. Further, MSc level lecturers recognise key differences in experiences with Chinese and Indian students including skills-centric approaches and low verbal confidence, trust issues and language barriers. This has necessitated a shift in teaching practice - framed by the threshold concept framework [4] - within a critical thinking and creativity module, and this paper outlines the development of a framework that supports and encourages stronger interactions from international students. [1] Stewart, V. (2009) Expanding Secondary Education in India. [online], Available: http://www.cerium.ca/IMG/pdf/Expanding_Secondary_Education_in_India-1-.pdf [10 July 2012) [2] British Council (2012) ‘SINO-UK HIGHER EDUCATION COOPERATION ON CREATIVE MEDIA INDUSTRY’. http://www.britishcouncil.org/china-education-higher-media.htm [10th July 2012] [3] Caruana, V. & Spurling, N. (2007) The Internationalisation of UK Higher Education: a review of selected material. Project Report. Higher Education Academy. [Online], Available: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/documents/tla/internationalisation/lit_review_internationalisation_of_uk_he_v2.pdf [17 July 2012] [4] Meyer, J. and Land, R. (2003). Threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge: linkages to ways of thinking and practising within the disciplines. Occasional Report 4. [online], Available: http://www.etl.tla.ed.ac.uk/publications.html. [10 July 2012]"
CCAT is comprised of fourteen major constructs. Twenty-three practice-proven propositions relate ... more CCAT is comprised of fourteen major constructs. Twenty-three practice-proven propositions relate to the various constructs. Each of these constructs and the literature that relates to them will be addressed in the following sections. The CCAT constructs and propositions provide an underlying framework for understanding the processes, structures, and outcomes experienced by effective community coalitions. The literature supports these constructs and further extends the knowledge about what makes coalitions effective in addressing intermediate and long-term health outcomes.
Chapter 10 of this volume described the way in which METPEX developed a series of key performance... more Chapter 10 of this volume described the way in which METPEX developed a series of key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the quality of the whole journey experience. However, this chapter provides a list of variables for each of the KPIs that can then be used to develop survey instruments. It is suggested that each of the variables is turned into 5 point Likert type scale questions, which will then enable easy comparison with the benchmarking scores we have obtained. Figure 12.1 shows the groups of which have been developed, each of these is examined in more detail in the following sections.
The focus of teaching and learning within Coventry University's Automotive and Industrial Des... more The focus of teaching and learning within Coventry University's Automotive and Industrial Design course is to equip students with a passport to enter their professional community of practice [1] [2]. One of the core competencies contained within this passport is co-operative working and teamwork - seen as a fundamental aspect of the creative design process, from concept to production - and this is seen as a threshold concept within the course. Therefore, to provide designers for industry it is imperative the discipline of co-operative working is part of the learning process as designers will be expected to interact with a wide range of disciplines 'such as engineering, business, sociology, and psychology, among others'. [3]. And, in today's global world, designers will often be expected to do so across geographical boundaries. This paper presents four case studies, underpinned by feedback and work outputs designed to foster co-operative learning, from each year of the automotive and industrial design course.
This paper draws on empirical investigative pedagogical research examining the development of spa... more This paper draws on empirical investigative pedagogical research examining the development of spatial understanding in undergraduate students studying a Transport and Product Design course. According to Gardner ' the centrality of spatial thinking in the visual arts is self-...
Meyer and Land define threshold concepts as concepts that: '...can be considered as akin to ... more Meyer and Land define threshold concepts as concepts that: '...can be considered as akin to a portal, opening up a new and previously inaccessible way of thinking about something. They represent a transformed way of understanding, or interpreting, or viewing something ...
... due to the complexities inherent in assessing creativity (see Blair 2006; Cowdroy and William... more ... due to the complexities inherent in assessing creativity (see Blair 2006; Cowdroy and Williams 2006; Gordon 2004; Orr 2006; Rohrbach ... The development of the assessment buddy system The practice at Jaguar LandRover demonstrates how, freed from the distraction of time ...
Higher education is not just a context for formal, curricula-based learning. Students also learn ... more Higher education is not just a context for formal, curricula-based learning. Students also learn from their wider university experiences, as they meet and interact with people from different backgrounds, beliefs and values. The university and college experience helps students become people who respect the social diversity around them and thrive in religiously diverse and multicultural environments. Higher education providers have a duty to provide safe and secure environments for formal and informal learning. An important aspect of this is to act proactively in order, as far as possible, to prevent harassment and hate incidents and to provide mechanisms for dealing with them if they occur. This guidance document focuses specifically on religion or belief-related harassment and hatred and is informed by the ‘Tackling religion-based hate crime on the multi-faith campus’ project, carried out at Coventry University as one of 11 projects funded by the Office for Students (OfS) within its Catalyst initiative to tackle religion-based hate crime and support student safety and wellbeing. This guidance was developed in consultation with the other 10 projects, Advance HE (the Higher Education sector charitable body) and the Church of England’s Education Office (with expertise and responsibility for a large number of university chaplains). The guidance helps to unpack the sometimes complex terminologies, categories and legal distinctions relevant to work in this area. It offers advice on how higher education providers can set up and promote an effective reporting system for incidents of religion or belief-harassment and hate. This can then inform institutional action and/or referral to external agencies such as the police. It offers an example that higher education providers can interpret and apply in ways that suit their contexts.N/
Working in groups is generally accepted as constituting an important part of students’ intellectu... more Working in groups is generally accepted as constituting an important part of students’ intellectual development as it fosters higher level critical thinking if applied appropriately. Group work also encourages the development of good communication and teamwork – skills which are desirable from an employer’s point of view. On the surface it would seem that group work would be an obvious way to promote cultural awareness and collaboration between international and domestic students and it has been argued that mixed cultural groups will help students learn about multicultural issues that they would not otherwise have encountered. However, other reports have been less positive. While the language proficiency of international students may be sufficient to enter university, the pace of speech of domestic students can affect classroom interactions. International students may also struggle to understand examples given in class to clarify issues due to specific cultural (usually Western) contexts. This study is an attempt to explore domestic and international students’ views of group work and the extent to which group work may promote cross-cultural understanding.
European Journal of Transport and Infrastructure Research, 2017
This study investigates how different travel satisfaction survey methods influence the reported l... more This study investigates how different travel satisfaction survey methods influence the reported level of door-to-door travel satisfaction among travellers. The travel satisfaction measurement surve ...
Empathy has been recognised as a key skill by practicing designers. With rapid changes to inclusi... more Empathy has been recognised as a key skill by practicing designers. With rapid changes to inclusivity and accessibility in the transport sector, student designers need to appreciate and understand the way in which people engage and interact with transport. They need to not only develop an understanding of older and vulnerable users, how they experience products, vehicles, services and systems but also have the confidence to try out new ways of finding information and gaining ‘authentic experiences’. Although empathic design is encouraged, there is often little opportunity for this to occur in an already full traditional educational curriculum. This paper reports a short intervention using readily available materials to create low fidelity experience simulations designed to increase the empathic horizon of transport design students. It concludes with a set of guidelines on how to create high quality learning experiences for students that will enable enhanced empathic design outcomes ...
With rapid changes to inclusivity, accessibility, technology and the global economy, there is a n... more With rapid changes to inclusivity, accessibility, technology and the global economy, there is a need to appreciate and understand the way in which real people actually engage and interact with products, systems and services. Designers need to go beyond the merely functional. To do this they need to develop deeper understanding of users, which goes beyond mere categorization of user types and characteristics. They need to have the ability and confidence to try new ways of finding information and gaining ‘authentic experiences.’ Empathy has been recognized as a key skill by practicing designers. This paper introduces empathy, shows why it is important, and provides evidence for a greater need of empathy during design and research activities. The paper is built around two case studies from our work on design for older user, which illustrate the need for more empathy in codesign activities and insights students gather using experience prototypes.
This paper briefly details the journey to date that the Centre of Excellence for Automotive and P... more This paper briefly details the journey to date that the Centre of Excellence for Automotive and Product Design (CEPAD) has taken toward identifying threshold concepts in design, one of three research strands outlined in the original 2005 project bid document (full details of this journey can be found in three published papers: Osmond et al 2009, 2008, 2007). The paper then proposes two questions for discussion that have arisen from the work with the aim of exploring the possible impact on the higher education art and design community.
"UK competitiveness within a global marketplace is recognised as being predicated on the lin... more "UK competitiveness within a global marketplace is recognised as being predicated on the link between business success and creativity. Similarly, the Asian hemisphere also recognises this link between creativity and innovation, thus triggering a focus on the creative thinking development. Specifically, the India pedagogic focus has moved from rote memorisation to conceptual understanding [1] and Chinese educational courses are being shaped to feed its creative industry. [2] At Coventry University (UK), the focus is on internationalising existing curriculum offerings to ensure inclusiveness as this not only empowers ethnically diverse students but also enhances the global dimension for all. [3] However, previous research has identified that international students sometimes struggle with the freedom offered by a creative subject such as industrial design. Further, MSc level lecturers recognise key differences in experiences with Chinese and Indian students including skills-centric approaches and low verbal confidence, trust issues and language barriers. This has necessitated a shift in teaching practice - framed by the threshold concept framework [4] - within a critical thinking and creativity module, and this paper outlines the development of a framework that supports and encourages stronger interactions from international students. [1] Stewart, V. (2009) Expanding Secondary Education in India. [online], Available: http://www.cerium.ca/IMG/pdf/Expanding_Secondary_Education_in_India-1-.pdf [10 July 2012) [2] British Council (2012) ‘SINO-UK HIGHER EDUCATION COOPERATION ON CREATIVE MEDIA INDUSTRY’. http://www.britishcouncil.org/china-education-higher-media.htm [10th July 2012] [3] Caruana, V. & Spurling, N. (2007) The Internationalisation of UK Higher Education: a review of selected material. Project Report. Higher Education Academy. [Online], Available: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/documents/tla/internationalisation/lit_review_internationalisation_of_uk_he_v2.pdf [17 July 2012] [4] Meyer, J. and Land, R. (2003). Threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge: linkages to ways of thinking and practising within the disciplines. Occasional Report 4. [online], Available: http://www.etl.tla.ed.ac.uk/publications.html. [10 July 2012]"
CCAT is comprised of fourteen major constructs. Twenty-three practice-proven propositions relate ... more CCAT is comprised of fourteen major constructs. Twenty-three practice-proven propositions relate to the various constructs. Each of these constructs and the literature that relates to them will be addressed in the following sections. The CCAT constructs and propositions provide an underlying framework for understanding the processes, structures, and outcomes experienced by effective community coalitions. The literature supports these constructs and further extends the knowledge about what makes coalitions effective in addressing intermediate and long-term health outcomes.
Chapter 10 of this volume described the way in which METPEX developed a series of key performance... more Chapter 10 of this volume described the way in which METPEX developed a series of key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the quality of the whole journey experience. However, this chapter provides a list of variables for each of the KPIs that can then be used to develop survey instruments. It is suggested that each of the variables is turned into 5 point Likert type scale questions, which will then enable easy comparison with the benchmarking scores we have obtained. Figure 12.1 shows the groups of which have been developed, each of these is examined in more detail in the following sections.
The focus of teaching and learning within Coventry University's Automotive and Industrial Des... more The focus of teaching and learning within Coventry University's Automotive and Industrial Design course is to equip students with a passport to enter their professional community of practice [1] [2]. One of the core competencies contained within this passport is co-operative working and teamwork - seen as a fundamental aspect of the creative design process, from concept to production - and this is seen as a threshold concept within the course. Therefore, to provide designers for industry it is imperative the discipline of co-operative working is part of the learning process as designers will be expected to interact with a wide range of disciplines 'such as engineering, business, sociology, and psychology, among others'. [3]. And, in today's global world, designers will often be expected to do so across geographical boundaries. This paper presents four case studies, underpinned by feedback and work outputs designed to foster co-operative learning, from each year of the automotive and industrial design course.
This paper draws on empirical investigative pedagogical research examining the development of spa... more This paper draws on empirical investigative pedagogical research examining the development of spatial understanding in undergraduate students studying a Transport and Product Design course. According to Gardner ' the centrality of spatial thinking in the visual arts is self-...
Meyer and Land define threshold concepts as concepts that: '...can be considered as akin to ... more Meyer and Land define threshold concepts as concepts that: '...can be considered as akin to a portal, opening up a new and previously inaccessible way of thinking about something. They represent a transformed way of understanding, or interpreting, or viewing something ...
... due to the complexities inherent in assessing creativity (see Blair 2006; Cowdroy and William... more ... due to the complexities inherent in assessing creativity (see Blair 2006; Cowdroy and Williams 2006; Gordon 2004; Orr 2006; Rohrbach ... The development of the assessment buddy system The practice at Jaguar LandRover demonstrates how, freed from the distraction of time ...
Higher education is not just a context for formal, curricula-based learning. Students also learn ... more Higher education is not just a context for formal, curricula-based learning. Students also learn from their wider university experiences, as they meet and interact with people from different backgrounds, beliefs and values. The university and college experience helps students become people who respect the social diversity around them and thrive in religiously diverse and multicultural environments. Higher education providers have a duty to provide safe and secure environments for formal and informal learning. An important aspect of this is to act proactively in order, as far as possible, to prevent harassment and hate incidents and to provide mechanisms for dealing with them if they occur. This guidance document focuses specifically on religion or belief-related harassment and hatred and is informed by the ‘Tackling religion-based hate crime on the multi-faith campus’ project, carried out at Coventry University as one of 11 projects funded by the Office for Students (OfS) within its Catalyst initiative to tackle religion-based hate crime and support student safety and wellbeing. This guidance was developed in consultation with the other 10 projects, Advance HE (the Higher Education sector charitable body) and the Church of England’s Education Office (with expertise and responsibility for a large number of university chaplains). The guidance helps to unpack the sometimes complex terminologies, categories and legal distinctions relevant to work in this area. It offers advice on how higher education providers can set up and promote an effective reporting system for incidents of religion or belief-harassment and hate. This can then inform institutional action and/or referral to external agencies such as the police. It offers an example that higher education providers can interpret and apply in ways that suit their contexts.N/
Working in groups is generally accepted as constituting an important part of students’ intellectu... more Working in groups is generally accepted as constituting an important part of students’ intellectual development as it fosters higher level critical thinking if applied appropriately. Group work also encourages the development of good communication and teamwork – skills which are desirable from an employer’s point of view. On the surface it would seem that group work would be an obvious way to promote cultural awareness and collaboration between international and domestic students and it has been argued that mixed cultural groups will help students learn about multicultural issues that they would not otherwise have encountered. However, other reports have been less positive. While the language proficiency of international students may be sufficient to enter university, the pace of speech of domestic students can affect classroom interactions. International students may also struggle to understand examples given in class to clarify issues due to specific cultural (usually Western) contexts. This study is an attempt to explore domestic and international students’ views of group work and the extent to which group work may promote cross-cultural understanding.
European Journal of Transport and Infrastructure Research, 2017
This study investigates how different travel satisfaction survey methods influence the reported l... more This study investigates how different travel satisfaction survey methods influence the reported level of door-to-door travel satisfaction among travellers. The travel satisfaction measurement surve ...
Empathy has been recognised as a key skill by practicing designers. With rapid changes to inclusi... more Empathy has been recognised as a key skill by practicing designers. With rapid changes to inclusivity and accessibility in the transport sector, student designers need to appreciate and understand the way in which people engage and interact with transport. They need to not only develop an understanding of older and vulnerable users, how they experience products, vehicles, services and systems but also have the confidence to try out new ways of finding information and gaining ‘authentic experiences’. Although empathic design is encouraged, there is often little opportunity for this to occur in an already full traditional educational curriculum. This paper reports a short intervention using readily available materials to create low fidelity experience simulations designed to increase the empathic horizon of transport design students. It concludes with a set of guidelines on how to create high quality learning experiences for students that will enable enhanced empathic design outcomes ...
With rapid changes to inclusivity, accessibility, technology and the global economy, there is a n... more With rapid changes to inclusivity, accessibility, technology and the global economy, there is a need to appreciate and understand the way in which real people actually engage and interact with products, systems and services. Designers need to go beyond the merely functional. To do this they need to develop deeper understanding of users, which goes beyond mere categorization of user types and characteristics. They need to have the ability and confidence to try new ways of finding information and gaining ‘authentic experiences.’ Empathy has been recognized as a key skill by practicing designers. This paper introduces empathy, shows why it is important, and provides evidence for a greater need of empathy during design and research activities. The paper is built around two case studies from our work on design for older user, which illustrate the need for more empathy in codesign activities and insights students gather using experience prototypes.
"This chapter outlines the use of threshold concepts as a research framework and then considers t... more "This chapter outlines the use of threshold concepts as a research framework and then considers the journey from identification of a threshold concept within a discipline to its impact on teaching and learning development.
Using Meyer and Land’s (2003) notion of threshold concepts as a research framework, the Centre of Excellence for Product and Automotive Design (CEPAD) at Coventry University carried out an investigation into whether spatial awareness, considered by staff as being at the heart of the Transport and Product Design course, was a threshold concept. The threshold concept framework provided a very useful starting point to engage disciplinary staff by opening up a dialogue and proved to be accessible both in terms of a theoretical concept and a language. Further, the framework was particularly useful in opening up a largely untheorised discipline in terms of pedagogical research, enabling a focus for engagement with the course team.
The resulting research has examined and challenged assumptions of the team: staff and student interviews highlighted a lack of a common definition or perception of spatial awareness and the research findings showed that staff felt that spatial awareness was not a threshold concept, and no correlation between first year student scores from a specially developed measurement tool and end-of-year assessment results was found (Osmond and Turner 2007). Therefore it is posited that spatial awareness development is not a threshold concept in the first year of study.
However, early indications from qualitative data gathered through staff and student interviews, point to the ‘confidence to challenge’, possibly akin to Perkins’ idea of ‘breakthrough thinking’, as a possible threshold concept. More research is on-going to investigate whether the ‘confidence to challenge’ is a threshold concept. This includes qualitative interviews with staff and students, a period of observation to assess the students’ abilities in this area and an examination of existing teaching and learning strategies. This results of the research will then be used to inform the teaching and learning strategy of the transport and product design discipline, and, it is hoped, disciplines throughout the University."
Coventry University’s car design graduates populate the international community of transport desi... more Coventry University’s car design graduates populate the international community of transport design as Directors of Design, CEOs, Vice Presidents, Studio Directors, Design Project Managers at companies such as LandRover, Renault, BMW, Mercedes Benz and Jaguar. In doing so, they have joined not only a community that is international in scope but also a community of practice, which encompasses professional designers working in the industry, all of whom actively negotiate with and participate in a mutually understood discourse. This discourse is both explicit and, very often, tacit, but to the transport design community the signs of membership are unmistakable.
Using Lave and Wenger’s (1991) Community of Practice theory, this chapter explores the impact on student car designers of interactions with the Car Design News website, an online tool of the professional car design community of practice. Specifically, it considers how the website facilitates 'legitimate peripheral participation' into a community of practice, and a concomitant 'blueprint' identity for the fledgling professional car designer.
Working in groups is generally accepted as constituting an important part of students’ intellectu... more Working in groups is generally accepted as constituting an important part of students’ intellectual development as it fosters higher level critical thinking if applied appropriately. Group work also encourages the development of good communication and teamwork – skills which are desirable from an employer’s point of view. On the surface it would seem that group work would be an obvious way to promote cultural awareness and collaboration between international and domestic students and it has been argued that mixed cultural groups will help students learn about multicultural issues that they would not otherwise have encountered. However, other reports have been less positive. While the language proficiency of international students may be sufficient to enter university, the pace of speech of domestic students can affect classroom interactions. International students may also struggle to understand examples given in class to clarify issues due to specific cultural (usually Western) contexts. This study is an attempt to explore domestic and international students’ views of group work and the extent to which group work may promote cross-cultural understanding.
The tacit nature of visual design knowledge comes under scrutiny in this chapter outlining a stud... more The tacit nature of visual design knowledge comes under scrutiny in this chapter outlining a study of automotive and product design students. Observation of the transport and product design course at Coventry University through a four year longitudinal study is establishing that the course offers more than the accumulation of skills and information, and is viewed as a process of ‘becoming’ – in this case becoming a certain kind of creative and critically-minded design practitioner. Through this transformative practice a professional identity is formed, and, through the desire to become accepted within the community of creative design practitioners, learning can become a source of motivation, meaningfulness and personal and social energy. At the heart of this process is the development of spatial awareness and access to a set of knowledge practices that are necessary to visual design. However, the empirical data from interviews with both design staff and students highlight the troublesome nature of tacit and implicit understanding in the teaching of spatial awareness in design contexts. Moreover threshold concepts seem to be entangled with a much wider pattern of practice and enquiry, a set of games (reminiscent of Perkins’ underlying episteme) that are played with the concepts, and which in turn can provide a further source of troublesomeness for the novice. The data is being used to assess the relative advantages and limitations of the currently adopted atelier method as a learning environment and for the development of spatial awareness and other related concepts, and to identify pedagogical modifications to this approach where appropriate.
Assessment for learning in the creative arts involves working with ambiguous terms such as 'creat... more Assessment for learning in the creative arts involves working with ambiguous terms such as 'creativity', 'imagination', 'originality', (Davies 2003) and typically involve an interpretation of ‘wicked’ problems which ...have incomplete, contradictory, and changing requirements; and solutions to them are often difficult to recognize as such because of complex interdependencies.’ (Buchanan 1992).
Therefore, in a creative field with no absolute answers, the formative mark may be more significant to the learning process than summative mark; in addition attaching formative feedback to a summative mark can be counter-productive, in that the students may focus on the mark to the exclusion of any comments about the work (Butler, quoted in Nichol 2009).
This presentation explores the impact of a ‘buddy’ assessment method introduced for Year 2 industrial design students at Coventry University designed to privilege formative feedback over summative mark. The assessment method was implemented alongside a new curriculum designed to foster student creativity and experimentation, and focus group data indicates that students see the ‘buddy’ assessment method as positive and successful. It is intended to offer up the findings from the focus group data to generate discussion about assessment methods applicable to large student groups in art and design disciplines.
References
Buchanan, R. (1992) ‘Wicked Problems in Design Thinking.’ Design Issues. Spring. V8 No2
Davies, P. (2006) Threshold concepts: How can we recognise them? In Meyer, J.H.F. and Land R. (Eds.) Overcoming Barriers to Student Understanding: Threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge. Routledge
This paper outlines the results of a small-scale study into the use of e-learning tools to delive... more This paper outlines the results of a small-scale study into the use of e-learning tools to deliver a Health Communication Design (HCD) MA Course to mature students carried out by the Centre of Excellence for Automotive and Product Design (CEPAD) at Coventry University.
The literature shows that building a community of practice [1] is crucial to delivering a quality e-learning experience. Without this, isolation may ensue [2] and motivation to continue may be affected. However, creating a learning community of practice is not easy and this and the notion of ‘emergent’ course design needs to be woven into thinking around delivery of such courses [3].
In addition, mature students may not feel as confident as their traditional counterparts when entering higher education and may be anxious and less confident [4], due to temporal distance from educational experiences and concomitant lack of relevant skills. Further, although mature students may be confident adults in the world, their existing knowledge and experiences may not help them to negotiate the cultural norms and language of higher education, thus leading to an ‘element of alienation’ [5]. Thus, they may not identify themselves as ‘learner’, although they may experience a transformation during their studies which allows them to assume this identity. This transformation may be experienced as a ‘threshold concept’, defined by Meyer and Land as:
…akin to a portal, opening up a new and previously inaccessible way of thinking about something. It represents a transformed way of understanding, or interpreting, or viewing something without which the learner cannot progress. [6]
Using the above issues as a guide, two focus groups were planned with HCD students and preliminary findings from the first focus group indicate that building a successful community of practice at the beginning of an e-learning course is important for successful delivery, especially for mature students who have been away from education for some time. This paper will explore these issues further and produce some recommendations for discussion.
References [1] Wenger, E. (2007) Communities of Practice Learning, Meaning and Identity. Cambridge University Press. [2] O’Neill, K., Singh, G., and John O’Donoghue, J. (2004)’ Implementing eLearning Programmes for Higher Education: A Review of the Literature’ in Journal of Information Technology Education. Vol. 3 [3] Thompson, T., Colla J. MacDonald. C. (2005) ‘Community building, emergent design and expecting the unexpected: Creating a quality eLearning experience’ Internet and Higher Education. 8. 233–249 [4] Murphy, H., Roopchand, N. (2003) ‘Intrinsic Motivation and Self-esteem in Traditional and Mature Students at a Post-1992 University in the North-east of England’. Educational Studies, Vol. 29, No. 2/3. p.254 [5] Toynton, R. (2005) ‘Degrees of disciplinarity in equipping mature students in higher education for engagement and success in lifelong learning’. Active Learning in Higher Education. 2005; 6; 106. p.108 [6] Meyer, J.H.F. and Land, R. (2003). ‘Threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge: linkages to ways of thinking and practising within the disciplines’. In C. Rust (Ed.), Improving Student Learning. Improving Student Learning Theory and Practice ― 10 years on, OCSLD, Oxford. p. 412
This paper focuses on the use of Threshold Concepts as a framework for pedagogic research within ... more This paper focuses on the use of Threshold Concepts as a framework for pedagogic research within Transport and Product Design and how this can inform pedagogic interventions and curriculum design.
The notion of threshold concepts was coined by Meyer and Land (2003) to represent “the basic idea that in certain disciplines there are ‘conceptual gateways’ or ‘portals’ that lead to a previously inaccessible, and initially perhaps ‘troublesome’, way of thinking about something”.
The understanding of threshold concepts in the Transport and Product Design course at Coventry University evolved from initial research on whether spatial awareness was a threshold concept. However, what emerged from the research was the notion of ‘confidence to challenge’ as a threshold concept, defined as the ability to ‘inculcate design conventions and expand upon them using information from a variety of sources and experiences’. Further research findings have led to a redefining of the threshold concept as the ‘Toleration of Uncertainty’, as it is the process – that brings about the transformation in the student, and this achievement of tolerance is linked to an increasing confidence in their own capability and identity as a designer
A key aspect of the paper will demonstrate the linking of pedagogical research to teaching and learning and curriculum design through the development of a model which brings together the research outcomes and enables the visualisation of the relationship of the student to design capabilities, the curriculum and engagement with professional practice. The applicability of the model to other design disciplines will also be discussed.
The aim of this workshop was to explore how to open up a dialogue with students and academic coll... more The aim of this workshop was to explore how to open up a dialogue with students and academic colleagues in HE using a particular framework, namely Meyer and Land's (2003) notion of threshold concepts.
The workshop provided an overview of the nature of threshold concepts and qualitative research. Examples were drawn from a case study where threshold concepts are being used as a framework for engaging disciplinary staff and students at the Centre of Excellence for Product and Automotive Design (CEPAD), Coventry University.
An opportunity was provided for workshop participants to explore how the notion of threshold concepts might be used to open up a dialogue with research participants or provide a point of inquiry for informing their own pedagogic research.
The concept of spatial understanding has long been debated, and a number of terms surrounding the... more The concept of spatial understanding has long been debated, and a number of terms surrounding the concept are offered in the literature, including, Spatial Awareness, (Karnath, et al. 2001), Spatial Functioning (Temple and Carney 1995), Spatial Ability (Garg et al 1999), Spatial Orientation (Bodner and Guay 1997), Spatial Visualisation Ability (McGee 1979 quoted in Alias et al 2002) and Spatial intelligence (Eliot 2002, Gardner 1983, Shearer 2004).
This talk drew on empirical investigative pedagogical research examining the development of spatial understanding in undergraduate students studying a Transport and Product Design course. According to Gardner ‘…the centrality of spatial thinking in the visual arts is self-evident.’ (1983:195).The course has a reputation for excellence with graduates often gaining employment with prestigious automotive design companies. Within the research, the notion that spatial understanding is a threshold concept has been explored with the aim of developing pedagogies for enhancing the development of spatial understanding. The possession of such an understanding or awareness by students is viewed as prerequisite to becoming a successful designer.
Interviews identified a lack of agreement on a common definition of the concept of spatial understanding amongst the Transport and Product Design course team. Definitions ranged from the ability to ‘mentally rotate images in the head’, to ‘standing back from an object and being able to ‘see’ all its parts’, to a ‘design sensitivity’ or ‘global positioning system’. Whilst it is acknowledged by the team as crucial to professional design practice, the concept is not specifically taught or designed into the course and remains largely untheorised. Amongst the student body, the concept was again untheorised but a longitudinal study of the first year student cohort has identified that students have a perception of developing a language of design as well as an identity as a designer. Other early findings indicate that peer or collaborative learning have been identified by the learners as being an important part of their development.
Currently prevailing models of teaching and learning did not prove particularly helpful or illuminative in considering pedagogical developments which might enhance students’ spatial understanding. Indeed there does not appear to be any developed pedagogical vocabulary that relates to the learning environment of design. In the light of this a tool to measure specific competencies thought to correspond to successful spatial understanding was developed with colleagues who teach in this field, and the tool has been piloted with first year Undergraduate Transport Design students. The competencies include an understanding of perspective/proportion, representing a 3D object from a 2D view, and the ability to rotate forms in 3D. It was anticipated that the finalised tool might enable monitoring of, and subsequently inform, the development of spatial understanding and the related area of kinaesthetic understanding.
This presentation drew upon the findings from the various aspects of the research and open up the debate surrounding spatial understanding. The results have wide ranging implications for improving the student learning experience in design courses.
This thesis of work is a collection of published papers based upon qualitative research into iden... more This thesis of work is a collection of published papers based upon qualitative research into identifying threshold concepts within undergraduate industrial design, augmented by a commentary. he overarching theme of the published papers is the journey undertaken in identifying threshold concepts within the undergraduate industrial design programme. This includes the actual identification of a specific threshold concept, the impact of this identification on the programme, and – through publication - the wider impact of the work within both the threshold concept field and the Art and Design discipline. The full thesis is available for download at http://bit.ly/1HPwo17
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Using Meyer and Land’s (2003) notion of threshold concepts as a research framework, the Centre of Excellence for Product and Automotive Design (CEPAD) at Coventry University carried out an investigation into whether spatial awareness, considered by staff as being at the heart of the Transport and Product Design course, was a threshold concept. The threshold concept framework provided a very useful starting point to engage disciplinary staff by opening up a dialogue and proved to be accessible both in terms of a theoretical concept and a language. Further, the framework was particularly useful in opening up a largely untheorised discipline in terms of pedagogical research, enabling a focus for engagement with the course team.
The resulting research has examined and challenged assumptions of the team: staff and student interviews highlighted a lack of a common definition or perception of spatial awareness and the research findings showed that staff felt that spatial awareness was not a threshold concept, and no correlation between first year student scores from a specially developed measurement tool and end-of-year assessment results was found (Osmond and Turner 2007). Therefore it is posited that spatial awareness development is not a threshold concept in the first year of study.
However, early indications from qualitative data gathered through staff and student interviews, point to the ‘confidence to challenge’, possibly akin to Perkins’ idea of ‘breakthrough thinking’, as a possible threshold concept. More research is on-going to investigate whether the ‘confidence to challenge’ is a threshold concept. This includes qualitative interviews with staff and students, a period of observation to assess the students’ abilities in this area and an examination of existing teaching and learning strategies. This results of the research will then be used to inform the teaching and learning strategy of the transport and product design discipline, and, it is hoped, disciplines throughout the University."
Using Lave and Wenger’s (1991) Community of Practice theory, this chapter explores the impact on student car designers of interactions with the Car Design News website, an online tool of the professional car design community of practice. Specifically, it considers how the website facilitates 'legitimate peripheral participation' into a community of practice, and a concomitant 'blueprint' identity for the fledgling professional car designer.
Therefore, in a creative field with no absolute answers, the formative mark may be more significant to the learning process than summative mark; in addition attaching formative feedback to a summative mark can be counter-productive, in that the students may focus on the mark to the exclusion of any comments about the work (Butler, quoted in Nichol 2009).
This presentation explores the impact of a ‘buddy’ assessment method introduced for Year 2 industrial design students at Coventry University designed to privilege formative feedback over summative mark. The assessment method was implemented alongside a new curriculum designed to foster student creativity and experimentation, and focus group data indicates that students see the ‘buddy’ assessment method as positive and successful. It is intended to offer up the findings from the focus group data to generate discussion about assessment methods applicable to large student groups in art and design disciplines.
References
Buchanan, R. (1992) ‘Wicked Problems in Design Thinking.’ Design Issues. Spring. V8 No2
Davies, P. (2006) Threshold concepts: How can we recognise them? In Meyer, J.H.F. and Land R. (Eds.) Overcoming Barriers to Student Understanding: Threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge. Routledge
Nichol, D. (2009) ‘Rethinking Formative Assessment in HE: a theoretical model and seven principles of good feedback practice.’ [online], Available:
http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/ourwork/teachingandlearning/assessment. [20 Jan 2010]
The literature shows that building a community of practice [1] is crucial to delivering a quality e-learning experience. Without this, isolation may ensue [2] and motivation to continue may be affected. However, creating a learning community of practice is not easy and this and the notion of ‘emergent’ course design needs to be woven into thinking around delivery of such courses [3].
In addition, mature students may not feel as confident as their traditional counterparts when entering higher education and may be anxious and less confident [4], due to temporal distance from educational experiences and concomitant lack of relevant skills. Further, although mature students may be confident adults in the world, their existing knowledge and experiences may not help them to negotiate the cultural norms and language of higher education, thus leading to an ‘element of alienation’ [5]. Thus, they may not identify themselves as ‘learner’, although they may experience a transformation during their studies which allows them to assume this identity. This transformation may be experienced as a ‘threshold concept’, defined by Meyer and Land as:
…akin to a portal, opening up a new and previously inaccessible way of thinking about something. It represents a transformed way of understanding, or interpreting, or viewing something without which the learner cannot progress. [6]
Using the above issues as a guide, two focus groups were planned with HCD students and preliminary findings from the first focus group indicate that building a successful community of practice at the beginning of an e-learning course is important for successful delivery, especially for mature students who have been away from education for some time. This paper will explore these issues further and produce some recommendations for discussion.
References
[1] Wenger, E. (2007) Communities of Practice Learning, Meaning and Identity. Cambridge University Press.
[2] O’Neill, K., Singh, G., and John O’Donoghue, J. (2004)’ Implementing eLearning Programmes for Higher Education: A Review of the Literature’ in Journal of Information Technology Education. Vol. 3
[3] Thompson, T., Colla J. MacDonald. C. (2005) ‘Community building, emergent design and expecting the unexpected: Creating a quality eLearning experience’ Internet and Higher Education. 8. 233–249
[4] Murphy, H., Roopchand, N. (2003) ‘Intrinsic Motivation and Self-esteem in Traditional and Mature Students at a Post-1992 University in the North-east of England’. Educational Studies, Vol. 29, No. 2/3. p.254
[5] Toynton, R. (2005) ‘Degrees of disciplinarity in equipping mature students in higher education for engagement and success in lifelong learning’. Active Learning in Higher Education. 2005; 6; 106. p.108
[6] Meyer, J.H.F. and Land, R. (2003). ‘Threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge: linkages to ways of thinking and practising within the disciplines’. In C. Rust (Ed.), Improving Student Learning. Improving Student Learning Theory and Practice ― 10 years on, OCSLD, Oxford. p. 412
The notion of threshold concepts was coined by Meyer and Land (2003) to represent “the basic idea that in certain disciplines there are ‘conceptual gateways’ or ‘portals’ that lead to a previously inaccessible, and initially perhaps ‘troublesome’, way of thinking about something”.
The understanding of threshold concepts in the Transport and Product Design course at Coventry University evolved from initial research on whether spatial awareness was a threshold concept. However, what emerged from the research was the notion of ‘confidence to challenge’ as a threshold concept, defined as the ability to ‘inculcate design conventions and expand upon them using information from a variety of sources and experiences’. Further research findings have led to a redefining of the threshold concept as the ‘Toleration of Uncertainty’, as it is the process – that brings about the transformation in the student, and this achievement of tolerance is linked to an increasing confidence in their own capability and identity as a designer
A key aspect of the paper will demonstrate the linking of pedagogical research to teaching and learning and curriculum design through the development of a model which brings together the research outcomes and enables the visualisation of the relationship of the student to design capabilities, the curriculum and engagement with professional practice. The applicability of the model to other design disciplines will also be discussed.
The workshop provided an overview of the nature of threshold concepts and qualitative research. Examples were drawn from a case study where threshold concepts are being used as a framework for engaging disciplinary staff and students at the Centre of Excellence for Product and Automotive Design (CEPAD), Coventry University.
An opportunity was provided for workshop participants to explore how the notion of threshold concepts might be used to open up a dialogue with research participants or provide a point of inquiry for informing their own pedagogic research.
This talk drew on empirical investigative pedagogical research examining the development of spatial understanding in undergraduate students studying a Transport and Product Design course. According to Gardner ‘…the centrality of spatial thinking in the visual arts is self-evident.’ (1983:195).The course has a reputation for excellence with graduates often gaining employment with prestigious automotive design companies. Within the research, the notion that spatial understanding is a threshold concept has been explored with the aim of developing pedagogies for enhancing the development of spatial understanding. The possession of such an understanding or awareness by students is viewed as prerequisite to becoming a successful designer.
Interviews identified a lack of agreement on a common definition of the concept of spatial understanding amongst the Transport and Product Design course team. Definitions ranged from the ability to ‘mentally rotate images in the head’, to ‘standing back from an object and being able to ‘see’ all its parts’, to a ‘design sensitivity’ or ‘global positioning system’. Whilst it is acknowledged by the team as crucial to professional design practice, the concept is not specifically taught or designed into the course and remains largely untheorised. Amongst the student body, the concept was again untheorised but a longitudinal study of the first year student cohort has identified that students have a perception of developing a language of design as well as an identity as a designer. Other early findings indicate that peer or collaborative learning have been identified by the learners as being an important part of their development.
Currently prevailing models of teaching and learning did not prove particularly helpful or illuminative in considering pedagogical developments which might enhance students’ spatial understanding. Indeed there does not appear to be any developed pedagogical vocabulary that relates to the learning environment of design. In the light of this a tool to measure specific competencies thought to correspond to successful spatial understanding was developed with colleagues who teach in this field, and the tool has been piloted with first year Undergraduate Transport Design students. The competencies include an understanding of perspective/proportion, representing a 3D object from a 2D view, and the ability to rotate forms in 3D. It was anticipated that the finalised tool might enable monitoring of, and subsequently inform, the development of spatial understanding and the related area of kinaesthetic understanding.
This presentation drew upon the findings from the various aspects of the research and open up the debate surrounding spatial understanding. The results have wide ranging implications for improving the student learning experience in design courses.