Integrated "Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics" (STEM) education is recognised as the latest development stage on the pathway to a highly capable future workforce, and is thus linked to a nation's future development and prosperity. However, despite various appeals and efforts by the Australian Government, effective…

An understanding of the theoretical basis of the design learning process, and the resulting partnership between students and teachers in contemporary design studios, is required to optimise learning. Students' learning in the architecture design studio has been widely studied, however the specific activities of students and teachers, and the…

Industrial Design education is poorly understood by laypeople but is present in Australian curricula from primary through to tertiary education levels. Designers and design researchers have long recognised the value of the broad-ranging skills, knowledge fields, and personal qualities design education imparts, but this understanding is generally…

Based on the concept of Communities of Practice (CoP), this study describes the design and implementation of an online academic conference, Pedagogy and Practice in Technology Enhanced Language Learning (PPTELL) 2021, as a backdrop for exploring how to effectively promote the development of academic citizenship within the PPTELL CoP. To address…

This paper introduces the life and work of art educator and designer Kurt Rowland (1920-1980) who authored the first set of textbooks on visual education and played a role in the shifting world of art and design education in post-war Britian. We detail the foundational experiences of his extraordinary life in the first half of the 20th century…

An ever-increasing array of design visualisation tools are available to designers. As such, design education is constantly challenged to keep up with these trends so that students are best equipped for entering industrial practice. This paper reports a study into the use of digital sketching, a relatively new digital visualisation tool. The study…

New pedagogic approaches combining Transdisciplinary, Experiential, and Adaptive perspectives are emerging to respond to increasingly complex urban conditions. By addressing the gap in current urban design studio education, the study defined a framework to assist teachers in designing novel teaching formats based on TEA learning approaches. The…

Block mode delivery is widely practised in higher education institutions across the world. It is popular at postgraduate level, such as in business and management fields, but is less common at undergraduate level, especially for studio design teaching. There is a lack of literature on the block mode delivery for studio design teaching. The aim of…

There is a significant amount of research into gender differences in academic performance in the science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) fields. This has identified important differences between the academic achievement of men and women as measured through grade point averages and time to completion. However, the specific STEM fields of…

This article presents a longitudinal study, over eleven years, of the academic progress of a cohort of design students (n = 475) at a major Australian university. The students were from four different spatial design disciplines: architecture, industrial design, interior design, and landscape architecture. The article identifies cognitive variables…

Current studies in design education suggest that students and educators base their designs on what they already know about themselves and their peers, or on stereotypical notions of others. This article presents a critical examination of a pedagogical approach employed in several architecture and interior design studios to determine how best to…

There is global recognition of the need to teach and assess complex competencies, which are often referred to as twenty-first century or work-ready knowledge and skills. While several assessment frameworks have been co-developed by researchers and teachers to assess competencies in schools, little is known about how these frameworks are shaped,…

Access to interactive, simulated work environments through virtual reality (VR) has potential in teaching safety in design (SiD) to engineering students with reduced risk, cost and inconvenience. However, there is limited understanding of what students learn from immersive VR interventions, or the outcomes from specific learning activities. This…

Hospitalisation can be a challenging experience for young people, including higher levels of anxiety, social isolation, and depression. In this paper we identify the possibilities of an applied theatre pilot that aimed to combine co-designed virtual reality (VR) approaches with intermedial work with young people in hospital. Within the pilot study…

Recent understandings of 'design' and, in particular design education have become entrenched within schools and higher education as approaches to provide students with opportunities to develop creativity and imagination, and the skills needed for a globalized future. Drawing from Australian curriculum documents, this paper presents a content…