Comprehension of the Design Process in Teacher Education

Abstract

Design and technologies are being introduced as a new general education school subject in Latvia instead of the home economics and technologies subject. However, the main focus in the new subject is on comprehending the process of design and design thinking, there is little research done on how to teach the design process in general education and no research on how to teach design process for future teachers of design and technologies in Latvia. Many scholars pay attention to the process of design and teaching it. In this study, the authors have researched several studies on the design process types and components. The research question was formulated as follows: What kind of problems could arise when implementing the concept of the design process in teacher education. The pilot research was carried out in two student groups (N1 = 28; N2 = 12). The method of analyzing student’s diaries’ content was applied. The diaries were analyzed according to van Dooren and colleagues’ (2014) theory of generic elements in the design process. It was concluded that students prefer to use a guiding theme and domains. The main domains in students’ opinion are product materials, form and space, and color. As the most important characteristics of the products in students’ opinion are technical quality, product functionality, and creativity. Internet resources and books were the most commonly used resources. Students could pay more attention to documenting the design process and sketching and evaluate other criteria of the product quality. The obtained results will be taken into account in the teaching process and the future research of the design process acquired in teacher education.