Exploring Innovation in the Teaching of Design. A Study on the Experimental Teaching Practices in the Context of a School of Design

Abstract

Teaching innovation research aims to experiment with new practices and methodologies that relate objectives, activities, tools, and other elements to respond to new educational challenges, such as equipping students with the right skills for increasingly complex and changing work contexts. For higher education institutions, innovation of didactic is an increasingly strategic goal to prepare students for jobs that do not yet exist and to be competitive with emerging players in the educational context. This article outlines a funded research project investigating the perimeter of innovation in design education. The research focuses on the context of the Politecnico di Milano to understand how experimentation in university courses can lead to innovation in design education. The paper presents a survey definition process aiming to map experimentation practices in courses over the past decade and how the results of this mapping can define potential models for codifying and defining teaching practices with innovation potential.