A living systems analysis of student design projects at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH)

• Student evaluations of courses are routinely obtained by questionnaire in higher education. That student feedback is used for, among other purposes, the planning of future courses. Whether such questionnaires consider, in specific situations, all aspects of the educational processes, or even the important ones, is an open question. This study examines that question with reference to a particular engineering design course. It investigates how groups of students process information in their design projects. The study uses the breakthrough, or full-spectrum, thinking explained by Nadler, Hibino, with Farrell to understand the uniqueness of the situation and to clarify the purposes of the research. Living systems theory instructs the design of research instruments and of a research hypothesis. The results show that significant differences in information processing exist between lower performing and higher performing groups.

Nyckelord

product design and development

living systems theory

student projects

student performance

information processing

TECHNOLOGY

TEKNIKVETENSKAP

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)