Descriptions of Concept 'Research within Design' in STEM Design Projects

Abstract

Design projects within STEM education often involve research, with students actively experimenting and testing to generate new insights. Even more often, the acquisition of existing knowledge necessary for designing takes place. In fact a previous study showed a discrepancy between what students indicate that research in design should be and what they actually recognize in their own design practice; actually often research consisting of looking up existing facts and knowledge. Students can articulate what research is and should be in design, but they do not recognize this in their own design practice and identify knowledge acquisition as research. This discrepancy suggests a lack of in-depth understanding of the concept of research in a design project. Therefore, this study examines teachers' descriptions of research that should be conducted within design projects. This is crucial because teacher-developed project descriptions form the foundation for design-based learning in the first three years of STEM subject Research and Design (R&D) project education (grades K7-9) at Technasia. The main goal is to determine based on these descriptions what is expected of students in a design assignment when it comes to research, to map the methods and tools used, and to determine at which stage of the design process research is considered. Twelve descriptions of design projects, one per school, from twelve different Technasium schools, selected by their teachers, are analysed for the required research implementation within the design assignment. Preliminary results indicate that most requested research takes place in the first phases of the design process during exploring and formulating the design problem. The required level of research suggests an informal, exploratory approach, trial and error, leading to little or no need for reliability and validity of the requested research.