The concept of sustainable design as a specialism within design, business and manufacture is not a new one. Writers and educators such as Victor Papanek (Papanek 1971) and Buckminster Fuller (Fuller and Snyder 1969) were advocating a change in the way we taught students how to design and look at the world in which they live. In parallel with this, many other experts (Carson 1962; Lovelock 1979) were highlighting the difficulties being caused by industrialisation and global trade in the natural environment. Issues such as the dramatic impact of the global population on ecosystems; the strains on the global and local economic systems and the challenges meted by social inequity were starting to be raised by scientists, economists and even designers as early as the 1960s. These are now finally accepted as real problems for today's students and professionals and for the world as a whole. They now provide clear opportunity both to graduates and to businesses as fields in which they can provide and develop expertise with a view to mitigating past and future problems. This research grew out of an opportunity to examine how students and professionals learn to contextualise their design training through a sustainable design lens. Over a five year period from 2004-09 the research sought to evaluate how the learner understands and· applies their knowledge and skills and to begin the process of developing a sustainable design mindset. Through the development of a series of case studies the research goes on to develop learning strategies that can assist the learner to work in a multidisciplinary environment and to develop a sustainable literacy with their colleagues from non design disciplines. The work outlined here deals with how undergraduate students learn about sustainable design in a studio based environment over an extended period. It looks at the use of elearning, multidisciplinary project work, live projects and the mixing students with professionals all through the vehicle of sustainable design. The research also develops a number of strategies for assisting both SME (Small and Medium Enterprises) and practicing design professionals to learn about sustainable design. These strategies encourage the professionals to look at sustainability in a holistic manner and to develop a personal understanding about how it can influence their business and their design practice. The principal research question is: How can the third level effectively educate students, SMEs and professionals in sustainable design so as to be able to apply their knowledge, skills and competencies to design and industry practice in an effective manner within a complex and rapidly changing world paradigm? This body of research is a first comprehensive comparison of how undergraduate students, SME professionals and design professionals learn about sustainable design. It develops a number of learning strategies and proposes a sustainable design learning model based on the findings of the applied research.

Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1992. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 95-102). Also available in print.

<p> This exploratory study uses the convergent design of mixed methods to integrate adaptive expertise theory to study how individual student participant from graphic design or non-graphic-design majors to solve a novel ideation problem in graphic design. Adaptive expertise includes six dimensions: metacognition, flexibility, dynamic knowledge, ability to welcome challenges, efficiency and deep understanding of the domain knowledge, and multiple perspectives. Those are desired qualities for a learner to stand out in the global market that are constantly changing with complex challenges. Thirty undergraduate students participated in this study. This study aims to answer four questions: types of graphic design tool and strategies selection and reasoning, similarities and differences among four participant groups, influences of participants&rsquo; performance from the prior-experiences, and other potential preconceptions and situations to their reasoning. Four results are identified. Frist, 11 rationales contributed to participants to make their tool usage decision and strategies. Second, participant with more varieties of prior experiences in graphic design would potentially have significantly higher confidence level in their adaptive expertise. Third, participants who performed better in this study, obtained more thorough reflection in design thinking. This result shows that this task requires domain-dependent expertise. Forth, participants&rsquo; performance found affected by several non-cognitive preconceptions such as uncertain challenges, adapting in the new work space, and stress management. Future studies need to increase the number of participants to potentially increase statistical significance of the results, and to identify the relationship among factors that affect participants&rsquo; performance and exhibition of adaptive expertise. Implications of this study suggests the need to expose learners to diverse types of graphic design experiences and novel tasks/contexts. </p><p>

Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1992. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 142-145). Also available in print.

This Study investigates the effectiveness of a new Instructional Design model for using advanced multimedia in the teaching and learning of photography at university level in Kingdom of Bahrain. A preliminary study revealed that the central problems faced by students are learning key technical aspects of photography coupled with insufficient resources and high student teachers ratio. Advanced multimedia was proposed as an effective tool for teaching and learning photography. A critical review and analysis of existing e-learning resources revealed that such technology might help in teaching and learning, especially subjects that need experience with real instruments like cameras. Through reference to the ASSURE model, Laurillard's conversational model, and insights from Steuer's Classification model, the researcher developed a new instructional design model for using advanced multimedia in photography education [AMPE]. This was field tested in University photography teaching. For the evaluation of the AMPE model a mixed-model design was used, combining quantitative and qualitative methods. In a quantitative evaluation, effectiveness in learning was estimated from the student achievement in a test. A comparison of the opinions of the two groups of students in a specially constructed questionnaire measuring their views of the respective teaching and learning methods was also applied. Finally engagement and enjoyment in learning in the two groups of students were also assessed through questionnaire. The participants‘comments, opinions, and suggestions were obtained through open-ended questions in the questionnaire. The study found that advanced multimedia enhances effectiveness, engagement, and enjoyment in learning photography. The instructional model and associated ―virtual camera‖ seems to be a suitable solution for the lack of real cameras in the classroom environment, and can help in the teaching of difficult technical photographic knowledge in an efficient and practical manner.

The purpose of this study is to find solutions on how to improve secondary school students’ persuasive argumentative English essay writing. The participants of this study are groups of ESL students aged 13 and 17 who live and study in a sub-urban area in Malaysia. All students and teachers converse amongst themselves using the Malay language on a daily basis while English language is merely used during classroom interaction time. Not only do they have very little opportunity to communicate using English language in their daily lives and for academic purposes, they also have limited opportunity to learn how to argue persuasively in their English classroom. Thus, they have difficulties in writing two-sided argumentative essays in English. The teaching-to-the-test culture has taken its toll on students’ writing performance when writing argumentative essays. In order to help students to score well in examination, teachers often overlook the need to teach critical thinking skills for the English subject. They focus solely on writing narrative essays as these essays require less critical thinking skill from the students. The Design-Based Research is employed to solve this problem of writing persuasive argumentative essays. Based on the pre-intervention essays written by the participants, it is believed that their difficulties are because of two major factors; insufficient English language skills and no exposure to persuasive argumentation skills. The initial design framework asserts that students should improve their persuasive argumentative essay writing if they are initially exposed to face-to-face group argumentation. However, the findings from the exploratory study revealed that face-to-face group argumentation is unmanageable in the context studied. Hence, an online learning intervention was considered to support secondary school students to improve their written argument. It was developed underpinned by design principles based on Exploratory Talk to achieve persuasive argumentation. The prototype online intervention was tested and developed through a series of iterations. Findings from Iteration 1 show that only a small number of students manage to write two-sided essays because most of them have an extreme attitude when writing about an issue and display a lack of positive transfer from group to individual argumentation. Prior to Iteration 2, the prototype intervention was adapted to tackle the extreme attitude and negative transfer issues by highlighting five elements: face-to-face classroom practice, focus more on three main ground rules, argument game, role of teachers during group argumentation and the use of argument map during the post-intervention essay writing. The findings demonstrate that all students in the second iteration wrote argumentative essays which are more persuasive. The final design framework developed in this study suggests a design framework that could be used by future researchers and ESL teachers at secondary school level who are interested in improving students’ persuasive argumentative essays.

Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1992. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 109-116). Also available in print.

The paradigm of design is changing. Designers now need to be equipped with the skills and knowledge that will enable them to participate in the global move towards a sustainable future. The tenets of Sustainable Development and Design: economy and environment are being dealt with extensively in both practice and theory. The social elements, unfortunately, have proven more difficult to define and implement. The challenges arise as social sustainability deals with softer and more complex issues as diverse and unquantifiable as ethics, values, cultural diversity, holistic perspectives, collective and personal responsibility. The competencies needed to address these wicked problems are based in the realm of Social Sustainability and require a shift in how designers are taught as students and will subsequently practice as professionals. This thesis proposes that by introducing various models of collaboration into design education the capacity for responsible design practice can be developed. Arguably, by capitalising on the process of collaboration a culture of individual and collective sharing can be encouraged leading to new knowledge and openness to multi-disciplinarity, holistic perspectives and diverse cultural backgrounds. Across a Delphi Study and four consecutive phases of Action Research, the competencies for social sustainability in design are identified and their emergence evaluated through practical collaborative projects in an educational setting. From the panel of twenty-one design experts the Delphi Study developed a construct for social sustainability in design, as well as an initial Framework of the key competencies. These two tools were then used to underpin the planning, implementation and subsequent analysis of the four Action Research phases. The pragmatic nature of Action Research allowed for continuous iteration and development, where data gathered through each phase informed the proceeding phase so as to fix on an approach that is both realisable and realistic. This thesis does not offer a panacea solution but rather a pathway towards achieving the necessary changes in design practice. The findings clearly show that building capacity for responsible design practice is not a simple or one size fits all approach, as each individual experience is different. The construct, framework of competencies (and their interconnections) along with the guidelines for effective collaboration, provide a starting point that can be built upon, evolve and progress as the debate around sustainability becomes more clearly defined. Over time these generic design skills can be honed and refined to meet previously unmet societal challenges.

Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1989. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 48-51).

Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1989. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 48-51). Also available in print.