Pathology of design studio education with a constructive approach to the nature of design knowledge

Pathology of design studio education with a constructive approach to the nature of design knowledgeTeaching of design courses in workshops and the way of teaching them according to various design methods and theories have been the most important issue and concern of architecture schools. In this regard, issues such as the design process and the procedure to reach a design have been raised, which often do not reach the desired resultsDesign is one of the most complicated and at the same time the most important human creative activity that requires its own specific capacity and knowledge. Research in design has been around for several decades in ways early research has sought to provide practical design procedures; this is while recent studies have tended to the complexities of the work, described the problem space and the design process. . This dissertation has a constructive view of the nature of design knowledge and examines education in architecture workshops and pathology of conventional method in architecture workshops with an emphasis on the constructive approach. The most important question in this regard is how we can explain a framework for pathology of workshop education by analyzing the nature of knowledge. It begins with a discussion of architectural education, introduces architectural education courses, and the characteristics of each course, and finally it refers to studies conducted on pathology. Then, design-research studies and design process models were introduced for better understanding of the design practice and knowledge required for design. Relying on the postmodern approach, appropriate knowledge and teaching methods for design workshops were introduced. Since the research method of this dissertation was grounded theory, to increase the validity of the research, data were collected using a consensus of three methods (valid sources and documents, interviews with professors and field study of architectural workshops). In the first method, using meta-analytic research, it was found that the appropriate approach for teaching in design workshops is constructive learning, since design knowledge must be constructed and not transferable. Relying on the interviews, the findings showed that knowledge is constructed in architectural workshops and also the disadvantages of education in knowledge construction in architectural workshops were expressed. In field observation, with a rich description (using Schaefer's model (2003)) as well as findings obtained from the previous two methods, categories such as knowledge construction in architectural workshops, the role of teacher and student in knowledge construction, and a constructive approach in architectural workshops were extracted. There is no pre-determined knowledge for design, but design knowledge is constructed simultaneously with designing during the design process based on the various factors that exist. Thus, in design workshops, they should seek to construct knowledge. One of the important factors in constructing design knowledge is teamwork and an interaction between group members. Lack of effective teamwork in design workshops is one of its shortcomings. In the final evaluation, lack of paying attention to individual abilities and the final comparison of each person with other students in the workshop are among the harms of these environments.