Fifteenth International Conference on Design Principles & Practices

Abstract

Since the advent of digital computation, the language of computer code has transformed almost all aspects of our lives, including education and design. As a myriad of accessible tools and languages have emerged in recent years, the practice of coding has become increasingly widespread in a variety of disciplines, including art and design. Design programs across the globe feature some degree of code instruction as a valuable, perhaps even essential, element of design education for the twenty-first century. Despite coding’s emerging importance in design education, however, research on code pedagogy appears predominantly in the context of its disciplinary origins in computer science or engineering; there is a dearth of research in design, which has a unique set of disciplinary interests, needs, and challenges relating to technology. Without a coherent approach to inform the integration of code into a design program, educators are left to grapple with this difficult yet vital challenge in isolation. Thus, there is an urgent need to develop a well-articulated framework for teaching computer coding in design curricula. As a step toward that long-term endeavor, this paper reviews the notion of “signature pedagogies” described by Lee S. Shulman, along with research on the signature pedagogy of design, juxtaposing it with coding pedagogies in STEM subjects. Areas of pedagogical compatibility between the two domains will be hypothesized as a starting point for a teaching framework. Finally, it suggests future research necessary to test those hypotheses and construct a robust, design-centered pedagogy for teaching code.