Seventeenth International Conference on Design Principles & Practices

Abstract

In a student-oriented environment, ensuring motivation and trust are observed to elevate student performance. Yet the grades are valued as material products, while verbal assessment is seen to be abstract and intangible. Considering the balance of an effective tutor-student communication in any design studio, the first-year is the most challenging to articulate. This paper investigates how to formulate assessment (self-, peer- and tutor) in the design studio in order to understand students’ learning behavior and design cognition in the first-year via a case study with 137 first-year students from five different design departments in the project-based design studio. By doing so, this paper discusses how the assessment, as a teaching strategy, would demonstrate what the students “can” learn at particular stages of the design process and when the progress decelerates.