Abstract
How should we educate designers to enable them to address the challenges of a complex, unpredictable, and interconnected future? What are the specific competences that designers need to address these challenges, and what pedagogical approaches are necessary to cultivate these competences? Although educators are shaping multiple paths to explore these issues, the complex nature of these questions demands holistic, multidisciplinary, and empathic approaches, rather than mechanical and outdated ones to envision educational systems that meet their students' needs. Researchers have become interested in mindfulness as a potential tool to improve educational practices. Mindfulness simply means paying attention in a certain way to our experience, but its practice can produce changes in our experience and the people around us, alter traits, and enhance creativity. However, research on mindfulness in design education is scarce, which hinders the development of holistic pedagogical tools. I address this gap by investigating the nature of mindfulness in the context of design education. This research seeks to (1) understand mindfulness mechanisms that enhance learning and reflective practices and (2) provide design educators with pedagogical tools and strategies to integrate them into design studio classrooms. The essential questions this project addresses are: How does mindfulness impact designers’ learning experiences and reflective practices? How can design educators integrate mindfulness into design studio classrooms? This project is structured into three research phases. Exploring and understanding the phenomena Developing design artefacts through practice Integrating and validating design artefacts Phase one adopts a theoretical approach. Phases two and three unify theory and practice by applying a ‘Research Through Design’ approach. There are (at least) four ways in which this project can benefit from this consortium: First, this research area is young and has a lot of unexplored territory. Thus, experienced researchers can help me improve my research methods or find new experimental approaches. Second, because this research is multidisciplinary, I think talking to experts from different design fields can help this project and lead to future collaboration. Thirdly, as part of my participatory research approach, I am interested in learning not only from experts but also from my researcher peers. I believe the combination of insights from their unique perspectives can have a profound impact on the improvement of this project. Finally, I am interested not only in benefiting my project but also in helping my research peers improve theirs.
Keywords
loneliness, young adults, design research, narrative research, design ethnographic
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2023.865
Citation
Iberbuden, A.(2023) Mindfulness for designers. An integration of mindfulness, design education and reflective practices, in De Sainz Molestina, D., Galluzzo, L., Rizzo, F., Spallazzo, D. (eds.), IASDR 2023: Life-Changing Design, 9-13 October, Milan, Italy. https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2023.865
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Conference Track
doctoralpapers
Included in
Mindfulness for designers. An integration of mindfulness, design education and reflective practices
How should we educate designers to enable them to address the challenges of a complex, unpredictable, and interconnected future? What are the specific competences that designers need to address these challenges, and what pedagogical approaches are necessary to cultivate these competences? Although educators are shaping multiple paths to explore these issues, the complex nature of these questions demands holistic, multidisciplinary, and empathic approaches, rather than mechanical and outdated ones to envision educational systems that meet their students' needs. Researchers have become interested in mindfulness as a potential tool to improve educational practices. Mindfulness simply means paying attention in a certain way to our experience, but its practice can produce changes in our experience and the people around us, alter traits, and enhance creativity. However, research on mindfulness in design education is scarce, which hinders the development of holistic pedagogical tools. I address this gap by investigating the nature of mindfulness in the context of design education. This research seeks to (1) understand mindfulness mechanisms that enhance learning and reflective practices and (2) provide design educators with pedagogical tools and strategies to integrate them into design studio classrooms. The essential questions this project addresses are: How does mindfulness impact designers’ learning experiences and reflective practices? How can design educators integrate mindfulness into design studio classrooms? This project is structured into three research phases. Exploring and understanding the phenomena Developing design artefacts through practice Integrating and validating design artefacts Phase one adopts a theoretical approach. Phases two and three unify theory and practice by applying a ‘Research Through Design’ approach. There are (at least) four ways in which this project can benefit from this consortium: First, this research area is young and has a lot of unexplored territory. Thus, experienced researchers can help me improve my research methods or find new experimental approaches. Second, because this research is multidisciplinary, I think talking to experts from different design fields can help this project and lead to future collaboration. Thirdly, as part of my participatory research approach, I am interested in learning not only from experts but also from my researcher peers. I believe the combination of insights from their unique perspectives can have a profound impact on the improvement of this project. Finally, I am interested not only in benefiting my project but also in helping my research peers improve theirs.