Abstract

This paper presents findings from a doctoral study, which investigated effective methods for teaching social sustainability within product design courses in British and Irish universities. Specifically exploring how appropriate methods can be used to foster deep learning in respect to the social aspects of sustainable product design.The importance of deep learning is reflected in both the sustainable design education (O’Rafferty et al., 2008, Griffith and Bamford, 2007) and education for sustainability literature (Warburton, 2003).Three 'Rethinking Design' workshops were designed and developed as part of the doctoral main study to introduce students to the wider social aspects of sustainability and were conducted in five universities in Britain and Ireland.The workshops were developed to foster principles that encourage students to adopt deep learning methods, including motivational factors such as relevance, appropriate teaching materials and opportunities for collaborative learning. The workshops were successful in fostering deep learning by facilitating learning through discovery, critical reflection, peer learning and creativity leading to an exploration of design thinking solutions.

Keywords

Deep Learning, Sustainable Product Design, Net-Generation learners

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

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Oct 19th, 9:00 AM

Fostering deep learning in respect to the social aspects of sustainable product design

This paper presents findings from a doctoral study, which investigated effective methods for teaching social sustainability within product design courses in British and Irish universities. Specifically exploring how appropriate methods can be used to foster deep learning in respect to the social aspects of sustainable product design.The importance of deep learning is reflected in both the sustainable design education (O’Rafferty et al., 2008, Griffith and Bamford, 2007) and education for sustainability literature (Warburton, 2003).Three 'Rethinking Design' workshops were designed and developed as part of the doctoral main study to introduce students to the wider social aspects of sustainability and were conducted in five universities in Britain and Ireland.The workshops were developed to foster principles that encourage students to adopt deep learning methods, including motivational factors such as relevance, appropriate teaching materials and opportunities for collaborative learning. The workshops were successful in fostering deep learning by facilitating learning through discovery, critical reflection, peer learning and creativity leading to an exploration of design thinking solutions.

 

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