Priming the design process to improve student learning

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Abstract
Design thinking is critical in engineering and a fundamental for secondary students in introductory technology and engineering courses. The goal of this investigation was to measure impacts of a simple primer called Learning by Evaluating on students’ design process. Students in introductory high school design courses were introduced to the primer as part of a treatment group. A comparison group did not receive the primer. Design documentation was collected in the form of students’ design journals which were evaluated using a rubric. Results showed no significant differences in design journal scores between the group that received the treatment and the group that did not. While the primer did not result in measurable differences in design documentation, an interesting discovery emerged during the analysis. Design documentation, regardless of group, was not well aligned with standard practice. This discovery may warrant further investigation into how design documentation, a key design practice, is being implemented in classrooms and what kinds of support teachers may need to implement design with fidelity.

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