CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.2 A CADEMIC CONTEXT
2.2.1 Introduction to the Industrial Design course at CPUT
Product Design at CPUT is a three-year diploma programme with an optional additional bachelor year, which advances the title to that of Bachelor of Technology in Industrial Design. The Industrial Design department started in 1998 in the then Cape Technikon, which changed to Cape Peninsula University of Technology after the merger with Peninsula Technikon in 2005 (International Council of Societies of Industrial Design, 2015). The subject in which the R5K project takes place is Professional Practice, which according to the CPUT (2015) faculty handbook
“develops business and entrepreneurial skills as well as key disciplinary skills and ethics required of a professional designer.”
Orrell (2007, p.2) describes Professional Practice by stating that, in contrast to academic knowledge which is “predictable, intentional, replicable, prolonged and student focused”, professional practice knowledge is “unpredictable, immediate, unique, transient” and has “competing interests”. This research will attempt to establish the R5K projects’ value contribution to the Professional Practice subject.
The R5K project runs for the duration of the academic year. The aim of the R5K project is to make real the theoretical training received in the previous three years, by students not only conceptualising and designing a product for the market but producing it and taking it to market. The project is hence student-centered and client- focused while being the first project in CPUT Industrial Design that is fully industry- based and money-generating. The R5K project thus affords students the opportunity to galvanise the practice and theoretical work done in undergraduate years and to bring about a deeper understanding of the whole design process. An additional goal of the project is to give students a tangible product that has been produced within industry experience that they can use in their portfolios for job seeking. Another goal of the R5K project is for the students to earn money that could subsidise their studies and possibly develop into a lucrative and long-standing company15.
As most content of the R5K project is centered on the application of knowledge in practice, continuous evaluation is used. For a better understanding of the teaching process of Industrial Design, below is a table of subjects and their assessment techniques. The contents of this table will be unpacked and discussed throughout the thesis.
Table 1 - Subject and assessment for Product / Industrial Design at CPUT (CPUT, 2015) Subject
Year mark & examination Continuous evaluation Theory test Practical test Theoretical assignment Practical assignment Project presentation and critique Project group marking
Design Studies 1 yes yes
Drawing for Design 1 yes yes yes yes yes yes
Technology 1 yes yes yes yes yes yes
History of Art 1 yes yes yes yes yes yes
Business studies 1 yes yes yes yes yes
Product Design 2 yes yes yes
Design Media 2 yes yes yes yes yes
Technology 2 yes yes yes yes
15This will be discussed further in chapter 5.
History of Design 2 yes yes yes yes yes yes
Business studies 2 yes yes yes yes
Product Design 3 yes yes yes
Design Media 3 yes yes yes yes yes
Technology 3 yes yes yes yes yes
History of Design 3 yes yes yes yes yes
Business studies 3 yes yes yes yes yes
Product Design 4 yes yes yes yes
Design Theory 4 yes yes yes yes
Professional Practice 4 yes yes yes yes yes
Much like the University of Western Sydney’s Bachelor of Design teaching studio which is described as a “’living curriculum’ that connects people, enables interaction, dialogue, and the sharing of knowledge” (Edwards-Vandenhoek & Sandbach, 2013, p.4), the R5K project uses the lessons learned through continuous assessment practices in first, second and third year and takes theory into real, industry based practice.
In the last decade HEIs in South Africa have been actively restructuring and recurriculating so as to make qualifications more responsive and adaptable to the socio-economic needs of our changing society (A Cape Higher Education Consortium (CHEC) Study, 2013). This restructuring resulted in the merging of institutions and the birth of the comprehensive universities and the universities of technology. The aim of these mergers was to transform and align curriculum practices and to improve quality with an outcomes-based approach. Forbes (2006, p.1) says of this process:
The aim was to enhance the knowledge base and applied competencies of students in an attempt to narrow the gap between knowledge creation at the institution and the transfer and application of this knowledge into reflexive skills and competencies in workplace.
Crowther (2013, p.18) states that the studio is a signature pedagogy of design education. Industrial Design is also a studio-based course in that classes, theory and practicals happen within the studio. Studio-type models are remnants of the historic apprenticeship models where artisans would be surrounded by the tools of the trade and through a process of inculcation be slowly transformed from an apprentice to a
master of the craft. In today’s academic world the term studio has the dual meaning of the space within which teaching takes place as well as a pedagogical stratergy (Crowther, 2013, p.22). The studio space is a semi structured environment where students are given space and freedom in which to work, while the lecturers offer flexible, formative padagogy in individual and personal interactions. As Crowther explains, ‘The act of designing is always an act of uncertainty and, as such, the design studio is an environment of unpredictability and serendipity’ (Crowther, 2013, p.19). There is a hidden cirriculum (Harvey, 2004) that allows students to pick up what it means to be a designer from the lecturers who have teaching and industry experience. Students pick up the values, beliefs and designerly ways in the studio.
This can have negative consequences if the lecturer does not have industry experience as the students will pick up characteristics and traits that are not borne from indusrty experience. Another risk with the hidden curriculum is for students whose cultures differ from that of the lecturer. During end of year critiques the years’
work is assessed based on what has been learned and perceived. Certain students might have picked up more because of cultural similarities alone. Crowther seems opposed to this ‘somewhat antiquated mode of dialogue [which] is overdue for technological intervention’ (Crowther, 2013, p.20).
Industrial Design, as with most educational courses, is interested in how students learn; how teachers teach students with knowledge that is organised within subjects;
how these subjects are arranged within a syllabus; and how that syllabus is placed within the curriculum.