CONSTRUCTIVISMO EN LA PEDAGOGÍA DEL DISEÑO INDUSTRIAL: ¿QUÉ APRENDEN LOS ALUMNOS?

Abstract

The article presents the data, analysis and results of a qualitative study about the pedagogy of Industrial Design. It analyzes the effects of collaboration and activities in which students interact with the context (experiments with prototypes and communication with users and related experts) on the learning of Industrial Design. With this pedagogical innovation and with the study the text offers a new vision of the pedagogy of Design, in which the different experiences and interactions of the students during the process turn into pedagogical tools to support their learning and their understanding of what designing is about. The study was conducted with last semester students of the Department of Architecture and Design at Universidad de Los Andes, Bogotá. It analyzes the effects of experimentation, contact with users and experts and collaborative work, both on the quality of products and on the quality of individual learning about the design process. It gatheres data at different points, in rubrics for the observation of products and of project presentations and in interviews with the students. It analyzes the data in deductive categories indicating learning of the design process and reflection about it from the different interactive activities. The study produces evidence of benefits obtained when the traditional educational paradigm in the teaching of design changes. Autonomous learning is promoted and social interaction, inquiry and experimentation are made significant during the design process. These practices, sparsely studied in association with the pedagogy of Design, appear here as valuable learning resources instead of methodological requirements.