Implicit to explicit: A Framework for Supporting Blended Design Education with Microlearning

Abstract

Design is an iterative process involving cycles of divergent and convergent thinking. To navigate these cycles effectively, designers need a range of competencies. These include information gathering, sense-making, imagination, ideation, shape-giving, iterative reflection, critical evaluation, collaboration, and discipline-specific knowledge. To develop these competencies, design education typically occurs in a studio environment that follows a learning-by-doing approach, simulating industry practices. However, the tacit knowledge—unspoken insights and intuitions—that informs the application of domain knowledge is often not visible, making it difficult for students to connect theory with practice and potentially hindering their learning. The cognitive apprenticeship model is a pedagogical approach that enhances learning-by-doing by integrating theory and practice throughout the design process, making tacit knowledge explicit and accessible. Within the context of blended learning, where face-to-face classes are complemented by technology-enabled learning, microlearning emerges as an innovative teaching and learning approach that delivers activities in structured, bite-sized pieces. This method is designed to minimise cognitive load and to help students grasp complex implicit concepts. In this paper we explore how microlearning, an innovative teaching and learning approach, might be integrated into learning by doing approaches within blended learning settings in the design studio to make tacit knowledge explicit. The paper is the first part of a larger study exploring how microlearning activities might support learning-by-doing within blended learning environments during the various phases of the design process. An integrative review of literature on the design process and related design competencies, cognitive apprenticeship and microlearning, theoretically informed the development of a conceptual framework outlining the dynamics between learning-by-doing and microlearning activities to foster connections between theory and practice. The framework will be used in subsequent research to inform the design and trialling of microlearning activities to support learning-by-doing in practical design modules. This research contributes to existing understanding of educational approaches that support learning-by-doing in design education and lays the foundation for further research to inform the design of appropriate and meaningful microlearning activities.