Exploring Domain Knowledge and Personal Epistemology in the Development of Design Expertise in Novices

Abstract

Engineering design problems are ill-structured, context-dependent, complex, dynamic, and domain specific; and as such, are heavily dependent on the knowledge and knowledge constructs of the designer. Prior research has identified the importance of personal attributes like knowledge, problem-solving strategies, meta-cognition, and personal epistemology as important to design problem solving, however few studies have investigated novice student knowledge and personal epistemology in detail, especially where these constructs interact with each other when designing. This exploratory research investigated how undergraduate student knowledge and personal epistemological development manifest in design behaviours at two points in their first year: at the start of their first academic semester, and at the start of the second academic semester after having completed a university-level course on engineering design and potentially also a co-operative work term placement. These interviews investigated relevant experiences from the students’ past, asked them to complete a concurrent think-aloud protocol while solving a design problem, and asked the students to reflect on their design process. The students’ first-year design instructors were also interviewed at the end of the first academic semester to understand how design was taught to the student participants. Case study methodology was selected to provide a detailed and rich description of each of the student participants’ design experiences and behaviours. Deductive analyses were the primary methods used to understand student knowledge, quality of design process, and personal epistemology across the cases; however inductive analyses were also used to capture other related findings. This thesis revealed connections between specific experiences/types of learning and student knowledge, personal epistemological development, and design behaviours. In tracking the students longitudinally through their first year, this thesis found that personal epistemology and knowledge developed in different ways, and at different times. The students were able to develop both the breadth, and depth of their knowledge, and demonstrated more informed design behaviours in the second interview, even though the majority of students did not develop their personal epistemologies. The methods and techniques employed in this thesis to understand student knowledge and personal epistemology were novel approaches which show promise for future research. This thesis measured personal epistemological development in situ as students solved design problems; an approach which may be more efficient, and more accurate in measuring personal epistemology in the context of engineering design. This thesis contributes to the role of knowledge structures in the learning of engineering design skills, how they differ between students, and how they change over time. These contributions can be leveraged to inform engineering design pedagogies and course structures, helping to establish useful baselines as well as development pathways for students with diverse levels of experience.