Education guide 'Eindhoven designs' - Technische Universiteit ...

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Showcase
Developing competencies is a cyclical, highly
individual and context-dependent process. It is
a dynamic and ongoing process that takes up
quite some time. A showcase is an adequate
tool to assess students’ development of the
overall competence of designing. The showcase
our students need to create is interactive and
integrative: and throughout their showcase
written reflections and visuals need to be in
balance. This showcase provides a common
framework but at the same time it is open
enough to allow for individual differences. In
addition, it enables the assessment of process
(designing and learning) as well as results, so
assessment for and of learning. Last but not
least, a showcase is also a tool for students
to monitor their learning and development. It
is their tool to prove and communicate their
development of and growth in the overall
competence of designing and their identity as
a designer.
In the course of a semester students
essentially go through iterative learning
loops on two levels: a loop of competency
development in each learning activity they
do, and a loop of growth as a designer over
the semester as a whole: their growth in the
development of their overall competence
of designing and their vision on designing.
This corresponds to the two perspectives of
the ID competence framework: the learning
activity perspective and the competence of
designing perspective. In students’ showcase
these two perspectives are represented as the
‘underlying evidence layer’ and ‘competence of
designing or top-layer’, respectively, as we will
explain in the following sections.
Learning activity:
‘underlying evidence
layer’
Each learning activity yields deliverables,
written feedback from experts (such as
assignors, lecturers and coaches) as well as the
students’ own reflections. In these reflections
they look back on what they have achieved for
each learning activity (reflection on action)
and how this will direct and shape their future
development and activities (reflection for
action). This is indicated in the ID competence
framework by the blue circle around the
learning activity. In their reflections students
address the four elements that comprise the
overall competence of designing, as explained
in chapters four and five: their competency
profile and development, their process, the
overall quality of their deliverables and their
overall attitude as achieved within the learning
activity concerned. In their reflections they
also address the written feedback they have
received.
For the ‘underlying evidence layer’ of their
showcase they select the most relevant
deliverables, feedback and reflections, that
is, the ones that show the essence of their
development and learning process in each
learning activity. They also write a more
condense and integrative reflection about
the learning activity as a whole, if necessary.
In addition, they decide which deliverables
they include in full, as downloadable parts of
their evidence (a project report, for example),