Complete thesis - Murdoch University

• the appropriate use of a variety of design media over the course of the project significantlysupports and improves students insight and designs.Critics of the studio model, especially in the discipline of architectural design, which isoften seen as a canonical exemplar of the design process, suggest there are issues with thenarrow definition of the ‘design’ that underlies the studio. They contend it fosters ratherunrealistic perceptions and expectations about professional practice. Central to these is theperceived tension between creativity and technical fundamentals – the idea of the ‘creativegenius’, which remains a potent ideology in architectural myth-making and one which has beenidentified with many problems that face architecture (Wigglesworth, 1993). An examinationof generally accepted design studio education models not only confirms their inadequacies,but also causes some anxiety about their immediate and long range impact on all designprofessions. For example, Balfour (1981) critically views traditional design studio problemsolvingactivities as merely ‘training’ without intellectual discipline. The design pedagogythat underlies studios represents design problem-solving to students as a creative activity tobe pursued for its own sake, independent of the (practical) need which gave rise to it.3.6 A framework for RE education3.6.1 RE as a cycle of teaching and learningThis section looks at the place of learning theories discussed earlier in this chapter in understandingthe process of RE and in facilitating the education of Requirements Engineers.A summary of the learning principles examined earlier is followed by a discussion of theirapplication to the RE process. The section concludes with the implications of these for theeducation of Requirements Engineers.The RE process has also been described as a learning cycle (Checkland and Scholes, 1990)where learning may be considered at two levels (Mayes, 1992): the metalearning processes ofdeveloping skills for making sense of the world and the business of actually employing thesein the acquisition of knowledge. From this perspective, a lack of correspondence between theconceptual model that guided the designer, the system image that is presented to the user,and the mental models of the user in Norman (1983)’s model discussed in section 3.2 may beviewed as an unsuccessful teaching/learning experience.In the same way that learning is a process of knowledge discovery, the discipline of RE can beviewed in the same way (Guindon, 1989) – as has been discussed in Chapter 2 the RequirementsEngineer builds fragments of understanding of the problem validated and consolidated169