Re-clarifying Design Problems through Questions for Secondary School Children

Wei Leong, LEE; Hwee Mui, Grace KWEK; Wei Leong, Leon LOH

It is believed that secondary school students often define design problems in the design
coursework superficially due to various reasons such as lack of exposure, inexperience
and the lack of research skills. Questioning techniques have long been associated with
the development of critical thinking. Based on this context and assumption, the current
study aimed to explore the use of questioning techniques to enable pre-tertiary students
to improve their understanding of design problems by using questions to critique their
thinking and decision-making processes and in turn, generate more effective design
solutions. A qualitative approach is adopted in this study to identify the trajectories of
students during design problem identification and clarification process. Using student
design journals as a form of record for action and thoughts, they are analysed and
supplemented by hearing survey with the teacher-in-charge. From the study, the
following points can be concluded: 1) questions can be a useful tool to facilitate a
better understanding of the design problem. 2) The process of identification and
clarification of design problem is important in the development of critical thinking
skills and social-emotional skills of the students. 3) It is important that students are
given time and opportunity to find out the problems by themselves. 4) Teachers can be
important role models as students may pick up questioning techniques from teacher student discussions. 5) Departmental reviews and built-in professional development
time for weekly reviews on teaching and learning strategies are necessary for the
continual improvement D&T education.