CE5

=Design for Living Complexities=

> A Collaborative Exploration (CE) that explores how to bring critical thinking into the heart of design education. >> on hangout for 1 hour each Thursday at 4pm July 11, 18, 25 & August 1. The URL for the first hangout will be provided only to those who apply, which entails making a commitment to attend that 1st session and at least 2 of the other 3 hangouts.
 * //In brief, CEs are an extension of Problem- or Project-Based Learning// and related approaches to education in which participants address a scenario or case in which the problems are not well defined, shaping their own directions of inquiry and developing their skills as investigators and prospective teachers (in the broadest sense of the word). (For more background, read the prospectus.)
 * //If you want to participate, read more.// (Eventually you'll get to the link to the form for applying.)
 * //If you want to know what a CE requires of you//, review the expectations and mechanics.
 * //If you are wondering how to define a meaningful and useful line of inquiry// on the topic above, let us present a scenario for the CE and hope this stimulates you to apply to participate. We will then let CE participants judge for themselves whether their inquiries are relevant.

The Critical & Creative Thinking graduate program has always been about reflective //practice// and not purely about //thinking//. However, because the practice emphasis has rarely dealt explicity with the materiality of the world, the Program decided to develop a course on design. In order to give the course a distinctive character, moreover one not tied to a specific field (e.g., graphics, architecture, furniture,..), the provisional idea was to connect design with critical thinking. While not exactly a crowdsourcing of the course, this CE seeks to inform the thinking of the course designers. CE participants are invited to draw on what is already happening in design education so as to develop units that a) interest them personally and b) bring critical thinking into the heart of design education. Ways to flesh out and refine the initial description created by the Program for the course are also welcome: > Design is about intentionality in construction, which involves a range of materials, a sequence of steps, and principles that inform the choice of material and the steps. Design always involves putting people as well as materials into place, which may happen by working with the known properties of the people and materials, trying out new arrangements, or working around their constraints (at least temporarily). > Critical thinking involves understanding ideas and practices better when we //examine them in relation to alternatives//. This course exposes and explores alternative designs through history (showing that things have by no means always been the way they are now), "archeology of the present" (shedding light on what we might have taken for granted or left as someone else's responsibility/specialty), comparison (looking at the ways things are arranged in different organizations and cultures), and ill-defined problems (in cases of real-world "living complexity" that invite a range of responses).
 * Scenario**

> a) tangible: a written document consisting of contributions to a set of principles for critical thinking in design; and > b) experiential: being impressed at how much can be learned with a small commitment of time using the CE structure to motivate and connect participants.
 * Intended outcomes of this inquiry** are of two kinds:

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