Design and Technology: Guide

Supporting student reasoning in the design process

Ellinor Hultmark

Embedded in learning to design, is learning to reason within the design process. Reasoning is what drives the process forward. In general, it is through reasoning that we draw conclusions (Walton, 1990). Therefore, by reasoning through the design process, students form conclusions of beliefs or what action to take next. Reasoning, however, is not only a learning objective connected to learning to design. Focus on and dissecting the students’ reasoning can also be a useful way for teachers to examine and better understand the students’ design practice (Cramer-Petersen et al., 2019; Seery et al., 2023). In turn, this understanding can enable teachers to support their students more effectively.

Two relevant types of reasoning

To be able to facilitate, develop, and focus on students’ reasoning in the design process, it helps to know what reasoning types are especially relevant in this process. Hultmark et al. (2024a) has developed a model for this, describing two relevant reasoning types: means-end reasoning and cause-effect reasoning. Characteristics of these reasoning types are outlined in Table 1.

Table 1. Characteristics of means-end reasoning and cause-effect reasoning in the design process.

Teacher’s role

For teachers to unpack and support the students’ reasoning, students must express it in some form. Students’ reasoning may be evident in their actions, but it can also be encouraged and observed through their verbal expressions during design work. By asking “why” questions or making “why”-related comments, teachers can prompt students to verbalise their reasoning (Siverling et al., 2021). Teachers can followingly respond in ways to guide and support it. Hultmark et al. (2024b) have identified different support strategies used by teachers linked to different reasoning types:

• For cause-effect reasoning the teacher used…
  
  • …follow-up or counter questions to encourage students to think independently
  • … suggestive questions to guide students toward specific conclusions
• For means-end reasoning the teacher used…
  
  • …questions and hints to let the students do on their own
  • …instructions when students needed more explicit guidance to move forward

Students can also express their reasoning and justifying design conclusions through writing. Here, encouraging reasoning is not enough for students learning to express their reasoning. Through a structured approach of questions, however, teachers can help the students to better express their reasoning (Choresh et al., 2009). These questions can be aimed at helping the students to structure their means-end or cause-effect reasoning.

References and further reading

Choresh, C., Mevarech, Z. R., & Frank, M. (2009). Developing argumentation ability as a way to promote technological literacy. International Journal of Educational Research, 48(4), 225-234.

Cramer-Petersen, C. L., Christensen, B. T., & Ahmed-Kristensen, S. (2019). Empirically analysing design reasoning patterns: Abductive-deductive reasoning patterns dominate design idea generation. Design Studies, 60, 39-70.

Hultmark, E., Engström, S., & Gullberg, A. (2024a). Framing a holistic model of reasoning in the design process in technology education. International Journal of Technology and Design Education, 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10798-023-09868-0

Hultmark, E., Engström, S., & Gullberg, A. (2024b). Teachers’ Scaffolding Strategies in Relation to Enacted Verbal Reasoning in the Design Process. Design and Technology Education: An International Journal, 29(2), 202-218.

Seery, N., Phelan, J., Buckley, J., & Canty, D. (2023). Epistemological treatment of design in technology education. International Journal of Technology and Design Education, 33(4), 1547-1561.

Siverling, E. A., Moore, T. J., Suazo‐Flores, E., Mathis, C. A., & Guzey, S. S. (2021). What initiates evidence‐based reasoning?: Situations that prompt students to support their design ideas and decisions. Journal of Engineering Education, 110(2), 294-317.

Walton, D. N. (1990). What is reasoning? What is an argument? The Journal of Philosophy, 87(8), 399-419.