Across Disciplines: Triggering Frame Awareness in Design Education

Across Disciplines: Triggering Frame Awareness in Design Education

Luhan, Gregory A.; Gregory, Robert

Article:

Tacit cognitive structures have been explored by many disciplines (cognitive science, anthropology, psychology) under several names: frames, schemas, and scripts (D''Andrade, R., 1992; D''Andrade, R. and Strauss, C., 1992; Mandler, J., 1984). Although useful in automating routine repetitious activity, their tacit nature makes them problematic for disciplines that emphasize creative activity. Put another way, it''s difficult to think outside the box if the box is invisible. As Schön (1983) explains, such frames limit creativity because they determine our strategies of attention. Frames shape thought and also behavior but invisibly; practitioners "do not attend to the ways in which they construct the reality in which they function; for them, it is simply the given reality." Bijker (1989) has called such mental structures technological frames "constructed from the concepts and techniques used by a community in its problem solving" -- defined broadly to include "a combination of current theories, tacit knowledge, engineering practice (such as design methods and criteria)" etc. The more advanced the practitioner, the more tacit the knowledge, as Lindblom and Cohen (1979) put it: "all expertise rests on a veritable iceberg of tacit, taken-for-granted knowledge."

Tacit cognitive structures have been explored by many disciplines (cognitive science, anthropology, psychology) under several names: frames, schemas, and scripts (D''Andrade, R., 1992; D''Andrade, R. and Strauss, C., 1992; Mandler, J., 1984). Although useful in automating routine repetitious activity, their tacit nature makes them problematic for disciplines that emphasize creative activity. Put another way, it''s difficult to think outside the box if the box is invisible. As Schön (1983) explains, such frames limit creativity because they determine our strategies of attention. Frames shape thought and also behavior but invisibly; practitioners "do not attend to the ways in which they construct the reality in which they function; for them, it is simply the given reality." Bijker (1989) has called such mental structures technological frames "constructed from the concepts and techniques used by a community in its problem solving" -- defined broadly to include "a combination of current theories, tacit knowledge, engineering practice (such as design methods and criteria)" etc. The more advanced the practitioner, the more tacit the knowledge, as Lindblom and Cohen (1979) put it: "all expertise rests on a veritable iceberg of tacit, taken-for-granted knowledge."

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DOI: 10.5151/despro-sigradi2013-0122

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Como citar:

Luhan, Gregory A.; Gregory, Robert; "Across Disciplines: Triggering Frame Awareness in Design Education", p-619-623. In: Proceedings of the XVII Conference of the Iberoamerican Society of Digital Graphics: Knowledge-based Design [=Blucher Design Proceedings, v.1, n.7]. São Paulo: Blucher, 2014.
ISSN 23186968, DOI 10.5151/despro-sigradi2013-0122