Overview

The four concepts of design, learner, technology and education intersect to provide an overarching conceptual framework for this PhD - my practice occurs in the intersection of all four. I have also made four theoretical analyses which connect to these concepts and act as an aid in decision making as a designer by helping me find where to focus attention to improve designs.

conceptual and theoretical framework diagram

Figure 4: Conceptual framework for this thesis

The authors that surround the four concepts, shown in Figure 4, are the most significant of those that have provided me with theoretical insight, foundation and explanation for the development of my own understanding.

My increasingly responsibility in rôles as a teacher, software developer, media designer, team leader and director together with a natural proclivity to be reflective practitioner, has broadened and deepened my understanding of the factors which lead to effective design methods and criteria for improving design quality in iterative design cycles.

Much of this understanding began as tacit in nature, but as I have had extensive opportunity to present work at conferences and workshops, I have made improving explanations of these factors and criteria to create my own theoretical framework in four key analyses, all of which are intended to inform my concept of design:

[A1] Expressive constructivism - a creative and constructivist view of learning itself, founded on my concept of learner;
[A2] How can technology enhance learning - some of the key contributions technology can make to learning, founded on my concepts of technology and learner;
[A3] The learner at the centre - a learner-centred, holistic view of the decision points in education, founded on my concepts of learner and education;
[A4] Stakeholder perspectives in education - the perspective of issues in education from some other key viewpoints - the teacher and the organisation, founded on my concept of education.

These analyses have been used to steer my design decisions made throughout 36 years of practice. As such they are a development of theories-in-use, and their articulation here espoused theory in Argyris and Schön's terms (1978)

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