New ways of thinking design pedagogy: body-based methods in design education

Designing differently to cope with ever-changing world challenges and uncer-tainty requires a pedagogical shift for new ways of thinking to be taught, practiced and trained within the educational programs. These can allow teachers and students to question not only how designers solve problems but how designers identify problems, and the assumptions and epistemologies associated with this. Using body-based and movement-based methods in a design course, we practiced different kinds of attentive modes in site mapping to entice a sense of discovery, learning and reflection. We encouraged students to ask why and how such modes of attention might produce different or ‘better’ design outcomes, and how attend-ing differently could offer different perspectives on their own role as designers within society. Equipping designers in such a way is essential to enable them to question and think beyond current ways of devising solutions and can potentially create awareness of the implications of their own practices.