Abstract:

The COVID-19 pandemic, impactful in economically and socially vulnerable European countries, prompted the European Union to launch the Next Generation EU Program for economic recovery and reform. One challenge the Program poses is the low percentage of individual adults holding tertiary education qualifications (OECD, 2022). To address such a challenge and bridge the high school-to-university transition gap, Italy planned to integrate a National Recovery and Resilience Plan to enhance youth education, training, and employment support. Within the planned framework, Politecnico di Milano has initiated an "Active Orientation in High School-University Transition" program to facilitate the transition and reduce university dropouts. This active learning approach emphasises student engagement, skills enhancement, and collaborative learning, aligning with social-constructivist methodologies (Chi, 2009). The program engages high school students in short courses to explore educational pathways, bridge knowledge gaps, and gain insights into future job sectors. In this scenario, the School of Design applied a project-based learning approach (Cocco, 2006; Holubova, 2008; Al-Balushi & Al-Aamri, 2014; Kokotsaki et al., 2016) to introduce design to non-design students (Royalty, 2017), aiming to foster creativity and awareness of designer's role in contemporary society. Recognising non-designers' need for structured design thinking (Liedtka et al., 2017), this paper advocates a systematic approach with tools to manage complexity, emphasising practical engagement for skill acquisition. The authors recount an experimentation, its structure and organisation, conducted at Einstein high school in Milan, where the School of Design implemented an active project-based learning approach, fostering student engagement, collaboration, and exploration. The experimentation's objective was to enhance existent learning environments, promote design competencies and familiarise non-design students with diverse working methodologies through practical design experiences. It aimed to develop design skills and foster critical thinking while providing educational guidance. Two design courses with different project themes are conducted and facilitated during the experimentation by two professors with 30 high school students. They have experimented with active, exploratory, and social design activities. The first design course targeted creating a dedicated place for creative teaching that could be used across the entire high school system, and the second sought to design a teaching environment tailored explicitly to future professions. The students experienced theoretical and practical sessions, fostering peer exchange and critical thinking, and they were exposed to user-centred design principles (Kling, 1977; Shawn Lawton, 2007; Muratovski, 2016), emphasising user needs through the implementation of specific design tools. The research team utilised surveys before and after the project to understand students' preconceptions and track their evolving perspectives on design, educational innovation, and instructional spaces post-COVID-19. The survey revealed students' views on design, the crucial role of technology in education, the changed perception of instructional spaces and their importance for collaborative learning. By illustrating this case, the authors wish to provide valuable references for fellow colleagues committed to similar research in the design field.

Keywords:

Design education, design orientation, design tools, project-based learning, active learning.