Understanding design literacy in middle-school education: assessing students’ stances towards inquiry

We present a comparative, quantitative assessment, focused on measuring ‘stances towards inquiry’ among middle-school students who have received design education. Our assessments are based on results of a written survey questionnaire and a statistical analysis using ‘The Design Literacy assessment tool’. Our analysis suggest that participating students have internalized basic knowledge about design, but lack adaptive aspects of design literacy, specifically the capability to take a designerly stance towards inquiry when confronted with ‘wicked problems’. We suggest that, due to societal developments, students are becoming more ‘design literate’, but that they generally develop routine expertise in these first practical encounters with design processes, whereas the more complex adaptive capabilities demand more education of both students and teachers.