DATE: Design Approaches in Training and Education

In this paper, we will reflect on the first stage of the research project 'Design Approaches in Training and Education'. This project will become part of a University Research Program on Design Approaches in the Social Sciences, that aims at the development and specification of a design methodology for the social sciences. Starting point for this University program is the diagnosis that there are interesting, successful, and relevant professional design activities in social practices, but that existing design methodologies and models do not fit practice adequately. On the one hand this may be due to insufficient insight and unsystematic exploration of what really happens in practice, on the other hand it may be due to incomplete and inadequate theories on designing. By relying on more adequate theories of designing (in the program, Schon's work (1983, 1987) is assumed to be the basis to start from), and by reconstructing successful design processes in practice, new knowledge may evolve that leads to a more appropriate methodology for the social sciences.