Learning Design: Examining Programmatic Learning Outcomes and the Influence of Disciplinary Perspectives on Design Pedagogy

Design education continues to interest students across universities today. Students choose among myriad of programs that provide pathways to becoming a professional designer, but do so through varied courses of study that depend upon factors such as the school, the program's home discipline, the student population, and the intended professional design field. When creating a multidisciplinary design certificate at the University of California, Berkeley that would allow students to take design courses from multiple fields including business, engineering, humanities and environmental design, faculty from the disciplines engaged in a series of discussions about programmatic learning outcomes. As a result, a question arose about the extent to which disciplinary perspective influences design pedagogy and the resulting training provided to the student. This paper examines learning outcomes associated with design programs anchored in four disciplines and assesses similarities and differences amongst them. In doing so, it aims to uncover ways in which disciplinary focus influences programmatic goals and to identify implications of differences among them for the construction of multidisciplinary design programs.