Developing the Socio-Cultural Theoretical Lens for Research in Design Studios

PhD Dissertation

Three point zero Developing the Socio-Cultural Theoretical Lens for the research Multi-level and terrain-based Theoretical Framework

The design studio is often seen as the ideal setting for a constructivist learning approach, where knowledge is constructed through the learner's active engagement with the learning environment. While constructivism emphasises individual cognition, socio-cultural learning marks a shift to collective, socially mediated learning. As indicated in the literature review, the socio-cultural learning lens offers additional effective strategies that may support student learning in studio contexts. At the heart of social learning is Lev Vygotsky's foundational idea that learning is shaped and enhanced through social interaction, culture and historical context, all factors aligned with the nature of learning in the design studio.

Building on this foundational idea that learning is shaped by social interaction, culture, and historical context, later theorists such as Leontiev, Engeström, and Lave reinforced the notion of social learning. Accordingly, this research adopts the position that effective collaborative learning in design is shaped by the social, cultural, and institutional environments in which it occurs. Therefore, studying and reflecting on these intrinsic factors is vital to understanding and sustaining robust collaborative studio pedagogies.

Within this research context, particular theoretical perspectives offer beneficial ways to understand collaboration in design studios. While Communities of Practice resonates with the situated and social nature of learning that characterises studio environments, Scaffolding and Activity Theory provide stronger tools for examining how collaboration actually develops and transforms through the design process itself. These lenses enable an analysis of collaborative learning concepts, such as the zone of proximal development, expansive learning, division of labour, tools, and forms of instructional scaffolding, as they evolve and shift across social interactions within the design studio culture. Systemic concepts, such as the network of influence and assemblages that support collaborative learning, can be understood through the lens of socio-material theory, such as actor-network theory.

To effectively examine, formulate and sustain collaborative learning systems, it is essential to locate and understand collaboration across the multiple, interrelated levels at which the design pedagogy operates. This research situates collaborative pedagogy at three interconnected levels: the institutional, the studio, and the learning event within the studio.

At the micro level of the learning event, Scaffolding Theory offers a framework for examining learners in real-time interactions. At the meso level of the studio, Activity Theory provides a way to align collaborative learning with the design activity itself, tracing how tools, tasks, and social roles mediate learning processes. At the institutional-macro level, the research draws on Actor-Network Theory to explore how networks of human and non-human actors, such as technologies, curricula, policies, and other activities, shape and influence collaborative pedagogical practices.

The following sections will outline the specific theoretical constructs and models that support this multi-terrain-based understanding of collaborative learning in the design studio.

Three point one Establishing the need for the three-level framework

Rationale for three levels in the framework

The literature indicates that collaborative learning in architecture and design education is addressed at either the curricular or pedagogical level. Pedagogical strategies emphasise collaborative methods and learning interventions to support co-learning. Curricular reform positions collaboration as a means to align with architecture's interdisciplinary nature and the contemporary concerns of sustainability. Often, the ways in which these two primary concerns or approaches converge and interact to facilitate collaborative learning are not fully understood.

In contrast, this research positions the design studio as a living site for engaged collaborative learning. Collaborative learning is shaped as much by institutional-level policy as the real-time studio organisation through which learning is produced and sustained in studio settings. The nature of collaborative learning is further moulded by interactions, in which collaborative methods, tools, norms, and processes guide learning as it unfolds.

To really engage with collaborative learning as an ecosystem of conditions, practices, and interactions, a three-level framework approach is adopted to examine collaboration across interconnected scales: the institutional level, the studio level, and the micro-level of interactions within learning events. This multi-level approach enables the study to account for collaboration as a pedagogical structure, an interactional process and an institutional enabling system.