https://www.lkldev.ioe.ac.uk/lklinnovation/effective-methods-for-educational-research/ Ben Goldacre, in a recent position paper commissioned by the UK department of education, called for making “teaching a truly evidence-based profession”. Such arguments are not new. In 1996 David Hargreaves promoted “teaching as a research-based profession”. While both Goldacre and Hargreaves draw their examples from positivist research in medicine, Diana Laurillard argues that teaching should be repositioned as a design science. Laurillard adopts Herbert Simon's paradigmatic distinction between natural science which describes how the world is, and design science which is concerned with how it should be. This entails an approach which is value laden (based on underlying beliefs of what “should be”), functionally oriented (that is, concerned with the way things work more than how they are structured), and representation-sensitive (a concern with human action and human condition means subject and object are inseparable). Educational professionals do not have the resources to allow them to approach their work as a scientific study, but they can adopt the principles and practices of scientific inquiry. Instead, we propose a model of Design Inquiry of Learning (DIL) – a projection of the ideal of design science into realistic settings. DIL combines an inquiry-based learning approach with a design-based scientific paradigm. Inquiry-based learning attempts to shape educational experiences in the model of scientific investigation. Similarly, a design inquiry approach to the training of educational practitioners should mimic the form of design research in education. Design based research progresses through cycles of theoretical analysis, conjectures, design, implementation, analysis and evaluation – which feed into adjusting the theory and deriving practical artefacts. Applying the pedagogy of inquiry-based learning to the scientific paradigm of design-based research yields the cycle of DIL: imagining a desired change, investigating the current situation, drawing inspiration from theoretical frameworks and exemplars of practice, ideating and designing an innovation, prototyping it, evaluating its effects and reflecting on the process.

1. Design Inquiry of Learning
bridging research and practice in education
Hargreaves (1996): “teaching as a
research-based profession”.
flickr.com/photos/lscareers/6302666011
Laurillard (2012): teaching
as a design science
Herbert Simon (1996) natural science describes how
the world is, and design science is concerned with
how it should be.
Design science is:
• value laden
based on underlying beliefs of
what “should be”
• functionally oriented
concerned with the way things
work more than how they are
structured
• representation-
sensitive
concerned with human action
and human condition =>
subject and object are
inseparable
Mor & Winters, 2007
Personal Inquiry
Learning
Mor, Y. & Mogilevsky, O. (forthcoming), The
Learning Design Studio: Educational Practice
as Design Inquiry of Learning, EC TEL 2013
Mor, Y. & Mogilevsky, O. (forthcoming),
'The Learning Design Studio: Collaborative
Design Inquiry as Teachers' Professional
Development', Research in Learning
Technology
Mor, Yishay (2013). SNaP! Re-using, sharing
and communicating designs and design
knowledge using scenarios, narratives and
patterns. In: Luckin, et al. Handbook of
Design in Educational Technology. London,
UK: Routledge
Storyboards
Design Inquiry:
Projecting design science
into professional practice
Yishay Mor,
yishay.mor@open.ac.uk