Unfolding industrial design students’ engagement with group critiques: A reflective report study in a first-year design studio

Group critiques are a cornerstone of design pedagogy, fostering collective learning, critical thinking, and shared understanding. Yet, for novice students, engaging effectively in such critiques can pose challenges, particularly in interpreting collective feedback and transforming it into design decisions within their own projects. By positioning group critique as a dialogical and socially co-constructed practice, this study introduces reflective reports as a complementary pedagogical tool in first-year industrial design education to trace students’ engagement with feedback. This approach enables instructors to better understand how students internalize, interpret, and act upon critique throughout the design process. Through reflective reports, students document their reflections over the course of a semester. Analysis of the findings reveals developmental trajectories in students’ approaches to recording critiques, learning components, interpretation styles, and intervention levels. The study highlights the pedagogical potential of reflective reports in enhancing critique effectiveness, supporting students in critically engaging with, interpreting, and transforming feedback in early studio education.