Computation in Early Design Education as Investment in Attitudes

While education programs are generally defined in terms of learning outcomes known as knowledge, skills and attitudes, it is not always obvious how attitudes are to be gained. This study focuses on the formation of attitudes of accountability and sharing of knowledge in computational approaches to basic design education. We posit that computational thinking, even without computers, is supportive of both the reflective practice and the learning of such values in design education. We report on comparatively observed collaborative design processes of first year architecture students who externalized their thought processes through visual rules. While a reflection-in-action stage helps in learning the know-how, a second reflection on reflection-in-action deepens the understanding and initiates habits for how to think and act within and beyond the design domain, leading to attitude formation.