PEERS AS EXPERTS TO COOPERATE WITH: A CASE STUDY OF TEACHING ACTIVITIES TO SWITCH FROM INTER-GROUP COMPETITION TO COLLABORATION IN A DESIGN STUDIO

Design based learning is a widely and historically rooted approach to design education through which students learn to design by developing projects within the design studio. The physical or digital space of the classroom becomes crucial for students to collaborate in developing their projects with lecturers, technicians, and peers. Group projects often foster peer learning, allowing students to develop high-complexity projects relatively briefly. However, a great emphasis on the team could inhibit the possibility for students to cooperate at the class level. Inter-group knowledge sharing is often seen as a threat rather than an opportunity for improvement. Through a critical action research iteration, this paper investigates the role of instructional design activities and instructors in mitigating competition in a business-like design studio in favour of a more effective inter-group collaboration. The study was conducted in the final design studio of the Design & Engineering Master of Science at Politecnico di Milano and involved 52 students divided into 12 teams. Data was collected through participant observation in class and a final questionnaire at the end of the course. The contribution aims to present the designed instructional activities, provide a hands-on example of possible strategies, and present emerging themes from the qualitative data analysis.