Design-based Research

Design-based research in education is aimed at the development, implementation, and diffusion of innovative practices to evolve teaching and learning from function to excellence (Kelly, 2003. It "embraces the complexity of learning and teaching, and adopts interventionist and iterative posture towards it" (Kelly, 2004).

The term "design"  can be used as both a noun (‘a design’) and a verb (‘to design’).  As a noun, a design is a drawing, graphical representation, ornamental pattern, model, sketch, template. As a verb, to design may be (a) to plan, draw, or impose a pattern or (b) to formulate a plan for later production.


Hence in a our setting design is both process and product:

• What is our process? There are many models of design-based research.
• What is our product? The model? The guidelines? The new (diffused) change in practice?

Schon adds to the basic concept of design a specific conception of design as frame experimentation. For Donald Schon, to design is to discover a framework of meaning in an indeterminate situation through practical operations in the situation (Wak, 2001).


A design-based research methodology usually infers that the problem to be addressed is complex, real-world problem, practitioners and researchers will collaborate on the solution, the research is iterative and will be implemented and refined over a period of at least two years, mixed methods will be used to build up a body of evidence from a range of sources, and a set of design principles will be iteratively derived from each cycle of the research (Design-Based Research Collective, 2003; Reeves et al, 2005).








Design-Based Research Collective. (2003). Design-based research: An emerging paradigm for educational inquiry, Educational Researcher, 32(1), 5-8.


Kelly, A.E. (2003). Research as design: The role of design in educational research.Educational Researcher, 32(1), 3-4.


Kelly, A.E. (2004). Design research in education. Yes, but is it methodological? Journal of learning Sciences, 13(1), 115-128.


Reeves, T.C, Herrington, J. & Oliver, R. (2005). Design research, a socially responsible approach to instructional technology research in higher education, Journal of Computing in Higher Education, 16(2), 97-116.


Wenger, E., McDermott, R. & Snyder, W.M. (2002). Cultivating communities of practice. Boston. Harvard Business School.


Waks, L.J. (2001) .Donald Schon’s Philosophy of Design and Design Education.International Journal of Technology and Design Education, 11, 37–51.  








Ashford-Rowe, Kevin Hugh. (200(0. A heuristic framework for the determination of the critical elements in authentic assessment. PhD thesis -http://ro.uow.edu.au/theses/966/ : Contents of thesis