Making a Case for Design-Based Learning

In the last five years I have served on several national committees concerned with the contribution arts education makes to achieving the goals of education reform in K-12 classrooms. As a university graphic design educator and the only designer on those committees, I frequently must represent the issues and concerns of many design educators and professionals, including architects, industrial designers, planners, landscape architects, and interior designers. I am continually struck by the perceptions that leaders in art education hold about design and the missed opportunities to promote design as a bridge between fine arts and other areas of the curriculum, such as science, mathematics, social studies, and language arts. As someone who holds two degrees in art education, as well as one in design, I am equally concerned by the lack of design instruction in the preparation of K-12 art teachers. It is especially curious given the pervasive assumption that design is a sub-discipline of art, the frequency with which art education and design programs reside in the same academic unit in US colleges, and the exploding number of applications by high school seniors to college design programs.