Investigation of teachers' understanding of design

The purpose of this research is to investigate the understanding of design of middle school teachers from different branches in terms of the definition of design, characteristics of designer, relationship of design with culture and other disciplines, and design process. The research has been conducted with the teachers with different gender, branch, and seniority (N=90) in public and private schools in 2018/2019 in Ankara Province. The participants have been determined based on convenience sampling. A pilot study has been carried out before the implementation, and the pilot study of the research has been performed on randomly selected nine teachers. Following the pilot study, the main study has been carried out in public and private schools in various districts in Ankara. A qualitative method has been used in the study, and as each sub-problem covers a case related to design, the research has been designed as a multiple case study, one of the case study types. "Views Form on Understanding of Design" (TAGF) developed by the researcher and expert has been used as a data collection tool. Feedback Form for Design consists of nine structured open-ended questions. The data obtained in the study has been analyzed by content analysis method. As a result of the findings obtained from the research, it has been observed that the teachers mostly mention definitions about design such as product formation, conceptualization in mind and that the factors that direct the teachers to design are need, curiosity, and interest. The design has been evaluated as a skill for middle school teachers from different branches, and these skills are cognitive characteristics such as high-level thinking/originality, imagination, and creativity, affective characteristics such as desire/motivation, curiosity and patience and psychomotor characteristics such as manual dexterity and ability. It has been found out that material and theoretical knowledge are needed to design. It has been ascertained that the design and culture are in interaction with one another in a stable manner and the design is affected by beliefs, values, needs, languages and cultural differences. It has been stated that middle school teachers from different branches should work with different disciplines in the design process, and it has been determined that the fields such as mathematics, visual arts, and sciences are needed more. According to the teachers, the factors such as the ability to make needs analysis, creativity, economy, originality, and practicability are included in the design process, and needs, nature, environment, feelings, world-view, and interests are of importance in terms of source of inspiration of the teachers during the design process. Within the scope of these results, it is thought that the investigation of the design philosophy of the teachers educating the future generations will contribute to educational dimensions.