Towards a University Design School. Restoring the value of tacit knowledge through assessment

Abstract

A ‘University Design School’ may in itself appear a contradictory expression, as traditionally the university model of education has been far removed from the design school approach. As the Irish National Strategy for Higher Education (Hunt, 2011) aspires to achieve knowledge creation in tandem with the development of Technological Universities; design sits precisely in the centre of this debate for achieving balance between the existing dichotomies of objectives. The research has mapped the theorists view on how knowledge creation occurs within an educational context. The findings from this research to date highlight that knowledge creation requires a process of tacit and explicit conversions within a shared context or place. Tacit knowledge is significantly over looked in an educational context because it is difficult to communicate, assess and grade. The gap in the knowledge appears to be ‘how’ to assess tacit knowledge in a transparent, measurable and comparable way.