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Author

Gavin Melles

Other affiliations: University of Melbourne
Bio: Gavin Melles is an academic researcher from Swinburne University of Technology. The author has contributed to research in topics: Design thinking & Higher education. The author has an hindex of 16, co-authored 80 publications receiving 865 citations. Previous affiliations of Gavin Melles include University of Melbourne.


Papers
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Journal ArticleDOI
23 Nov 2011-Codesign
TL;DR: This paper revisited Papanek's agenda for industrial design, and examined the link with participatory approaches, and existing socially responsible design agendas and examples, identifying eight critical features of socially sustainable product design.
Abstract: As the focus of product design has shifted from exclusively commercial to sustainability and social concerns, design education in this area has endeavoured to keep pace. Victor Papanek's book Design for the real world, crystallised many of the systemic social, economic and environmental concerns into an argument for change through eco-design, inclusive design and, in business and corporate contexts, a triple bottom line of social, environmental and economic factors. Simultaneously, design has developed and evolved participatory and co-design approaches, with high-profile consultancies such as IDEO proving that early involvement of designers with ‘wicked’ social and environmental problems is possible. This position paper revisits Papanek's agenda for industrial design, and examines the link with participatory approaches, and existing socially responsible design agendas and examples. Identifying eight critical features of socially sustainable product design, this paper suggests that Papanek's original agend...

111 citations

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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors describe the development of a design thinking course at Swinburne University taught simultaneously in Melbourne and Hong Kong, and describe lessons learned to date and future course considerations as it is being taught in its second iteration.

86 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Product design engineering (PDE) as mentioned in this paper is a new interdisciplinary program combining the strengths of the industrial design and engineering and exemplifies the current spread of programmes endorsing a hybrid programme of design and Engineering skills.
Abstract: Product design is the convergence point for engineering and design thinking and practices. Until recently, product design has been taught either as a component of mechanical engineering or as a subject within design schools but increasingly there is global recognition of the need for greater synergies between industrial design and engineering training. Product design engineering (PDE) is a new interdisciplinary programme combining the strengths of the industrial design and engineering. This paper examines the emergence of PDE in an environment of critique of conventional engineering education and exemplifies the current spread of programmes endorsing a hybrid programme of design and engineering skills. The paper exemplifies PDE with the analysis of the programme offered at Swinburne University of Technology (Australia), showing how the teaching of ‘designerly’ thinking to engineers produces a new graduate particularly suited to the current and future environment of produce design practice. The paper concl...

75 citations

01 Jan 2010
TL;DR: This paper reviewed the major epistemological positions informing theories of design research and concluded that the pedagogical implications of the role of disciplinarity in discourses in design research are discussed.
Abstract: Design research is not simply concerned with speculations regarding the relationship of theory and practice. Design research also brings out significant questions regarding the nature of research and the position occupied by the doctorate in university education. This paper reviews the major epistemological positions informing theories of design research. Analyses of examples from subjectivist, constructivist and objectivist epistemologies are presented. The paper concludes by considering the pedagogical implications of the role of disciplinarity in discourses of design research. The paper does not aim to seek statistical generalization but rather to explore the complexity of the issue.

62 citations

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TL;DR: This paper explored the ways students account for their experiences of group work in their representation of teaching and learning reality through language and the discourses they take up, and found that student perceptions regarding the benefits and challenges of group-work appear to be similar to their native speaking counterparts but that language/culture also appears to play a diverse and sometime unexpected role in their experience.
Abstract: The second language student experience of group work at university is not often transparent in survey evaluations, although the multicultural nature of the student population in Australasia would suggest that culture and language should be on the research agenda. Culture and language, notwithstanding, is used in the higher education literature to position the Asian learner as “different” and problematic, although such cultural models and stereotypes have been the subject of some criticism in recent years. Through semistructured qualitative interviewing in focus group interviews with nineteen South East Asian students, I explore the ways students account for their experiences of group work in their representation of teaching and learning reality through language and the discourses they take up. I find that student perceptions regarding the benefits and challenges of group work appear to be similar to their native speaking counterparts but that language/culture also appears to play a diverse and sometime unexpected role in their experience.

45 citations


Cited by
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01 Jan 2008
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that rational actors make their organizations increasingly similar as they try to change them, and describe three isomorphic processes-coercive, mimetic, and normative.
Abstract: What makes organizations so similar? We contend that the engine of rationalization and bureaucratization has moved from the competitive marketplace to the state and the professions. Once a set of organizations emerges as a field, a paradox arises: rational actors make their organizations increasingly similar as they try to change them. We describe three isomorphic processes-coercive, mimetic, and normative—leading to this outcome. We then specify hypotheses about the impact of resource centralization and dependency, goal ambiguity and technical uncertainty, and professionalization and structuration on isomorphic change. Finally, we suggest implications for theories of organizations and social change.

2,134 citations

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TL;DR: In the past decade, a large body of multidisciplinary research has begun to undermine the authority of this narrow interpretation of literacy by situating literacy in larger social practices as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Many people in "literate" societies, when asked to define literacy, almost always do so in terms of reading and writing abilities This narrow interpretation of literacy, an offspring of reductionist psychology, has reigned supreme in many academic and educational contexts for decades, greatly shaping literacy theories and classroom practices Within the past ten years, however, a large body of multidisciplinary research has begun to undermine the authority of this perspective by situating literacy in larger social practices

1,589 citations

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TL;DR: In this paper, a review of the literature reveals four potential learning mechanisms that can take place at boundaries: identification, coordination, reflection, and transformation, and these mechanisms show various ways in which sociocultural differences and resulting discontinuities in action and interaction can come to function as resources for development of intersecting identities and practices.
Abstract: Diversity and mobility in education and work present a paramount challenge that needs better conceptualization in educational theory. This challenge has been addressed by educational scholars with the notion of boundaries, particularly by the concepts of boundary crossing and boundary objects. Although studies on boundary crossing and boundary objects emphasize that boundaries carry learning potential, it is not explicated in what way they do so. By reviewing this literature, this article offers an understanding of boundaries as dialogical phenomena. The review of the literature reveals four potential learning mechanisms that can take place at boundaries: identification, coordination, reflection, and transformation. These mechanisms show various ways in which sociocultural differences and resulting discontinuities in action and interaction can come to function as resources for development of intersecting identities and practices.

1,541 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Rorty's philosophy and the mirror of nature brings to light the deep sense of crisis within the profession of academic philosophy which is similar to the paralyzing pluralism in contemporary theology and the inveterate indeterminacy of literary criticism as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Richard Rorty's Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature brings to light the deep sense of crisis within the profession of academic philosophy which is similar to the paralyzing pluralism in contemporary theology and the inveterate indeterminacy of literary criticism. Richard Rorty's provocative and profound meditations impel philosophers to examine the problematic status of their discipline— only to discover that modern European philosophy has come to an end. Rorty strikes a deathblow to modern European philosophy by telling a story about the emergence, development and decline of its primary props: the correspondence theory of truth, the notion of privileged representations and the idea of a self-reflective transcendental subject. Rorty's fascinating tale—his-story —is regulated by three fundamental shifts which he delineates in detail and promotes in principle: the move toward anti-realism or conventionalism in ontology, the move toward the demythologizing of the Myth of the Given or anti-foundationalism in epistemology, and the move toward detranscendentalizing the subject or dismissing the mind as a sphere of inquiry. The chief importance of Rorty's book is that it brings together in an original and intelligible narrative the major insights of the patriarchs of postmodern American philosophy—W. V. Quine, Wilfred Sellars, and Nelson Goodman— and persuasively presents the radical consequences of their views for contemporary philosophy. Rorty credits Wittgenstein, Heidegger and Dewey for having "brought us into a period of 'revolutionary' philosophy" by undermining the prevailing Cartesian and Kantian paradigms and advancing new conceptions of philosophy. And these monumental figures surely inspire Rorty. Yet, Rorty's philosophical debts—the actual sources of his particular anti-Cartesian and antiKantian arguments—are Quine's holism, Sellars' anti-foundationalism, and Goodman's pluralism. In short, despite his adamant attack on analytical philosophy—the last stage of modern European philosophy—Rorty feels most comfortable with the analytical form of philosophical argumentation (shunned by Wittgenstein and Heidegger). From the disparate figures of Wittgenstein, Heidegger, and Dewey, Rorty gets a historicist directive: to eschew the quest for certainty and the search for foundations.

1,496 citations