A systems design approach for investigating Australian TAFE design education

This paper explains how a systems design approach has been used to develop a model of a design education system within the Australian Vocational Education and Training context, and with respect to the views and aspirations of design teachers. It uses empirical data to identify important model parameters (and their related constituent variables) that can be employed to describe the characteristics of the TAFE design education system. This model provides a useful tool for obtaining relevant, empirical system performance data which, in turn, can be applied to refine the model. Moreover, it may be adapted in future research to obtain the views of other important stakeholders within the context of design and perhaps other related vocational education fields. The paper begins with a literature survey and a brief outline of the research and data analysis methods employed. This is followed by system modelling, a summary and conclusions.