Designerly Thinking Beyond Design

In this chapter we explore the connections between cognitive and creative processes in designing. Through a series of research projects focused on assessing design capability, we have developed an approach to exploring learners' performance on authentic tasks. We have shown how portfolio-based performance enables learners to recognise and grapple (metacognitively) with their own thinking processes. One of the consequences is that design acts as a liberating force for wider cognitive awareness. In this chapter we outline our approach and explore its wider potential for assessing and developing designerly approaches to thinking, beyond the direct context of design