Design and Engineering Pedagogies as Agents for Disruption, Innovation and Transformation and the Transfer and Application of Reverse Psychology Across the Disciplines

Design and engineering have individually and collectively disrupted and transformed societies, economies and the environment through innovative and regenerative practice and activities. Design and engineering education have also been transformative especially the former to which experiential, active, problem and project-based learning has always been central. This paper considers an innovative and particular teaching method – reverse psychology – that employs disruptive thinking and is being used to teach design and engineering students about sustainability. The project, results and impact are discussed in detail and were presented at EPDE21 [1]. The method proved highly successful and feedback suggested that it could be applicable to participants other than university students. This paper describes the subsequent research and its relevance to design and engineering education. The theory was tested in a workshop at an academic staff conference. Feedback was again very positive and a further workshop for academics from different disciplines was organised to develop subject–specific material and assess whether the method was transferable across disciplines. The experience proved highly beneficial to all parties who learnt from each other; the bespoke materials developed during the session were subsequently tested with students who again responded very positively, which soundly endorsed transferability. These various results show that design education remains innovative and is leading and supporting development of pioneering educational practices. Furthermore the design and engineering academics involved in the research learned from colleagues in other disciplines which supports and illustrates the benefit of transdisciplinary collaboration.