Enhancing structured reflective practice to complement the “Design Praxium” vision

This paper suggests that an Enhanced Reflective Practice model, as part of a structured reflective practice discipline, supports the vision of an initiative known as “Design Praxium”. This initiative aims to fulfil: (i) a need for a new type of design practice; (ii) a deeper design educational experience; (iii) a new generation of designers that are able to shape new contexts through design. Design Education would benefit from the inclusion of practical ways to cultivate values to develop hand in hand with design theory and technique. If mental training disciplines that aim to ultimately foster cooperative human qualities can be inserted within existing structured reflective disciplines in an educational context, then rising design students may progress into professional endeavours with higher potential of making more sustainable and socially responsible choices. This paper presents the theoretical context for a developing study that will use validated scales to assess whether mindfulness-based techniques designed to enhance structured reflective practice, can cultivate the attention component of mindfulness, and promote desirable human qualities that support the “Design Praxium” principles. Moreover, it is concluded that the significant value of this approach is the seamless integration of the disciplines of mindfulness and that of structured reflective practice.