Abstract
There have been recent efforts at the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) in identifying levels of design competency to support teaching and assessment, which has resulted in the development of the Design Competency Assessment (DesCA) framework. One competency area in this framework is prototyping. To understand the nature of prototyping activities, an extensive literature review was conducted along with an empirical study at SUTD and at a private secondary school. The study explored (1) definitions of prototyping to individual instructors, (2) roles of prototypes in the design process in courses, (3) frameworks, methods, and tools introduced, (4) the way prototyping is taught and assessed, and (5) competencies required for students to learn to prototype. This thesis reports the results of said study, based on 22 interviews with SUTD and secondary school instructors from different disciplines, who teach, supervise, or are interested in prototyping. Insights from the study include: (1) variations in definitions of what a prototype is across different fields, (2) a lack of intentionality in prototyping, (3) missing associated competencies, including how to select appropriate prototyping methods and tools, (4) difficulties in identifying prototyping-specific competencies, (5) implicit assessment of prototyping competencies, where competencies are assessed at all, and (6) an extreme perspective on assessment of the prototyping process. In summary, these insights will allow for the re-examination of the way prototyping is taught and how it is represented in the DesCA framework.