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In this article, the authors first indicate the range of purposes and the variety of settings in which design experiments have been conducted and then delineate five crosscutting features that collectively differentiate design experiments from other methodologies. Design experiments have both a pragmatic bent-"engineering" particular forms of learning-and a theoretical orientation-developing domainspecific theories by systematically studying those forms of learning and the means of supporting them. The authors clarify what is involved in preparing for and carrying out a design experiment, and in conducting a retrospective analysis of the extensive, longitudinal data sets generated during an experiment. Logistical issues, issues of measure, the importance of working through the data systematically, and the need to be explicit about the criteria for making inferences are discussed.
In this short article, we draw on our collective experience of conducting design experiments for a range of purposes in variety of settings in order to delineate prototypical characteristics of the methodology and to describe what is involved in conducting a design experiment. Although the term design experiment is most closely associated with Brown (1992) and Collins (1992), pedagogical design has informed the development of theories of instruction for well over a century. Prototypically, design experiments entail both "engineering" particular forms of learning and systematically studying those forms of learning within the context defined by the means of supporting them. This designed context is subject to test and revision, and the successive iterations that result play a role similar to that of systematic variation in experiment.
Design experiments are conducted to develop theories, not merely to empirically tune "what works." These theories are relatively humble in that they target domain-specific learning processes. For example, a number of research groups working in a domain such as geometry or statistics might collectively develop a design theory that is concerned with the students' learning of key disciplinary ideas in that domain. A theory of this type would specify successive patterns in students' reasoning together with the substantiated means by which the emergence of those successive patterns can be supported. This emphasis on theories reflects the view that the explanations and understandings inherent in them are essential if educational improvement is to be a long-term, generative process. Design experiments ideally result in greater...
