ABSTRACT
Character development is, undoubtedly, an ambitious objective for any educational program. Historically, basic design education as individual development can be traced back to the early nineteenth-century child educators, Johann H. Pestalozzi and Friedrich Froebel, and their pedagogies of hands-on learning. An additional backdrop to Ross and Dow's educational approaches was in the art and design education scene prior to their time. Integrating senses into the design process contributes to the (empiricist) stipulation that creative knowledge is not all innate or learnt, but also provisionally developed through experience. The notion of continuity between the subject and the object in the Pragmatist view gives rise to an understanding of the universe as an ongoing process which holds potential for change from within. Pedagogical implications of abstraction in Ross and Dow's work are twofold. First, Ross demonstrates analysis of finished work. Second, Ross's system of abstraction, even without the examples of students applying it, demonstrates a pedagogical tool to think with sagaciously.
