In a world of rapid technological change, where learners are becoming increasingly accustomed to new ways of finding information and communicating with each other, teachers are having to face up to the challenges and opportunities involved in learning how to successfully use technology in their teaching practices. The ongoing digitization of society also has epistemological consequences. Nowadays learning is often viewed as constructive, self-regulated, situated and collaborative (de Corte 2010) – and teaching is increasingly referred to as designing for learning(cf. Laurillard 2012; Olofsson & Lindberg Eds., 2012). Considerable investments are made around the world to introduce technology into schools, with the expectation that teachers will put it to good use (cf. Lim et al 2013). However, in order to do this, teachers need to learn how to master and integrate a new knowledge domain, i.e. technological knowledge, into their existing practices, and understand the reciprocal interaction between technology, pedagogy and content knowledge (cf. Mishra & Koehler 2008). Teachers are thus having to face a number of challenges in an already complex profession, where a multitude of factors have to be constantly taken into consideration and situated problem-solving strategies designed .

Studying and elaborating how technology can be integrated into practice to help teachers successfully design for learning thus becomes a priority for teachers and it has been argued that it would be of high priority for educational researchers as well (cf. Laurillard 2012; Schleicher 2011). However, existing research on the educational use of digital technologies has been criticized of lacking theoretical grounding, providing limited empirical evidence and using ineffective research methodologies, thus providing limited advice to practitioners and limited evidence of the effects of digital technologies in learning. (cf. Bebell et al., 2010; Orlando 2009). This correlates with the identification of a widening gap between educational research and educational practice that is not just limited to the use of digital technologies (cf. Berliner 2008; Dumont & Istance 2010). It is argued that ‘too much research on learning is disconnected from the realities of educational practice and policy making’, and that ‘too many schools do not exemplify the conclusions’ drawn by such research, thus resulting in a situation in which (scientific) theory and educational practice are less informed by each other (Dumont & Instance 2010, p. 21).

Design based research (DBR) is increasingly being considered as one way of informing research on teachers design with educational technologies and simultaneously contributing in closing the research-practice gap described above. However, the dual goals of DBR, i.e. practical design of working educational interventions and theory building on working design models and principles, makes it a potentially powerful, but also a very ambitious and complex endevour (cf. Anderson & Shattuck 2012; McKenney & Reeves 2012). Given that the researcher in DBR is both designer, implementer and evaluator there is an obvious risks for a conflict of interest, biased perspectives, and that taken for granted assumptions don’t become critically scrutinized. Considering the complexity of assessing if, how and why learning occurs, the generalizability of interventions designed in situated contexts into generic design principles as a viable goal of DBR must also be problematized.

Thus, the aim of this conceptual paper is to make a contribution to the theoretical development of the DBR-concept by problematizing certain key-concepts and goals of DBR. This is primarily done by contrasting Simon’s and Schön’s views of design and discussing the potential of using Schön’s view of design as a reflective conversation with the situation as an alternative perspective in DBR research 

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