This paper presents on-going reflective analysis of the implications of human design capability for the education of young people. This has built on empirical research in the classroom which contributed to the author’s doctoral thesis and has been reported at international educational conferences and journals across the past 10 years. The author is now developing a deeper theoretical analysis of the implications of that research base and is developing wider theories about the nature of human capabilities and cognition. The theoretical underpinning of this work is that the human capacity to see potential in situations, objects, materials and other people has enabled the purposeful design and construction of a complex physical, social and cultural environment through which people mediate their relationships between each other and the physical world: (Wollheim’s (1987) “seeing in” and Wittgenstein’s (1989) “seeing as”). Therefore, young people need not only to be taught to do what others can already do, but they need to be equipped to be creative designers of their own lives, spaces and relationships both with and within the physical and social world. Designing products for other people involves capabilities that are uniquely human, such as the ability to: • identify need or wants through being able to take the perspective of another, • use symbolic systems such as language, drawing, electronic media, to generate, develop and communicate ideas • image and imagine possibilities and to perceive whether these may work in the real world of real materials and whether techniques for their construction exist or need also to be invented. These design capabilities appear to of fundamental significance to human cognition and interaction with the world and with each other. They appear to be fundamentals to culture and technology, which can be applied across large areas of human endeavour and socio-cultural interaction. This has implications for considering both our past and our future. If these characteristics underlie what it is to be human, was there any single historical point in the Middle Palaeolithic when we “became” human and what, if anything, tipped the balance? More pressingly, if our closest hominid relatives (Neanderthals, for instance) became extinct through climate change, can our supposedly enhanced capabilities help us to avoid the same fate? As educationalists, how do we prepare the next generation and with what skills should we seek to equip them?

The empirical research on which this paper is based involved large-scale longitudinal study and both qualitative and quantitative analysis of processes and products of design activities within schools. Further reading and meta-analysis of this data set has led to the development of a theoretical model of human design capabilities, which appears to have generalizability beyond the research base from which it arose. Combining insights from cognitive archaeology and design theory have lead to the identification of three areas of capability underpinning human activity. This has led to the exploration of philosophical issues and debates, particularly relating to the relationships between metaphorical thinking, social understanding, language, logic and the arts.

The research has led to the identification of three inter-related and interacting facilities with the human mind, from which a complex web of relationships with the self, others and the world can be constructed and negotiated, within the overall context of the physical, mental, social and cultural environment:. Agency and Conation: An active motivation to make meaning plus the development of a theory of mind that leads to empathy and perspective taking that is fundamental to the ability to teach and the capacity to learn. Symbols and Systems: The ability to use symbolic systems as tools for generating, supporting and developing thought: language (both spoken and written), mathematics, drawing, modelling, and using electronic media. Paradigms and Paracosms: the realms of induction and deduction that underpins the sciences, combined with paracosmic thought to create fantasies, coherent narratives and generate innovative ideas.