Creativity and group working. Collaboration and problem based learning as boosting activity in design creative process.

Inside the actual European context there are many reason to re-consider and re-design the didactic activities. Design education in particular seem to be at the core of European goals: 1) 2009 it is the European year of creativity; 2) the EU underlines, in several recent documents , the importance of research, of the education for research, 3) there is a continuous stress and promotion of interdisciplinary approach and of internationalization to maintain and improve the higher education level and strengthen its competitiveness. Within our institution there is an educational model based on the so called Research and didactic units, between which there is a virtuous circle. Starting from the virtuous circle between research and education and the importance of creativity in Design activities the paper will explore the example of Metadesign studios. If nowadays knowledge is less and less linked to the contents acquisition and it identifies more with the ability of coding and de-coding messages, the Metadesign studio has the purpose to give an approach to design knowledge, to learn to learn, to develop metacognitive skills, to acquire autonomy in coding and decoding information. The necessity of decoding the professional practice is the core of inductive approach and inside our course this translates in role game where students have to cooperate inside small design teams to develop a specific project for a definite company.