Art, Design & Communication in Higher Education - Volume 11, Issue 1, 2012

Contemporary higher-education institutions are currently confronted with a range of vexing issues related to the market, funding and quality. These issues are having a profound impact on art and design disciplines in universities in relation to funding cuts and pressures to develop new approaches to teaching. At the heart of the current focus on creative disciplines such as art and design is a critically important debate about values. By addressing a series of key questions, this article argues that there is value in art and design disciplines in higher education. Value theory is used to provide a framework to show how value is attributed and influenced by external forces and based on beliefs, attitudes and judgements. Such a framework creates a way of understanding value in higher education and how art and design disciplines are situated within it. Through the lens of values and value theory, this article further supports the case for art and design in higher education.

This study focused on alternative images of the future of craft and design students. The main research question was as follows: What are the possible alternative futures for the craft and design field, in the eyes of Finnish craft and design students? This was examined through narrative storytelling, students’ future stories (N=72) were collected in an eDelfoi database. Data were analysed using qualitative content analysis. Alternative images of the future were explored from four viewpoints: operational environment, professional key competences, operational model and professional identity. The results challenge educators to pay much more attention to the issue of future orientation, as well as to changes in the operational environment and operational models. Further, in design education, a transition should be made from the current product-oriented model to a process-oriented one.

There is concern in the education sector about art students’ relatively poor drawing skills on entry to higher education. This is ascribed to the prevalence of digital media combined with a decline in the formal teaching of drawing. At the same time sketching continues to be one of the main ways in which students engage with museum collections. In this article I discuss the historical and contemporary context for students drawing in museums, and present the results of a qualitative study of art and design Foundation students who made drawings when they came on an organized visit to the Victoria and Albert Museum. The range of objects the students chose to sketch is examined, as is the nature of the drawing experience, and the relationship between museum sketch and college work. I propose a typology of museum sketching behaviour and its relationship to student projects.

This article is an outcome of a survey that sought to determine the extent to which graphic design students are inspired by Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in using thumbnail sketches in their design process in a university in the developing world. In situations where idea development in graphic design moves into the digital domain, with developing countries also embracing ICT and its technologies, change in pedagogy in graphic design education should be envisaged. The possibilities of design students avoiding the rigorous traditional use of thumbnail sketches were put to test as students these days spend long hours on the computer in their design development. Using analytical survey, data were analysed in reference to students’ perception on ICT in the design process. It emerged that students go through their idea development now using computer-generated ideas in their development stages against the traditional thumbnail sketches. The findings highlight a review of current pedagogy of design education, especially in the area of idea development, to reflect the emerging trends of ICT in graphic design education in developing countries.

This article reports on a critiquing method called Design Structures that incorporates cooperative learning and teaching strategies in order to improve student participation during in-class design critiques (crits). The approach was used in a first-year design course and the quality of experience for students during whole-class crits was compared with the quality of experience for students during Design Structures group crits. Quality of experience levels were consistently higher overall for students during the Design Structures crits – specifically in the areas of self-esteem, perceived importance of task, challenge and skill. Furthermore, more design students reported being ‘in flow’ and less apathetic during decentralized crits using Design Structures methodology than during centralized crits utilizing teacher-led, whole-class instruction strategies. This article also offers suggestions to design educators for effectively incorporating cooperative learning methodology such as Design Structures into their pedagogy.

EXPLORING MORE SIGNATURE PEDAGOGIES: APPROACHES TO TEACHING DISCIPLINARY HABITS OF MIND, NANCY L. CHICK, AERON HAYNIE AND REGAN A. R. GURUNG (EDS) (2012) Sterling, VA: Stylus, 257 pp., ISBN: 978-1-57922-476-9, P/b, £24.50