Terrence...
You asked the question..."Why teach Modernism rather than teaching students how to design?"
There is a danger in teaching only design skills, even if it is the one thing that will give the student value in the market after graduation. Rhetoric, Argument and Presentation skills (RAP) are equally important to drawing, CAD, prototyping and process application. It is these RAP skills that I have chosen to develop in the students as they explore Modernism in not only Design Theory, but Music, Literature, Art and Philosophy in the first half of the semester. (lots of short 10 minute presentations in front of the class)
I am more accustomed to teaching skills based courses, but accepted this teaching assignment as a challenge to my aversion to lecture style teaching. One of my aims is to move from Modern Design's history and its rhetoric in the first half of the semester to exposure and tacit awareness of contemporary design processes (i.e. 3D printing, Design Thinking, Experience Design etc.) We all live with a constant fire hose of information delivered via. the internet on a daily basis. I feel it is my job to direct that fire hose of information and encourage the students to develop and direct their curiosity towards topics that will stimulate their design sensibility. Plus, I will be teaching them the hard core design skills later this year and next year (3D CAD, Prototyping, Drawing, Computer Graphics etc.)
Without getting into a whole critique of the Korean education system (I'm teaching in Seoul), I'll just say that the way I have selected to teach this particular course aims to strike a balance between knowledge/awareness and skills/ability development. Korean's a well known for their ability to copy and plagiarize. One of my ulterior aims is to raise the students awareness of what it means to copy during the design process and what it means to innovate.
For what its worth, I am in accord with you on the inclusion of the 'more empiricism' approach to design education rather than less...
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