Don, you wrote...
- It talks about teaching when it should be focussed upon learning
- It has an outmoded view of education:
- That lectures are effective for learning whereas in fact, they are
simply the easiest thing to do for instructors, but the worst
way to learn
for students
- It believes that it must teach students ALL the essentials they need,
whereas students forget most of the material as soon as the examination is
over. And if they ever do need it, they have to learn it all over again
- Which implies that students should learn how to learn as opposed to
whatever miscellaneous stuff the class has presented to them
- Education should be life-long, not just while young
- The division of courses into hour-long sessions, three times a week,
taught in quarters or semesters of roughly 10 or 15 weeks has no
educational benefits (but simply makes room scheduling easier).
Different material requires different educational structures and time
frames.
- Problem-based education (which is how many design courses are taught)
is not well supported. Moreover, these courses usually require a higher
teacher/student ratio than universities can afford
- The university is pricing itself out of existence, especially in the
United States, but in all countries (except that the cost is often hidden
because of state subsidies, free tuition, etc.)
- The internet makes impossible to learn anything you want, any time you
need it.
- <amy professors do not know anything about modern learning theory or
about how students learn. What they know is folk knowledge, usually based
on how they were taught. But professors are obviously an elite: they are
the ones that managed to get through school and are successful. They do not
represent the vast majority of students.
- Schools do a horrible job of preparing students for the world after
school. This is, in part, because most professors have never had a job
outside of the university. So professors think they know what skills are
needed, but they are provably wrong.
I’d suggest none of this is true of the Royal College of Art, or most Art and Design universities / departments of universities.
Stephen
Stephen Boyd Davis
Professor of Design Research
School of Design
Royal College of Art
Kensington Gore, London
SW7 2EU
Office direct line 020 7590 4343
www.rca.ac.uk
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