Teaching Philosophy

My overall goal in teaching students of design is to encourage them to identify and recognize the context in which they are operating as designers. Whether that is an historical, political, economic, or social context—design does not operate in a vacuum and has very real implications to the way that we all experience the world. This is not meant to privilege design over other forms of mediation, but it colors that way that I provoke students to think about their work, and what they are contributing to the world as a result of it. Especially with the far-reaching and rapid technological advances that are upon us, the questions we must be asking ourselves is not what can we do with design, but what should we do? 

My teaching philosophy revolves around a few distinct ideas. The first is that students come to me with previous knowledge that I can draw out to build confidence in their own ability to tackle bigger challenges. The second is rooted in integrative learning and providing students opportunities to interpret, examine and interrogate the validity of ideas through projects that don’t just illustrate knowledge, but demonstrate it. The third is the importance of peer to peer learning, and using my role as a teacher to create collaborative communities of learning, where students can share knowledge and build critical and creative ideas together.

Building on Previous Knowledge 

I believe that it’s critical for students to understand that they come to every project with previous knowledge. This not only gives them a sense of confidence in approaching new ideas and materials, but I also think it helps cultivate a commitment to and ownership within a project. In almost every project assignment, I allow students some latitude on the initial content that they are examining, and to use their foundational knowledge as a building block that starts to guide future research. As most professors, I try to balance structure with open-endedness. I believe if given the chance, students will use that latitude in a relevant and significant way, not just for self-promotion. For example, a recent project prompt was for students to visually explain “how something worked” using an episode from the podcast Stuff you Should Know. Students could pick any topic that interested them—from How the Spanish Flu Worked, to How Nostalgia Works. One of my motivations for this project was to have students take something originally in audible form and turn it into something visual—thereby encouraging not just visual creation, but also content creation. That simple element of topic choice helped build the necessary confidence about their ability as well as a commitment to collecting and interpreting new information.

Integrative Learning

Design education is at a familiar cross-roads. We are simultaneously preparing students to operate in the design profession as it exists today, while also knowing that it will change dramatically—possibly in ways that can’t even anticipate. As a result, my approach to teaching weighs both of these realities equally. I address the former by trying to situate projects and problems in very contemporary settings—to capitalize on existing technologies, but also to think about how students can build upon them. At the same time, I like to balance those with more theoretical problems that invite students to imagine new realities, through methods like design fiction and critical design. These methods not only imagine a new role for designers—as social critics—but also helps students imagine new methods and approaches for the future of design practice. In one such example from an introductory typography class, I asked students to write a short story imagining a future that involved a universal written language. Students were then prompted to create a system for that written language using traditional techniques such hand drawing and vector illustration, as well as more contemporary platforms like FontStruct. In the final iteration of the project—a book—students were introduced to principles of grid systems and gestalt principles in the layout; as well as printing, binding and paper choices in the final production. The story content challenged students to imagine the various implications that
a universal written form would have, while also wrestling with what that visual form might even look like. They were simultaneously looking at the history and future of typographic form and communication in very diverse ways. 

Creating Collaborative Communities of Practice

The final part of my approach to pedagogy centers of cultivating communities of learning. This involves creating spaces where mutual respect is balanced with critical evaluation to create a culture where students feel they are advancing together. As much as possible, I structure critiques, presentations, class-discussions and even reading groups so that students are working and learning from each other. In introductory courses, that often means giving guided questions that students wrestle with at the beginning of a class before coming back to the larger group to discuss. In can also mean small group critiques with structured questions and ways of evaluation. And it also means engaging students in group projects where each team member feels like they have a distinct role and contribution. I experiment with creating these spaces in virtual and physical environments to encourage frequency and self-initiated collaborations. I have found that collaboration requires not just telling them that they will collaborate, but also explaining to them how. I have drawn on excellent resources such as Sharon Poggenpohl’s on “Practicing Collaborative Action in Design” to help guide and structure this element of my pedagogical approach to collaboration. 

Lifelong Learning

The final component of my pedagogical approach is rooted in the concept of lifelong learning. I am constantly looking for new and better resources and strategies to help guide my own pedagogy and teaching. I am iterative in the way that I instruct, design projects and introduce tools and platforms for creation. I am also curious about how teaching and practice are conducted in other fields and believe that an interdisciplinary approach to pedagogy and practice is instrumental in creating critical and creative thinkers. I contribute to reading groups and engage other faculty from a variety of fields—from the humanities and social sciences to the arts to the hard sciences—to learn strategies for teaching and learning that might be valuable to my own growth and evolution as a teacher.