The Role of an Instructor: More than Meets the Eye

By:

The landscape of design education is changing and facing new challenges as a result of external forces such as emerging technology, converging media, cross-discipline and cross-cultural collaboration to name a few. These challenges certainly will affect how and what we design, the expectations for future designers and the preparation for designers of the future. If learning is how someone comes to know something and able to apply what one has acquired to perform given tasks such as create a poster to communicate a message or devise an advertising strategy for a campaign, then instructors certainly play a crucial role in the learning process to bridge the gap and facilitate growth and transformation. This study has undertaken a number of activities including both participatory and non-participatory observations to understand and experience the framework for capturing the essence of a studio-based learning experience. As a result of observing the interactions between instructors and learners in the studio, the author has discovered that, in many instances, educators may switch to different roles unknowingly during the course of interaction with learners. It is believed that while this may be a ‘smooth transition’ for more experienced instructors, the awareness of different roles that an instructor could play may have implications for teaching practices and provide new insights for less experienced instructors.

Stream: Teacher Training and Professional Development

Paper: A paper has not yet been submitted.

Peter is currently pursuing his PhD at the School of Design, Hong Kong Polytechnic University. His current research interests are in visual communication, design education, studio-based learning and experience design for online learning space. Peter holds a BBS in Information Systems from Massey University, New Zealand, and an MA in Instructional Design & Technology from the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.