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What should the first six months of design education be?
MF6M is framed a specific contribution to the university ecosystem. Constructed as a project – such as MF6M and considered to run over many years with sessional teachers as researcher-collaborators – the project is a reimagining of learning for the contemporary period.
The pedagogical project asks the questions:
1. How does education build the embodiment of designerliness?
2. How does education enhance the development of the temperament for design practice?
Table 1 - Student's Overall Satisfaction of Courses (+ve impact post MF6M introduction)
The CES scores were used to track the project impact on students and also to back the claim that the project and the program were appreciated by the students. (See Table 1). The circles indicated on the graph indicate the semesters where the My First Six Months (MF6M) pedagogy has been introduced. From these points onwards, the results show and upward trend compared to the results prior. The Linear trend lines (dotted lines for each course) plot the students CES Overall Satisfaction Index % Average showing a positive increase in overall satisfaction of the courses by students across the period between 2018 to 2021.
Table 2 - Student's Overall Grade Point Average (High Distinction post MF6M introduction)
Consistent student CES responses to all courses. Distribution of grade results for each course (Table 2) shows an ‘average’ of High Distinction. These positive performance indicators are affirmed in student and industry feedback about high quality learning outcomes and acknowledged by a ‘School of Design Peer Award for Teaching’ in 2020.
Socialised Learning for Students
The pedagogy orientation/ framework focuses upon capacity development in the individual student. (ZW)
1. (acknowledging prior learning) Focussed upon providing opportunities for singular and unique enhancements of individual students, the project design focuses upon acknowledging the capabilities, methods, practices and knowledge that the students bring with them from their life experiences and from their prior education. Students entering the industrial design course have a diverse range of often well-developed skills:
o Good computer aided design skills &
o Good skills in fabricating in wood, metal and other materials
2. (addressing diversity) The programme is designed to provide a platform that enables both; a diverse student cohort to work collaboratively, and each individual to build upon their unique capabilities.
3. (including STEM) Provides opportunity for STEM students to adapt projects to their unique capabilities, and to set up appropriate goals and challenges.
4. (facilitating enactment) The entrepreneurial dimension requires students to set up teams with clear roles - leadership/technical /cultural aesthetic – focussed upon delivering outcomes in an accelerated learning context.
5. (enabling reflection) Enables each individual student, within a diverse student cohort, to separately reassess their capabilities and understand the gap between what they know and where they want to be before they enter into second year.
6. (events that are educating) The program of the socialisation of knowledge enables students to develop practice cultures and unique embodiments of the practice of design.
Development Program for Teachers
For the teachers the project is designed to serve as an academy of intellectual development, focussed upon developing an understanding of contemporary pedagogy. (WD)
1. (access to progressive pedagogy) Providing the tutors in My First 6 Months a platform informed by contemporary educational theory and contemporary design practice within industry.
2. (peer to peer learning) P2P practice, and pedagogy strategies for a cultivation of culture and a socialisation of knowledge in student cohorts.
3. (develop track record) Providing tutors exemplars for their teaching portfolios, publication outcomes, vocabulary & a pathway towards PhD.
4. (staff pathways) Provide opportunities for the staff to theoretically explore contemporary educational theory and develop an interest in pedagogy.
5. (research in action) Enable witnessing – staff panellists – of student outcomes (and CES scores) in a context informed by discourse and the state of the art in educational theory.
6. (processual knowledge) Practice in managing diverse modes – the design Sprint, the design challenge and the design project – of accelerated learning.
Enacting Workplace Practices
By using contemporary processual methodologies common within large manufacturing enterprises.
(leadership) The program makes a reference to, and provides pathways to, both FastTrack and to the RMIT Activator, as destinations in later years.
(team work) The project points to ‘team work’ by proscribing ‘students working alone’.
(research outcomes) Projects outcomes are conveyed through a ‘pitch’ as a mode of seeking funding for further development.
(inquiry focus) Projects are posed as invitations to explore and commence an inquiry
Education Theory and Pedagogy Framing
Enabling:
1. Becoming ready for year 2 (of 4).
2. Focus upon individual student.
3. Peer to Peer learning.
4. Student defined roles and responsibility.
5. Student defined goals.
Removing:
6. Focus from works.
7. The authority figure.
8. Judgement.
9. The talking teacher.
10. Following precedents.
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