Abstract

This paper considers the growing body of established scholarly research culture in the creative arts: which, it is argued, is in the process of ‘catching up’ with more established disciplines such as science, history and economics. This slow growth is linked to the need for practitioner-focused lecturers within the discipline, some of whom have little engagement with scholarly theory before entering the academy. The paper then goes onto consider the introduction of a particular theory - the threshold concept framework - to a cohort of industrial design staff at Coventry University and outlines some of the main impacts on both their continuing professional development and their teaching and learning practices. Specifically the main impacts have been an embedding of a threshold concept ‘lens’ through which the lecturers interviewed now see their teaching and learning practice, which has resulted in both changes in curriculum delivery, and an enhancement of publishing profiles.

Keywords

Research, design education, design curriculum

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

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Aug 27th, 9:00 AM

The scholarship of teaching: threshold concepts and research informed design education

This paper considers the growing body of established scholarly research culture in the creative arts: which, it is argued, is in the process of ‘catching up’ with more established disciplines such as science, history and economics. This slow growth is linked to the need for practitioner-focused lecturers within the discipline, some of whom have little engagement with scholarly theory before entering the academy. The paper then goes onto consider the introduction of a particular theory - the threshold concept framework - to a cohort of industrial design staff at Coventry University and outlines some of the main impacts on both their continuing professional development and their teaching and learning practices. Specifically the main impacts have been an embedding of a threshold concept ‘lens’ through which the lecturers interviewed now see their teaching and learning practice, which has resulted in both changes in curriculum delivery, and an enhancement of publishing profiles.

 

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