I believe that education and learning is a powerful tool that helps transform lives. As an educator, I aim to instil in my students a deep appreciation for the value of education especially in the field of design by allowing students to discover themselves through critical thinking stimulation, a collaborative and conducive learning environment, having creative freedom, and building communication skills in and out of the four walls of the classroom.

 

I believe there are three qualities that would define my teaching:

 

First, I believe in not only telling nor showing, but rather allowing people to have first-hand experiences to engage and understand materials better. I believe tangible interactive experiences allow for better engagement with students and allow for a direct translation of concepts to medium that they would be able to associate with in the real world. Using our bodie, we can learn so much through movement, perception, and interaction with the things around us.

 

Second, I believe in encouraging my students to think outside of the box and make use of methods that may not even be remotely close to conventional design methods in order to investigate, conceptualize, create, and communicate their ideas. I would like to encourage my students to not view design as a step-by-step procedure to enact, but rather a dynamic and ever-changing process of getting to know the world they are designing for. With this, designers must adapt, and their thinking and processes must cope accordingly. It is not enough to be teaching design theories, software use, and hard skills. These must be supplemented by the ability to be resourceful, to think on one’s feet, and to believe in their own abilities and what they value. In order to translate these into learnings, it is not only necessary to learn what design is, but who and what it impacts in our everyday lives.

 

And finally, I believe in fostering a conducive learning environment where experimentation and failing is okay. We learn by doing, and if we don't try it out, we would never know if it works or not. School is the place to fail as many times as possible in attempts of trying things out. I want to drill this into them where failing is not actual failure, but rather a learning experience that we all go through at some point, especially in safe learning spaces, as it is the best place to fail safely and learn to grow.

 

To conclude, being an educator for me is being able to inspire and impart what value education holds to others through not only telling but allowing for students to have first-hand tangible interactive experiences, encouraging them to think critically and make use of other far-from-conventional-design methods in their ideas, and fostering a conducive learning environment where it’s okay to fail securely as they build their confidence in their own abilities through constant communication not only from their instructor but from their peers as well. As an educator, I not only impart my own learnings onto others, but also learn from both my students and peers alike.