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What role does writing play in secondary art & design education? In the context of current debates on access and participation in the visual arts, the nature of art discourse and the value of creative subjects within the curriculum, what impact do the existing requirements have on students, teachers and the broader arena of the visual arts? This article presents the findings‐to‐date of an ongoing pilot study which set out to explore these questions. Drawing on interviews with teachers and exam board representatives, and a review of student texts and exam board documents and resources, the study found that even though writing is only a minor part of what is an essentially practice‐based subject, it was a source of significant concern and confusion. A marked disconnect was revealed between intent and practice, which in turn highlighted a series of underlying values and beliefs that seemed to further drive this disconnect. The study calls for a wider discussion of the way writing is framed, used, supported and assessed in the art & design classroom, and the need to ensure that any pedagogy and resources developed align with the values as well as curriculum of art & design. It also previews how strategies created in the context of developing more inclusive and flexible writing skills among curators and other art museum professionals may offer a useful model. The study is part of a larger investigation into the discourse/s of the visual arts, with a focus on issues of access and participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The disciplinary intersection between community work and design is under‐explored. Despite similarities in both the context and values of the work, there has not been a significant critical comparison of their respective approaches in either theory or practice. This article suggests that informal education offers an alternative lens to consider both disciplines and inform future practice. More specifically, it considers the relevance of informal education principles in design education and design practice that has an explicit social focus. This discussion is drawn from doctoral practitioner action research in Scotland during 2016–18. The fieldwork focused on the different outlooks and approaches to work in community settings from both design and community work perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article argues that choice to redirect design for social purposes, as in social design, has profound consequences. It reports how altering the subject matter of design education requires corresponding and profound reconsideration of design education. It point outs that social design entails that students gain particular competencies, such as an ability to work with social complexity within and across multiple systems, sectors, and sites. It highlights a need of developing a formal theory of social design education and reconsideration of educational environments, curricula, and teaching materials.

The recent movement to include art and design in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education has made Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) an increasingly common acronym in the education lexicon. The STEAM movement builds on existing models of interdisciplinary curriculum, but what makes the union of art and design with the STEM disciplines so persuasive? In this article, I draw from research on interdisciplinary curricular projects that fit into the category of STEAM, but may also be considered inquiries into the role of art and design in the creative inquiry process, in order to sketch a transdisciplinary curriculum model that may be applied across disciplines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Art, craft and design activities are fundamentally creative in nature, requiring the implementation of ideas in the form of materially embodied artefacts. Within art and design education, initiation to the creative process is usually enhanced via a studio model where material experimentations are an integral part of learning processes. This case study explores materiality in learning from a relational perspective where material forces are at play in constituting learning: how learning is entangled with or an effect of the engagement with the materiality of places, environments and (organic) matter. We base our enquiry on an MA course called Design Exploration and Experimentation organized at Aalto University, Finland. The experiences of three students discussed in the article form the key data of the case study. By describing the relations between the experiences, environments and creative outcomes, the case study sheds light on the relevance of materiality in learning, especially in higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The principles and techniques of design education have begun to influence art education in the United States, but their effect so far has been modest, primarily because of a gaping divide in beliefs about creativity and how to stimulate it. With K-12 art education on the chopping block of a culture awash with budget cuts and testing fever, this is a particularly a significant time to examine these disparate conceptions. The argument here is that the division that exists today between pre-K-12 art education and design education in the United States is not justified and ignores historical perspective. After describing and comparing the two approaches, we examine how conceptions of creativity in the visual arts may have led to this artificial separation of similar disciplines. Because educators in many countries grapple with defining and implementing creative art education curricula, this article will consider international perspectives that offer insights for American art educators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on an ongoing PhD study based within Lab4Living, a transdisciplinary research group in design, health care and creative practice within Sheffield Hallam University’s Art & Design Research Centre. Increasingly, design is becoming a recognized activity within the context of health care, with an increase in the use of design methods and approaches in development and research. This ‘research through design’ study explores design practice and design thinking in health and well-being through the lens of the Pain Management Service at Sheffield Children’s Hospital (SCH). Through case studies with the therapists and the young people, the study seeks to understand the role of participatory design methods in service improvement, and to see if the transfer of design skills to adolescents within the service has an impact on their self-management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contextual studies (CS), 'theory', 'visual culture' or 'art history' (amongst other labels) refer to a regular and often compulsory feature in art and design education. However, this takes many forms and can sit in a variety of relationships with the practical elements of such courses. This article is based on mixed method research on CS in the BTEC Extended Diploma in Art and Design, a course that makes up a substantial proportion of pre-degree provision in the UK. We describe aspects of the wider study then draw on two cases to illustrate and discuss the implications of different approaches to the curriculum and its integration. Our analysis suggests that a seemingly progressive flight from a discrete CS towards a designed form of integration can have unintended negative consequences, and in the light of this we suggest some ways in which course teams might reflect on their practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers an exploration of the art room as part of a broader project to consider the ways in which normative practices in art and design education can include and exclude students. The art classroom is explored here as a 'disrupted space' and one that can promote movement between the structures and boundaries that affect our ways of being in, and experiencing, the world. The art room offers a space for colonising otherness, as well as an 'alternative' or risky physical space, a refuge, or one with the potential to disrupt the dominant educational landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Alternative Art School (AAS) is conceived as an open-ended pedagogic tool through which to interrogate the conditions and consequences of contemporary education. It is interdisciplinary in scope, but focuses on the values of design education, while challenging assumptions of the academic status quo. As a 'school' within a school the AAS exploits the opportunities of art school to envisage alternatives in a staff?student collaboration. Extra-curricular and unmarked, the AAS is framed as a case study here employing a dialogic process that aims to disrupt reductive government policy and challenge the fusion of commerce and culture. In this way students are encouraged to reframe their experiences and ambitions from a more critical position and to inspire change through creative dissent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to challenge the notion of small studio format delivery expectations in art and design education. Our research reports on an introductory Digital Photography course design that produced equivalent learning outcomes in a large enrollment lecture format. The objective of the project was to introduce (1) a case-based approach to teaching and learning and (2) a multitiered feedback model. The positive learning outcomes produced by this course design call into question the prevailing regimes of teaching creative production within the limits of small studio pedagogy. In addition, the multitiered feedback model we propose can be extended much beyond a classroom setting to include ‘crowdsourcing’ as a feedback model in Massive Open Online Courses, also known as MOOCs. Our approach is also highly suggestive of further investigation into applying Kant’s notion of the sensus communis – the shared subjective but universal sense of the aesthetic – to common issues surrounding creativity, scale and evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the ways of integrating contemporary art and educational institutions (from children's art schools to universities), asking what an artist can add to existent educational contexts besides teaching as such, and vice versa, what she and her art projects benefit from them. From a brief discussion on the educational turn in arts and both positive and negative approaches towards it among art critics, artists and educators, the article proceeds to analyse several case studies: the art practice by Nomeda and Gediminas Urbonas, Kristina Inčiūraitė's projects with children's art schools, and the Alytus Art School as a phenomenon. All these cases tend to be easily dismissed from the scope of the educational turn, as they use existing educational environments as their starting point and resource, instead of appropriating educational formats into the gallery context; so the article investigates what resources and challenges a permanent educational environment offers to artists in compare to temporary school, workshop, etc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Design Footprints for Mining the Future defines the effect of socio-economic, technological and sustainability highlights of the last century and traces the development of design concepts as a result of external impacts. The aim of the paper is to analyse the changing context, scope and impact of design and its education since the industrial revolution and the changing design practice. The paper will mark a contradiction between the external agendas and the practiced framework in design education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a global scenario of complexity, research shows that emerging design practices are changing and expanding, creating a complex and ambiguous disciplinary landscape. This directly impacts on the field of design education, calling for new, flexible models able to tackle future practitioners' needs, unknown markets and emergent societal cultures. In response to design's uncertain contemporary identity, a programme of doctoral research was designed with the aim of identifying distinct approaches to postgraduate design education that could help to prepare future designers for what the thesis terms an Amplified Mindset of Design. This article presents emerging findings from this doctoral research, proposing and evidencing a conceptual framework that synthesises key movements within design, to bring clarity to the current discourse on emerging design practices. The conceptual framework of an Amplified Mindset of Design clusters this discourse into four groups: a world- and human-centred worldview; integrative behaviours, social skills and visualisation. The article closes by discussing this framework in relation to design education, suggesting the Amplified Mindset of Design as a tangible frame of reference to enable the development of design education. In this context it can be used as principles for pedagogical approaches, and as guidelines for curriculum design that fits our changing disciplinary practice within a complex global environment. Furthermore, the authors contend that there is potential to apply this framework outwith the field of design, proposing that other disciplines such as management, economics and medicine could benefit from an educational experience that emphasises an Amplified Mindset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores three themes, emerging from the Inter-Life project, an Art and Design education and social skills project set in a virtual world. We argue that they connect with the concerns raised by critical Technology- Enhanced Learning (TEL) researchers at the Alpine Rendezvous workshop entitled "TEL: the Crisis and the Response." The first theme focuses on theory and TEL. We consider Cultural Historical Activity Theory, but we strongly feel that our argument has broader application as part of the intellectual "self-defence toolkit" that researchers and practitioners in the critical TEL community need if they are to "resist" the crises arising from educational globalisation. A second theme relates to the importance of working together in research communities and joint enterprises, focused on using a joint set of tools to investigate an issue or set of issues in a systematic way. In our final theme, we focus on the significance of learning spaces. They are part of the "intellectual toolkit" with which critical TEL researchers can resist the subordination of our ideas and work to globalised interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study reported in this paper describes the evaluation of the Social Implication Design (SID) method. This effect-driven design method aims to support designers in designing the influence of design manifestations on behaviour in order to counteract social issues. To study the effectiveness of the method, both a multiple-case study with designers and a narrative-based study with social experts have been executed. Based on our findings we discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the method, and suggest improvements. We conclude this paper by reflecting on our approach as research methodology for assessing effect-driven design methods and argue that qualitative studies, prior to validating design methods quantitatively, will increase the significance of design methodology for design practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores improving sketching skills and reducing the inhibition to sketch for student designers. In the first study, students were taught sketching skills through an in-class workshop. The effect was evaluated using a pre-mid-post test ( n = 40). In the second study, students were led through art activities to reduce their inhibition to sketch. The effect was tested using another pre-mid-post test ( n = 26). The first study found sketching skills increased, but declined with disuse. The second study found reduced inhibition immediately after the workshop, an increase after the sketch skills workshop, and a decrease over the semester. This suggests that sketch training and inhibition-reducing exercises are effective in the short term, but must be emphasized over time for a permanent change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Students tend to over-conceptualize their interests/intentions at the starting point of any given or self-set project, foreclosing the movement and process of their thinking through projects' time frames. The article introduces the author's self-developed visual/material thinking methodology, and proposes a means of addressing a difficulty that educator-readers working in undergraduate contexts may themselves have experienced. The context of the article, a project with Thai university students, is presented as image and text inserts. The questions raised by the methodology are therefore presented as a parallel narrative of students' responsive material. The article is written in tandem with the unfolding of a student group's project. As the author moves to a track of the methodology that foregrounds movement, the presentational material shifts to the work of one student who critiques the methodology's end-point in conceptualization, but supports the alternative track: the idea of Development as a more philosophical way forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study is aimed at generating knowledge on how faculty teachers reflect and justify their choice of subject content logic in teacher education, exemplified by a concurrent pre-service Subject Teacher Education in design, art, and crafts. Focus-group interviews generated data. Three topics were discussed: too many choices, different logics, and avoiding confrontation. Faculty teachers expressed various understandings of content knowledge (CK) and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), linked to the teachers' intuitive and reasoned reflections and preconceptions through the anchoring effect and attribute substitution. The study contributes to the knowledge base by reframing problematic sides of education, and by expanding the understanding of CK and conditions for PCK by exploring the thread between educational psychologist Lee Shulman and psychologist Daniel Kahneman. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this article, the author offers a model for establishing national design research and upgrading art-based design education programs. Particular focus is given to how this relates to programs that are offered at the university level. Additional topics examined include a 2000 study from the Danish Evaluation Institute that looked at Danish design education programs, the Danish Centre of Design Research (DCDR) and insights on the concepts of design and research. Details relating Denmark's Ministry of Culture are also offered.

This paper examines the deep thinking processes involved in creating, and responding to, the visual in the domains of art and design. The particular views of two experts, one an educational theorist and educator in design history and the other, a practicing drawing artist and art and design educator discuss their highly developed research methodologies employed to understand visual creativity and analysis. Two approaches to visual research are discussed, the visual autobiography and the Visual Prototype Identity Model (VPIM) with particular emphasis on their use for developing expertise in art and design. This enquiry into the visual as research and the visual as a way of researching and learning resonant far beyond the visual arts domain and into many knowledge systems that might benefit from having another potent filter through which to examine data and to communicate findings. Through reflective practice (Schön 1993), the two experts speculate about the implications that their individual and collective research has on higher education teaching and learning towards approaching visual research, creative practice and to the development of students' critical thinking skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasingly widespread use of iPads in higher education ( HE) brings to the forefront questions about the contribution of these computer tablets towards teaching and learning. However, there is a noticeable gap of research on the instructional potential of iPads in HE. This paper describes the first stage of a research project on the use of iPads in undergraduate art and design disciplines, and is a collaboration between the research lab 'Networked Learning Technologies in Art and Design' at Cyprus University of Technology, and the 'Centre for Pedagogic Research' at Falmouth University in England. The participants from both institutions provided a student-centred perspective, and the qualitative analysis (phenomenography) revealed varied perceptions. Based on the findings of this project, the implication is that there are a number of challenges and obstacles in embedding the use of iPads in art and design education. Further research in the second stage of this collaborative research will investigate the views and motivations of art and design faculty. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses articles in the issue on topics including teaching of art and design, challenges for students, and scholarship in art and design higher education.

Art & Design receives ratings on a number of scales of the UK’s National Student Survey (NSS) that are less strong than those for some other subject areas. Art & Design, along with performing arts, is characterised by a relatively high level of part-time (PT) staffing. PT staffing data are set against NSS ratings for post-92 universities and other institutions that specialise in studio-based programmes in Art & Design. The data from Art & Design are compared with data from selected subject areas, showing that for both Art & Design and performing arts higher levels of PT staffing are associated with lower NSS ratings. The quality of the available data and the implications of the analyses are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars from a wide range of disciplines - from linguistics, neuroscience and science to education, Sports and Leisure and telecommunications - have argued for the centrality of the body to effective learning environments. My contention in this article is that embracing the body is also crucial for creating empowering environments to support writing in UK Higher Education (HE). Drawing mainly on feminist theories of the body, I discuss how I have attempted to do this in my own work in academic literacy support with a specific consideration on the creation of supportive spaces for writing. The intention here is to theorize ways in which the body might relate to writing and to stimulate creative ideas about how this burgeoning field of 'embodied writing support' can be further developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article puts forward the learning and teaching benefits of placing theory for Art & Design students within the realm of the studio, focusing on a particular technique, Reframing Research, developed by the author. The ways in which this method can both engage students with the research process and deepen their understanding of context are identified. Primary research from student workshops and reflection on the author's practice are used to support the discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of the 'complete drawing book' in mid-eighteenth-century England was a remarkable phenomenon. Launched by print sellers as a new educational commodity, this particular type of drawing book exhibited both commercial acumen and cultural ambition by presenting a comprehensive programme to satisfy public desire for drawing instruction. It also embodied a subtle process of cultural assimilation and influence. Various kinds of pictorial model were assembled from diverse sources and organised in a way that visualised the 'hierarchy of genres'. The complete drawing books thus played a role in shaping public perception of what constituted art within that hierarchy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on a survey of the expectations and experiences of first-year students who were enrolled in 2010 on programmes in Art & Design in the United Kingdom. The survey covered 20 institutions and received 778 usable responses. The results indicate considerable variation in both expectations and experiences, and provide a basis for assisting institutions in the UK to enhance their curricular provision at a time when they are faced with radical changes to their funding and to that of their potential students. The approach adopted in this study has a potential value that extends well beyond the boundaries of Art & Design in the United Kingdom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Standardized writing and reading practices in academia are well established. The academic book, article, dissertation and the report are all familiar in terms of both form and content. But due to the various forms of standardization it is often hard to challenge the Mandarin diseases of 'group' thought and instruction that Universities breed in imposing their own strict writing and reading protocols and forms of pedagogy. (Alongside these things sit all the evaluative forms and kinds of assessment machinery that go with the practice of trying to count and measure everything that academics or students produce.) So if we need to consider new ways to design writing and reading we should think more about the way in which we actually live with text, both virtually and actually. In order to present new semantic challenges for new writers and readers, then, we need might need to look at the ways that other practitioners from different fields and disciplines use and create (and curate) writing and reading - where 'con' (with) combines with 'textere' (weave/text) so that the text is woven with new meanings. In what follows, then, I will consider how a poetics of textual practice may start to encourage students to engage with richer, and more carefully designed, forms of meaning. More specifically, I wish to draw on various tasks that can be set to encourage student designers to put more meaning into their writing by making challenges to form. The production of writing and reading can be considered as integral to the research and ideational processes of design work. And so how graphic design can engender, unfold and fuse with other creative practices such as poetry may be important in enabling new textual rhythms, harmonies and melodies to develop in the subject of design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Writing in Creative Practice: Practicing Theory in Art & Design Education. A one-day workshop, led by Will Hoon and Alke Groppel-Wegener, at Northampton University, The Higher Education Academy, 17 December 2012 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the development of three art and design 'writing' projects as a part of undergraduate Graphic and Digital Design and 3D Digital Design and Animation programmes at the School of Architecture, Design and Construction of University of Greenwich. It also discusses the implementation of the projects along with student involvement in the same. It also briefs about design of dissertations and writing skills development in design students.

This article shares my experience as a doctoral student researching within the domain of art and design education. This is a professional doctorate bringing together my experience as an educator and that of researcher where boundaries between education and social science research disciplines cross. My research paradigm is situated within critical theory. It is an interpretive hermeneutic study where I am cast as a participant ethnographer. At the time of writing I wanted to make known the issues and tensions that I encountered with research protocols, such as permissions mechanisms and ethical gatekeepers. These tensions I still perceive as confining, but more significantly, I realise that knowing and understanding research methodology is key to achieving creative and unpredictable research practice. This article is, therefore, focused on my journey to discover a research methodology that enables me to use a creative voice. By this I mean a method by which I can develop a writing style that articulates my practice that enables me in the construction and reporting of my research analysis to fully capitalise on my reflexive self. I have referenced papers produced by others at the time of writing their doctoral thesis and have found this enlightening. This is my contribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research concerning the basic course known as Foundations of Art and Design strengthens the pedagogical approach for K-16 art and design education. The version of Foundations introduced to America by Josef Albers, although hardly changed, is shown to have continued, timeless relevance. Next, a sequential, implicit logic is revealed in linking the literature of the originators' old intentions for the course, reflections by their students, and directions taken by later colleagues (particularly design scientists and the theorists addressing the current paradigm combining aspects of art, design, mathematics and science education), revealing some limitless, possible new dimensions. The first focus of this article points to the foundations course as a common denominator for the assimilation of complex new material through aesthetic play, paving the way for new cultural forms. A second theme begins to intertwine literature from many interdisciplinary fields, revealing a profound and deeply rooted pedagogical underpinning, accessible to art and design researchers and educators to aid with their move toward future transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using Ivan Illich's seminal works, Deschooling Society and Tools for Conviviality as touchstones, this paper returns to further pursue the thrust of my article in iJADE 25.3 (2006), 'Domain poisoning: the redundancy of current models of assessment through art', and might be considered as a more radical addendum. The central strand of Illich's work on 'deschooling' is an indictment of the trend to dehumanisation and the counterproductivity which results from institutionalisation. This paper argues that it is time to revisit Illich's call for deschooling with particular reference to the teaching of art and design, and, in turn, to look at the construct of the art teacher for the twenty-first century as connoisseur/critic/animateur, aloof from the world of domain-based assessment. As has been suggested many times before within these pages and beyond, accountability makes teachers risk averse. In short, this article suggests that it is time that we took a structural risk and removed this glass ceiling to aspiration while calling for complete deregulation of art and design education and the reinstatement of the art teacher as an autonomous 'agent of change'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses biophilia and biophilic design. The author describes biologist Edward O. Wilson's biophilia hypothesis and evolutionary aspects of emotional reactions to natural elements such as snakes and flowers and urban environments. The author explores characteristics of the aesthetics of biophilic design using environmental psychology. Other topics addressed include human response to green settings, the concept of digital architecture, and the value of biophilic design for art and design education.

'Artist-teacher' is a conceptually rich term in the field of art and design education used to describe the professionally distinct roles of artist and teacher. George Wallis (1811-91), a nineteenth-century artist and teacher, the subject of this article, first used the term 'artist-teacher' to describe himself and his theories of art education. To better understand this new term, the researcher organised the diverse aspects of Wallis's life from 1811 to 1845 as a network of enterprises to track the streams of thinking that contributed to this professional statement. Through comparison, ordering and sequencing the various enterprises, a deeper and reflective understanding of Wallis's teaching developed. In fact, the network of enterprises displays the growth of Wallis's thought as a slow and evolving process, eventually highlighting the turbulent situation that provoked Wallis to defend his theories and practices when he conjured the new term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an interview with professor of art education John Swift. Topics discussed include Swift's experience as principal editor of "International Journal of Art & Design Education," the lack of primary schoolteachers contributing articles to the journal, and the National Society for Education in Art Design (NSEAD).

It is generally accepted that art and design related disciplines attract a higher proportion of students with dyslexia than traditional academic counterparts. Combined with this is a prevalent perception that dyslexia predominantly affects students' writing and linguistic ability and it is this, as well as an increased visual-spatial sensibility, that attracts students to art and design disciplines. This article examines these ideas through the experience of fine art students on a degree course with a mandatory written element. Drawing on focus groups and interviews with students, it argues that the studio component, in terms of its learning environment and teaching methods, presents an equally challenging context for students with dyslexia and that the written element or lecture-based studies can provide students with a valuable counterpoint to their studio practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Art and design programmes are educationally unique in that students themselves play a central role in determining their own learning needs. To be successful in their study, art and design students are required to operate with a high degree of independence and self-direction. Developing the skills for greater self-reliance requires students to become aware of their conceptions of the subject of study, and of themselves as learners in a particular learning context. Developing greater self-awareness as a learner and becoming more independent in one's learning is captured by the concept of meta-learning. In this article I present an alternative strategy to prevalent diagnostic approaches to assist in developing a student's capacity for meta-learning in the subject context of art and design. An inquiry cycle was created to provide a structure within which to facilitate generative thinking about learning through engaging with fundamental questions related to the subject of learning (art and design) rather than the learning subject (i.e. the student). This method represents a departure from existing approaches to engaging students in meta-learning. A pilot study used to trial the effectiveness of this strategy is also presented here. The inquiry map, and the conceptual base upon which it was developed, were found to be useful ways to structure reflective thinking about learning and to assist in developing a student's conception of the subject. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the 2011 Group for Learning in Art and Design (GLAD) symposium. Topics addressed at the symposium include the use of business models within art and design higher education (HE), commitments to diversity and widening participation in art and design education, and the use of partnerships and new practices and art and design education. Speakers at the conference included art and design education experts Alison Prendiville, Sally Taylor, and Terry Finnigan.

This research project, now at the end of its third and evaluative year, primarily seeks to support Further Education (FE) and Higher Education (HE) art and design students' critical/reflective awareness and literacy skills through creative writing as relating to multidisciplinary art and design practices, and offers help to develop confidence and greater ownership of learning and participation in dynamic group activities. Through the undertaking of activities, learners explore the relationship between words and pictures and consider the intersections and boundaries where these art forms cross and meet. As a trained teacher, author/illustrator and performance poet who extends his identity into the classroom as part of his pedagogy (Connoisseurship and Criticism. Eisner, 1998), the author encourages learners and peers to also express individual and collective identities through innovative uses of images and words. An extracurricular writing group attended by FE, HE, Postgraduate and Access learners and staff has provided greater opportunity to explore many areas of writing relating to art and design practice - to enhance and improve independent learning and communication within the university culture and without it, feeding into the secondary school 14-19 agenda, thereby addressing strategic Widening Participation targets. The results: a 50-session teaching pack - written and delivered; papers presented at the 2008 University for the Creative Arts (UCA) Teaching and Learning conference, London; Learning and Skills Research Network (LSRN) conference, London 2008; 14-19 Agenda Seminar, Kings College University, London; HE Academy Annual conference, Manchester, 2009. Learners, having found greater identity within a community (Communities of Practice, Lave and Wenger, 1998), continue to work with the author in co-facilitation roles to disseminate its findings into the wider educational community, and its challenging impact has led to the embedding of creative thinking and writing into FE, Access and BA (hons) Graphic Communication Courses at UCA, Kent and Surrey. The project has now entered the final phase of evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we reflect on reflection. To do this, we share examples of pedagogic approaches used in undergraduate performance programmes at York St John University that re-situate reflective practice within creative practice. For example, we explore the creative, multimodal use of a catalogue document that two of the authors used to encourage students to reflect as part of the B.A. (Hons) Theatre level 2 modules entitled 'performing the self' & 'artist as witness'. These modules aim to encourage students to consider themselves in some sense auteurs of themselves and their art practice. The case study illustrates that we need to go beyond the familiar if we are to be reflexive about the role of reflection in creative practice education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers the way that affect shaped the unfolding of a curriculum initative which aimed to expose undergraduate art and design students to the insights of critical disability studies. This initiative, funded by the Big Lottery and managed by disability charity Scope, asked students in art, design and multimedia programmes in four UK higher education institutions to engage with a live brief: to develop inclusive illustrated children's books and digital media. By focusing on the affective dimensions to this project and especially what Sianne Ngai refers to as the 'minor emotions' - not fear or passion or hatred, but, for example, anxiety - this article traces the way such feelings and associated 'taste concepts' influenced the engagements, disengagements and judgements of students, staff and the project's management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the Taking Design Thinking to Schools Research Project was to extend the knowledge base that contributes to an improved understanding of the role of design thinking in K-12 classrooms. The ethnographic qualitative study focused on the implementation of an interdisciplinary design curriculum by a team of university instructors in a public charter school. Three questions framed the study. How did students express their understanding of design thinking classroom activities? How did affective elements impact design thinking in the classroom environment? How is design thinking connected to academic standards and content learning in the classroom? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author discusses a transition in the editorial team at the journal and describes the articles featured in this issue, including "Dismantling the Built Drawing: Working with Mood in Architectural Design,” by Randall Teal, "Concrete Geometry: Playing with Blocks,” by Andreas Luescher," and "Cross-Curricular Gallery Learning: A Phenomenological Case Study,” by Richard Hickman and Laura Kiss.

This paper juxtaposes an examination of recently published composition instruction books, focused on multimodal learning, with an analysis of how multimodality is manifest in one area of the art and design curriculum in an art and design postsecondary institution. 'Thesis' is a multimodal genre of composition that is required from most students in their final years of study at the Ontario College of Art & Design (OCAD). With respect to this juxtaposition, my aim is to discover whether the textbook samples provide a pedagogy that is resonant with the 'semiotic landscape' of OCAD, thereby elucidating important qualities of this landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A project to investigate the use of art and design images in higher education courses was undertaken as part of a Knowledge Transfer Partnership between the Bridgeman Art Library Limited and the London College of Communication, University of the Arts London. The principal objective of the project was the exploration of how art and design images complement the educational experience and how they inform the creative process of graphic design. The project consisted of various stages: meeting with employees at The Bridgeman Art Library to document their experiences with image requests from graphic design clients; creating sets of suitable images; licensing images to students and their instructor at the university; surveying the students about their experiences; and obtaining the instructor's feedback. The goals were to explore the ways in which art and design images can be used in teaching and in student coursework and to investigate whether the licensing of carefully selected sets of images, rather than the entire database, to educational institutions could work as a business model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the experiences of students who used interactive learning material on handheld computers in a gallery to support their understanding and appreciation of artwork. The article considers the wider implications of using technology to change relationships between teacher, learners and subject matter, and attempts to offer positive and pragmatic recommendations about the implementation of new technology into established educational contexts. Research was undertaken as part of the ICT Test Bed Project, set up by the DfES (UK Department for Education and Science) and funded by Becta (British Education Communications Technology Agency). Initial findings from this project are likely to be of interest to those exploring how mobile technology can be used to support the Government's wider agenda for educational reform and offer a practitioner's critical perspective on the possibilities and challenges offered by their use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development at Sheffield Hallam University of a discrete module entitled 'Transculturation' was the result of our determination to address the current debates in art and design history concerning the Western bias of existing curricula. The question raised was whether to begin by extending the content of current modules or to address visual culture from outside the Western tradition in a new, dedicated module. This paper aims to trace the process through which we arrived at teaching strategies that would enable to think about world cultures without claiming definitive knowledge or suggesting a static, 'authentic' other, and that would enable students and educators to develop skills and gain experience with which to approach artefacts from societies other than our own. Our strategy was to select regional case study, in order to gain some sense of the very complex range of determinants that constitute a given visual culture. To ensure an awareness of the specificity of each case study, and in order to avoid generalizations, we studied and returned to a range of theoretical texts that had potentially wider application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]