Teaching Statement

Foundational knowledge and skills are essential to student success. I use proven and recognized formats for learning foundation knowledge and skills with first year students in Art and Design. Later, I incorporate a synergistic thinking paradigm intended to develop their critical thinking skills in 200, 300 and 400 level courses. Practiced in principles, these concepts teach students how integrating advanced strategies of design thinking and scientific methodology work together to reinforce the benefits found in associative thinking as well as linear and logical thinking. This model unifies and reinforces the strengths of both methodologies by providing a platform from which students design products that accurately utilize key project criteria. This concept also compels students to move beyond their first idea, one most are prone to use, recognizing initial ideas are not always well defined. The understanding of and competency in first year skill and knowledge provides students with strong foundations in composition, color theory, perceptual abilities, etc. and are, then, ready to use synergistic thinking to scrutinize and test ideation. Art and design is not only about aesthetics and technique, it is also about understanding and utilizing all these concepts.

Foundation Knowledge and Skills are studio centric. These experiences define the context that are integral to student success, foundation knowledge, and skill. Studio courses stress study, practice, and training as preparation for professional practice in art and design.

Importantly, the studio familiarizes students with historical and current issues, achievements, and process that have shaped traditional practices. In addition to studio experiences, students should be exposed to courses developing skills in analyzing works of art, design perception, and critical evaluation. Students should be able to place works of art in cultural, historical, or stylistic contexts. In upper level courses I add a sketch-research component as a deep-dive into specific course content.

The studio experience introduces students to new technologies appropriate to the course and their area of study, how these concepts shape the world of art and design, as well as how those concepts might be combined to form new ways to design and produce art. Synergistic thinking teaches critical analysis skills for successful design strategy, making, and testing. This process relies on progressive stages requiring students to investigate, define, and develop a coherent design model, establishing whether their choices are reliable and if their design direction is on target. Ultimately, student work should demonstrate perceptual acuity, conceptual processing, and technical proficiency.

Student development is measured by the quality of creative work, as this evaluates the effectiveness of course and class. Further, this assessment reveals the extent of student’s abilities in conceptualization, process, product, and critique. Further, students should demonstrate an ability to be articulate in the language of art and design and then use this skill in different settings – i.e., analysis, discussion, studio.

Ultimately, students learn to synthesize studio experiences, technology, as well as historical and critical analyzation by the time they graduate. Students completing their undergraduate studies, then, should demonstrate the ability to work independently on a variety of art and design problems. It is important to me that students have the skills to think critically, use various tools in their design development, gain a wide range of comprehension and knowledge of art and design, and finally, enjoy project success and become artistically self aware.