Studio Teaching Symposium

16-17 February 2011
NICAI Student Centre and Lecture Theatre ALR 1
Level 2, Architecture and Planning Building, 26 Symonds Street
The University of Auckland City Campus

This two-day symposium has been convened by NICAI in association with World Alliance for Arts Education (WAAE). All NICAI programmes are largely studio-based, and we offer a PhD with creative practice research, so our academic staff are in a good position to articulate and share best practice studio pedagogy and related research.

The aims of the symposium are to facilitate cross-disciplinary dialogue; build supervision expertise; develop assessment protocols and criteria; and improve postgraduate student engagement.

Key questions and topics for discussion

• Have you completed a special project, a case study, or a piece of research on studio? What lessons were learned, or outcomes achieved, that would be of benefit to colleagues?
• What is the meaning and value of studio teaching and learning (in general or for your discipline)?
  What are its chief aims and learning outcomes? How does it differ from lecture–based forms of learning? Does studio teaching have a special role in the curriculum?
• Is there a distinct "studio culture"? Is it a synthesis of different forms of knowledge and skills; a "Socratic" form of learning based on conversation, questions and open-ended problems; a project-based and creative form of learning; and/or a way of retaining the "calling" of the profession?
• What does "studio" mean in a context of teaching and learning? Is it an equipped space, a learning environment, a pedagogy? Is studio teaching driven by project work and/or group work? Is it more about ‘studio practice’ and professional outcomes than about theory? Is it about mastering techniques and technology?
• What will be the major influences on the future development of studio teaching and learning? More powerful and sophisticated uses of technology? Increasing emphasis on inter-disciplinary collaboration and team-work? Increasing acceptance of risk-taking and ‘wild’ creativity? External economic forces, and government expectations? How will such forces of change affect teaching styles and content of studio courses?
• One-to-one teaching has the potential to enshrine the “master apprentice” model that worked very well for centuries. Do alternative models exist (or can they be developed) based on a different understanding of pedagogy? What teaching strategies would they employ, and what different forms of teacher-learner relations would they engage? 
• How does our New Zealand context inform NICAI studio teaching and learning? Does diversity play a role? How does diversity impact on delivery of studio teaching and on student performance in studio?
• How can creativity be best fostered and supported in a studio teaching environment?
• What is the place of professional training in studio-based learning? Consider not just ‘professional practice’ or work placements/internships in industry, but also: learning experiences that simulate ‘real world’ conditions or include ‘real world’ applications or outcomes, and application of theory and knowledge to practical problems.
• What is the place of inter-disciplinarity within studio-based teaching? Does it require innovations in team-teaching, or new models of collaborative (cross disciplinary) teaching?
• What is the place of independent inter-disciplinary explorations by students (outside of their prescribed course of study)? How can such self-motivated explorations be best given recognition and value?
• Practical problems encountered in studio teaching; difficulties and challenges for studio teachers; and suggested solutions.

Papers presented by participants will subsequently be published in book format. All presentations will also be reviewed by an external panel of national and international delegates, as a first step in the peer review process.

The review panel

• Professor Rita Irwin, President, International Society for Education in Art (InSEA)
• Professor Margaret Barret, President elect, International Society for Music Education (ISME); Head of the School of Music, University of Queensland
• Patrice Baldwin, President, International Drama Education Association (IDEA); Adviser for arts development and improvement, Norfolk County, UK
• Dan Baron Cohen, immediate past Chair, WAAE; international scholar on pedagogies of cultural action for transformation 
• Professor Diane Brand, Head of the School of Architecture, Victoria University of Wellington

The symposium is open to teaching and research staff from NICAI and the Faculty of Education, as well as other interested University of Auckland academic staff.  Visitors from other universities and the wider creative arts and industries sector are also welcome. (Please note that registrations are limited to 50 persons.)

Register for the Studio Teaching Symposium