Friday, 27 July 2012
Tuesday, 31 January 2012
I THINK, THEREFORE I AM: Aesthetic Vs. Ground Reality
I THINK, THEREFORE I AM: Aesthetic Vs. Ground Reality: A few days ago, the debate of aesthetic vs ground reality raised it voice yet again. What should be the philosophy of design education, onl...
Saturday, 28 January 2012
Aesthetic Vs. Ground Reality
A few days ago, the debate of aesthetic vs ground reality raised it voice yet again. What should be the philosophy of design education, only aesthetics or contextual relevance?
Lets start to examine the former. If we have a design philosophy which believes in only aesthetic what would happen? That brings us to the question, whose aesthetic? Your aesthetic, my aesthetic, aesthetic of the elites or the aesthetic of the masses? Aesthetic is extremely subjective. The age old adage, beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder raises its head here.
If we look at this from the perspective of what is happening in Pakistan, we come to the key question. Are we aware of the aesthetic of the people we are designing for, or are we trying to assert our aesthetic on the people? The key purpose of design is to communicate or appeal to the people it is designed for. If there is a disconnect between the designer and the creator, how then is the purpose of design fulfilled? And what then becomes the meaning or purpose of design?
There is a distinction between the purpose of commercial design and art. That does not mean that the boundaries between the two cannot be blurred. However the important point would be whether they are blurred intentionally or due to a misunderstanding of the distinct nature of the two.
If we look at the greats of literature like Shakespeare, Iqbal, Faiz, Yousufi, what is that quality that made there appeal timeless? It is the universality of there writings, and verses which raised them above the rest. The ability to understand the masses and speak their language, to reach out and engage the masses. Look at the appeal of cinema and the recent success of films like Bol, Khuda kay liyey and Taray Zameen Par, 3 Idiots. They were able to deconstruct difficult topics and place them before the audience in palatable doses. Why then this obsession of Design to be above the understanding of the masses?
This does not mean that Design education does not have to cater to developing an aesthetic sense. Ofcourse it does, it is the basis in which the students have to be grounded. But no Design becomes meaningful if it is not functional, and that will only happen if it is grounded social context. A Design which is not grounded in local social context, will then will be grounded in a social context which is alien to us. And where does the understanding of that context come from? It is superficial and borrowed. If we are to come up with a Design aesthetic which we can call our own, then we have to be in touch with our traditions and social norms, and in touch with the people we are designing for.
In the west Design education is moving towards this integration. Where design works are neccesarily placed in public places making the people they are meant for part of the process of evaluation. The tendency of designers to design in isolation, is trying to be corrected. This must be a Herculean task as the West has a design philosphy which is quite old. This is a great time for Pakistan to adopt these inclusive practices, since our design education is in the nasecnt stages of evolution. They say it is easier to train somebody in childhood but difficut to make the corrections later. As Dr. Salma Rashid (Phd. and Fullbright Scholar) put it, in childhood it is a seed that grows and develops, in later stages it just becomes a graft.
Lets start to examine the former. If we have a design philosophy which believes in only aesthetic what would happen? That brings us to the question, whose aesthetic? Your aesthetic, my aesthetic, aesthetic of the elites or the aesthetic of the masses? Aesthetic is extremely subjective. The age old adage, beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder raises its head here.
If we look at this from the perspective of what is happening in Pakistan, we come to the key question. Are we aware of the aesthetic of the people we are designing for, or are we trying to assert our aesthetic on the people? The key purpose of design is to communicate or appeal to the people it is designed for. If there is a disconnect between the designer and the creator, how then is the purpose of design fulfilled? And what then becomes the meaning or purpose of design?
There is a distinction between the purpose of commercial design and art. That does not mean that the boundaries between the two cannot be blurred. However the important point would be whether they are blurred intentionally or due to a misunderstanding of the distinct nature of the two.
If we look at the greats of literature like Shakespeare, Iqbal, Faiz, Yousufi, what is that quality that made there appeal timeless? It is the universality of there writings, and verses which raised them above the rest. The ability to understand the masses and speak their language, to reach out and engage the masses. Look at the appeal of cinema and the recent success of films like Bol, Khuda kay liyey and Taray Zameen Par, 3 Idiots. They were able to deconstruct difficult topics and place them before the audience in palatable doses. Why then this obsession of Design to be above the understanding of the masses?
This does not mean that Design education does not have to cater to developing an aesthetic sense. Ofcourse it does, it is the basis in which the students have to be grounded. But no Design becomes meaningful if it is not functional, and that will only happen if it is grounded social context. A Design which is not grounded in local social context, will then will be grounded in a social context which is alien to us. And where does the understanding of that context come from? It is superficial and borrowed. If we are to come up with a Design aesthetic which we can call our own, then we have to be in touch with our traditions and social norms, and in touch with the people we are designing for.
In the west Design education is moving towards this integration. Where design works are neccesarily placed in public places making the people they are meant for part of the process of evaluation. The tendency of designers to design in isolation, is trying to be corrected. This must be a Herculean task as the West has a design philosphy which is quite old. This is a great time for Pakistan to adopt these inclusive practices, since our design education is in the nasecnt stages of evolution. They say it is easier to train somebody in childhood but difficut to make the corrections later. As Dr. Salma Rashid (Phd. and Fullbright Scholar) put it, in childhood it is a seed that grows and develops, in later stages it just becomes a graft.
Friday, 4 November 2011
Punishment to ensure learning.
Is punishment the way forward to ensure learning? Most people will respond by saying "what a crazy idea, how can you teach anybody by punishment." However most of our schools and educational institutions have a policy of negative marking or penalty. Attendence in classes is mandatory, and if you don't attend, then various kinds of penalties are imposed or students are down graded.
We as teachers crib about students becoming more and more grade consious and less interested in learning. Is the system of reward and punishment that we practise from the begining, in bringing up our children at fault? We as parent will often be saying "Get good grades and you will get a DS." "'A' grade and you can vaction in Dubai" etc. What would happen if the condition of 'A grade' or 'good grade' was changed to "lets discuss the new book you read" or "how do you think we can stop pollution," and reward that. The focus of the child then shifts from the association of Grade with reward to discussion/ knowledge with reward, as in order to carry out a successful discussion, the child must have read and assimilated the informaton.
Let me pose another question. What is the importance of a grade to a student? Most will answer that good grades will ensure a good job, thereby ensuring a good monetary reward. So the students feel that the only importance of study is getting good grades, ensuring them a good future, not knowledge. Further more the policies in institutions also reinforce this by measuring knowledge by attendence and grades. Have we not taught blank faces and wondered why what we teach does not sink in? Well the first rule of learning is, that it will only occur if a student understands and realises the importance of it. It cannot happen by force. Students need to understand that if they don't attend class, then they will be unable to aquire knowlege and therfore be unable to clear courses. The way forward is making the students responsible for their own learning, not wielding the whip.
We as teachers crib about students becoming more and more grade consious and less interested in learning. Is the system of reward and punishment that we practise from the begining, in bringing up our children at fault? We as parent will often be saying "Get good grades and you will get a DS." "'A' grade and you can vaction in Dubai" etc. What would happen if the condition of 'A grade' or 'good grade' was changed to "lets discuss the new book you read" or "how do you think we can stop pollution," and reward that. The focus of the child then shifts from the association of Grade with reward to discussion/ knowledge with reward, as in order to carry out a successful discussion, the child must have read and assimilated the informaton.
Let me pose another question. What is the importance of a grade to a student? Most will answer that good grades will ensure a good job, thereby ensuring a good monetary reward. So the students feel that the only importance of study is getting good grades, ensuring them a good future, not knowledge. Further more the policies in institutions also reinforce this by measuring knowledge by attendence and grades. Have we not taught blank faces and wondered why what we teach does not sink in? Well the first rule of learning is, that it will only occur if a student understands and realises the importance of it. It cannot happen by force. Students need to understand that if they don't attend class, then they will be unable to aquire knowlege and therfore be unable to clear courses. The way forward is making the students responsible for their own learning, not wielding the whip.
Wednesday, 19 October 2011
Point of View
Education is not a very monetarily rewarding field any where in the world. And in our country it is a profession mostly entered into by women, as a job compatible with their commitments to family life. With very few teacher training institutions, and consequently very few trained teachers, training of teachers, once they have entered the educational sector, becomes of ultimate importance.
I finished my professional education with a degree in Design. But like a lot of others, found myself in a profession different from what I had been trained to do. I am currently employed as a coordinator of the Foundation Programme, at Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture. Foundation Programme is the first and most crucial year at IVS and consequently the responsibility was huge. I has to deal with various issues, like addressing the drop out and failure ratio of student during the first year at IVS, the need to counsel students on various issues, ranging from problems with parents and peers to self-esteem and learning difficulties. My education in Design, gave me a eagerness to learn, ensured my growth, by allowing me to engage in freedom of though and self reflection, leading to clarity in what I wanted in life, but it did not equip me with the necessary skills to handle these myriad issues of educational management.
Dialogue, not only provided me with an opportunity to discuss these various issues with experts in the field, but also a forum to mingle and discuss similar issues with professionals from diverse fields and backgrounds. I participated in 3 of their workshops, dealing with diverse issues like Strengthening the parent teacher relationship: facilitating students become confident learners, Parental conflict and affect on children and Management and HR problems in the prevalent Economic Scenario.
Dialogue is a very interactive forum, whose USP is being layman friendly. Concepts like assessment, learning disorders, parental conflict, parenting problems and stress management are explained and discussed in a very easy to understand manner, by trainers with a psychology background. Their sessions bring a lot of insight, self-reflection and assessment, in a very warm and humane manner.
A lot of times during similar workshops/trainings sessions, at other forums, it was perhaps the warmth of the session that was missing. Being from the field of education, I noticed some faculty, struggling to come to terms with corporate jargon being employed, and subsequently tune out when they were unable to comprehend. This rendered the exercise of training futile. However at Dialogue, it was a different experience, marked by a different atmosphere, where the participants due to the language skills and methodologies applied, were able to comprehend, and therefore felt confident to vocalize their opinions and clarify ideas and discuss difficulties. This not only provided me with an opportunity to listen to points of views never heard before but also enabled me to identify possible reasons for many of the problems experienced at the workplace, (both student and faculty related.)
The first workshop was a source of insight, as to the possible role parents and teachers together could play, in producing students, who were a joy to teach. During my job, a constant complaint from faculty was, that the students were dull and uninterested in learning and had behavioral problems. During sessions we realized that the reasons could be myriad, however could we rectify a situation like that? Dialogue’ s Workshop offered a possible solution. It spoke about initiation of a dialogue between parents and faculty, to be able to produce students who would take ownership of their learning. It was interesting to hear, a predominantly teacher dominated forum, talk about experiences with students and the present practices at their institutions. This enabled me to understand various practices, which could have given, rise to the attitudes in student, at bachelors level. An exercise like this would enable faculty to understand where the problem arose, and find ways of rectifying it. It also served the bring home the fact, of how important a role parents played in helping students optimize their potential. Again, during reviews and assessments, it had been noticed that there was a link between poor academic performance and behavioral issues in students and emotional problems at home. A marked increase in the cases of student issues with parents had also been noticed. The workshop also served to indicate the various changes in our social setup that were leading to a distancing between children and parents, and thereby creating a conflict in the child. This was leading to problems in the children, which came out as apathy, by the time the reached Bachelors level of study.
The next workshop, relating to Parental conflict and its effects on children, was also of immense importance. Parental conflict, in some form or another, is a reality of out society and part and parcel of the consumerist culture that has crept into our society. We have to acknowledge that a large chunk of the students coming to us at any stage, will have experienced some form of parental conflict. As Dr. Rakhshanda Hussain said during the workshop, “Marital conflict itself is not bad but the extent to which goes and the way it is handled is what actually affects the children”. At my workplace not knowing how to handle the students was resulting in a lot of negative practices in teachers. Like raising their voices, employing negative terminologies during assessment and critique, becoming indifferent as a defense mechanism. Knowing and being able to identify the various forms of conflict and possible effects it could have on students, would benefit teachers in the following ways:
· They would be able to identify and understand what the cause of possible learning issues and behavioral issues could be.
· Not feel frustrated and blame themselves for not being able to communicate with students
· Not feel frustrated and blame themselves for the poor performance of students.
· Be able to take steps to counter the problem at their own end.
· Develop empathy.
This would give rise to more satisfied teachers, confident in themselves and their skills. It would restore their creative energy and thereby make the learning experience more energetic and meaningful for students as well and consequently promote a more content and fulfilled student body on campus.
The third workshop focused on the management side. Having attended their previous workshops, I thought, the psychological perspective in HR and management could be the key to solving the problems related to the human resource. It led me to develop an insight into the problems of the system I was working with, and made me think how to counter the problems, from a humane perspective. The solutions being offered are not always tailor made for an organization. An organization needs to develop its own set of principles and guide lines through which it can adapt various procedures to suit its needs. They need to be in synch with the realities of the workplace. And they have to have measure of empathy.
Dialogue offers you a place to discuss problems, share ideas and triggers the creative problem solving process, through which you become a part of the solution not just the implementer of it. It does not give you solutions, it helps you create them.
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