Blog Post: Learning Through Teaching – combining my own practice and my teaching work

Whilst working as a specialist technician I also maintain my own creative practice outside of my teaching time. This often directly feeds into my teaching work and helps me to engage and support students within their academic projects. During some of my reading on the PgCert I have been introduced more and more to the idea of learning through teaching an approach where rather than only feeding into my teaching practice from my external work, my external work can also be improved and developed through my teaching practice. 

I have long since believed the comment “we are all teachers and we are all learners” (Harvard Gazette, 2007) however in my work environment, this often doesn’t seem to pan out and although I am inspired by my students as individuals the work we do in the classroom often feels like it’s draining me as a practitioner rather than enhancing my work as well as the student’s learning. This is something that is incredibly important to address as many teaching staff often start to feel under-utilised or valued within their roles and therefore end up not giving as all to their teaching which in turn results in lower quality learning from students.

A way to address this, as mentioned in the Teaching Strategies (Shreeve, 2008) is the idea of learning whilst teaching. This could be done through a few of the other strategies that Shreeve (2008) also mentions such as “the removal of boundaries to both practice and teaching”. I plan to implement this strategy within my own practice and teaching work by inviting students along with me in my creation process, as I come across new skills I would like to learn myself I will utilise “experimental” workshops, where students will be invited to join me in my learning and creative practice, where we can walk through new processes together. 

At the moment in my own work, I would like to look further into the sustainability of 3D Printing materials and the possibility of recycling waste prints and excess materials. Many students are also engaged with this concept and so would be very interested in learning more about this. I plan to create a new experimental workshop within which I will utilise the idea of self-cultivation through teaching (McDonald, J. K., & Michela, E. 2019) by experimenting with different methods of recycling within the class. I believe this will deepen the student’s understanding of the process as they will be taking part in it and will much more fully understand the difficulties and limitations. When we potentially get a successful outcome they will also have a much rounder knowledge of what products could be produced in this way and why it is beneficial.

• Shreeve, A., 2008 Transitions: Variation in tutors’ Experience of Practice and Teaching Relations in Art and Design. Unpublished PhD Thesis. Lancaster University 
• Harvard Gazette (2007) We are all Teachers and we are all Learners. Available at: https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2007/09/we-are-all-teachers-and-we-are-all-learners/#:~:text=’We%20are%20all%20teachers%20and,are%20all%20learners’%20—%20Harvard%20Gazette  (Accessed: 25.03.24)
• McDonald, J. K., & Michela, E. (2019). The design critique and the moral goods of studio pedagogy. Design Studies, 62, 1–35. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.destud.2019.02.001.