PEDAGOGY OF PROCESS: INTERDISCIPLINARY CASE STUDIES FROM AN IRISH UNIVERSITY

The aim of this research was to pilot a multi-disciplinary approach to creative pedagogy through collaboration between students and faculty from performing arts and product design. Creative pedagogy of process is a pedagogical approach that draws on the interaction and engagement of faculty and students across a range of disciplines and involves ethnographic research methods combined with reflective practice and a user centred design approach. This approach develops transversal competencies, common across creative domains and provides a rich learning environment for students and faculty alike. This paper examines the challenges and opportunities presented by a collaboration of this nature. Both performing Arts and Product Design are studio-based disciplines and have clear commonalities and points of convergence. The impetus for this collaborative endeavour emerged from several discussions between faculty members relating to the importance of facilitating creativity in the third level studio. Lecturers in performance practice and product design noted similarities between pedagogical approaches in both realms to foster a learning environment where trial and error and process- based learning with reflexivity were key components. We shared common traits despite the perceived chasm between artistic and scientific research methods and output metrics. We progressed our enquiry through establishing undergraduate peer learning projects. We sought to identify the opportunities and challenges presented by this interdisciplinary collaboration.