The critiques I am involved with today are far different from when I was in school. Gone are the days of tacks and tape irritations. That is typically skill material that is introduced and mastered during the freshman year.
I see a lot of the use of HDTV presentations that are now utilizing video and video editing to capture and tell stories about the students design research. Many students will use live CAD on the 50 inch design studio HDTV monitors to explain their concepts and how they evolved. Manipulating and using social media to gather data and then share it with an audience in story form is also a new critique method that moves away from the sadism of old, and into a more story based critique that younger generations are more apt to participate in. ID students here where I am in Korea often outsource their appearance models to professional model shops to allow them to develop their resource management skills that will be necessary to operate as a designer working in the field. This gives them more time to focus on better iterative design/editing rather than downstream design labor skills.
In the past I wouold try and sequester smart phones during class years ago, but found that in order to emulate the real world that students will be a part of after graduation, the chaos of media devices during a critique or a conference room meeting is now de rigueur and should be part of every design students ability to operate in. Students and Profs alike.
What is important to learn during design school critique is the skill of talking about the work in front of others as well as listening as an active and critical audience member. The feedback between the presenter and the audience during Q&A in some cases, is now more important than that of the design presentation. Don’t misunderstand me, quality, craftsmanship and execution are all still vitally important, but there are now added skills and that students must have in order to be employable. Students need to learn to listen and then edit the feedback (pointed and otherwise) they receive during critique. Learning to think critically and offer insightful and objective observations (while checking facts on google enabled devices) about others work is more important than holding petty subjective opinions about others and their work.
This “I wont critique your work if is not hung straight” seems a bit antiquated and lazy to me. Design school/university professors are now part of the big data wave of student evaluations that administrations use to make decisions/changes to the department and university strategy. Profs can be evaluated poorly by students if they are not respected by their students, tenured or not. Design school is not cheap, and students these days want user centered design education to return on their investment in their futures.
Sounds more like you are scared to harshly critique the details because a student might not like you and might write a bad review.
As an instructor I had some of the highest ratings of any professor, and it wasn’t because the students liked me, it was because they felt they were getting value. Of course the critique should be about big ideas, but if you can’t get the small stuff right, you don’t deserve the time. If you want my respect, then respect yourself enough to present the work with pride. It would be lazy for an instructor not to teach these lessons!
As an interviewer, I get students who have not learned these lessons applying for jobs… they don’t get them. I’ve had a few that have snuck through the portfolio net only to show up with no laptop, expecting me to get everything set up for them and pull up their work… unbelievable. I smile and nod for 60 minutes knowing the interview is already over. As a C-Level in peer meetings, we regularly have “lap-top shut” and “no phone” sessions. If you can’t be off your phone for an hour or two, then leave. No amount of tuition will keep the real world away forever.
I remember once a student came to me with a complaint about a grade and wanted me to rebook at the work. I had given him a B- based on some simple technical mistakes and he was accustomed to A’s. I told him I’d be more than happy to take a second look, in fact he was right, I had missed a few things, the assignment was complete but the compositions were not very good, the idea wasn’t all that original, it should be a C+ … did he still want me to change the grade? He never complained again and he worked harder than I ever saw him work all semester.
Once I came across a discussion forum where the students were talking some smack about me. I read along, thoroughly entertained. I had once been a student too, complaining about my most difficult professors. I was surprised when I got about 5 comments in and one of the students said “yeah, but I feel like this is the only class I’m actually learning anything in” and the tone changed. Students started talking about everything they had learned, how it was helping in other classes… so don’t worry about those student evaluations. The good ones will realize thoroughness and toughness is what they are paying for. After all, no one cares about grades, they care about what you can do.
Expectations. If you raise them you will be surprised how many people will be excited to meet them.
I too used to previously use the harsh critique philosophy myself as I came from a school of design that used similar methods. I learned only a few students would benefit from such techniques (which is usually the higher functioning better performing students) and the rest of the class is left without the benefit of the professor’s input. This is not good distributed teaching for the entire class and tends to overly focus the valuable criticism at the top I have found. I have since found a better way for students to understand how to improve their work and better objectify all of the take-aways contained in a good quality critique. Not all students are star performers (of course the students know this), but all students deserve value for their tuition dollars. This is where education has changed in the past 10 years. Big data informed professor evaluations are a part of this change as well.
The fear you describe comes not from the willingness to harshly criticize student work and performance. Instead this new relationship that professors now have with students through big data evaluations is really a more user centered approach to design education. I used to not even bother look at the evaluations, but have realized that they are part of what is similar to how I teach design research techniques to my students (i.e. data informed design). Leveraging data to better provide the service of design education has changed the way I approach teaching and critiquing. Leveraging this new tool (data) to improve and change the techniques I used to use in and out of the classroom exposed how the past methods did not keep up with the times. Generating after class chatter (which is all online now) about who was ripped a new one during critique is not productive I have found. There are indeed better ways with today’s digital natives.
And to all the students reading this thread, you need to realize that you are empowered to demand high performance from your design professor (harsh criticism or not). It is their job to find the time to give you feedback on your work, whether it is during a critique or during private office hours. Using end of the semester professor evaluations are an important tool in improving the experience that you are paying for. Do not take your data inputs lightly during your evaluations. It is using data (generated by you) to improve the design of your experience while at school.
As far as raised expectations go…I could not agree with you more Yo. This is what separates good professors from the run of the mill.
This is an interesting discussion. Has anyone read this article on fastcompany? If so, how do you think it translates to critiques in design education?