Learning Skills Required for Design Aesthetics

What to prepare for learning Design Aesthetics?

I advocated the concept of meta-learning in Design Aesthetics, i.e. the learning of learning Design Aesthetics. I want the students to continue learning forever, so I teach them how to learn effectively and efficiently. In the class, I facilitated a discussion on "what do you need to prepare for learning Design Aesthetics?". I listed five items on the screen for discussion:

1. Curiosity
2. Dare to ask question
3. Good health
4. Learning strategies
5. Thinking strategies

Curiosity

"Curiosity is the most important matter in learning this course," I told the students. And then I continued,
"curiosity killed the cat…but not you in this course. —Before you entered this lecture room today, have you ever thought of:

• —what is beauty, art, design and aesthetics? 
• —why do YOU have to study them? 
• —what do they have to do with your life here and future? 

I want you all to leave this lecture room with the CURIOSITY upon design and aesthetics, and MAINTAIN it for the rest of your life!"

Then I instructed the students to write down their key expectation in 5 minutes, and discuss the expectation with the person sitting next to them. After that, each of the students shared his or her expectation in the class. Herewith one of the students' expectation: 

• To study how to different between beauty, arts, design and aesthetics
• Make some work  or create some art base on aesthetics

And then I showed the students what I expect them to learn and do in the course by presenting the intended learning outcomes.  

Dare to ask question

In Chinese language, knowledge can be translated as 'learning to ask' or 学问. Confucius used to promote the idea of "asking to learn from subordinates, juniors or those who are younger than us without feeling ashamed" （不耻下问）.

Fig 1: Confucius. Source: Wikipedia.com

I put the idea into practice by asking the students things that I do not know. I explained that when I ask questions, I might have either one or two of the following intentions:

- To know what I do not know (learning) 

- To verify what I thought I knew (learning)

- To know what others knew about what I intend to know (learning)

- To test whether those I am asking actually know what they thought they knew (teaching)

- To assist others to know what they suppose to know (teaching) 

Asking the right questions at the right time and use the right tune is very crucial in the career of designers. The example I grabbed from Internet (Fig 2) indicates how important of asking in design process. 

 Fig 2: The importance of asking in design process. Source: http://robonthemoon.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/what-customers-want1.png

I warned the students to ask as many questions as possible in the class else I will keep asking them instead. 

Good health

The need for good health can never be over stressed. Many renown fine artists died young and they failed to enjoy the fame and fruits of their success in life. One famous example is Vincent van Gogh who passed away at the age of 37. By good health I mean not only physical health but also mental health. 

Learning strategies

I shared three of my survival strategies which I used when studying in schools and universities, i.e. the mnemonics (the Big Blank Paper revision technique) and deep learning skills. 

I learned mnemonics by reading a book of Prof Tago Akira, （《记忆术》多湖辉）titled Mnemonics (translated from Japanese to Chinese) when I was a teenager. Among the vast amount of techniques, I introduced three techniques to the students, i.e. 

- the Magical Number 7 (plus or minus 2) a.k.a. the Miller's Law, 

- the Snowball memory effect (the exponential growth of memory upon grasping strongly the root knowledge), 

- the Storytelling / story-making, and 

- the Big Blank Paper revision techniques (combining Tony Buzan's Mind Mapping technique). 

I also showed the students my research findings on deep learning skills in three domains of learning: 

Fig 3: Surface-deep learning continuum in cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains of learning

Thinking Strategies 

In terms of thinking strategies, I briefly previewed how reflective and reflexive thinking are used in learning this course (see Fig 4) by juxtaposing both types of thinking. 

Fig 4: Reflective--reflexive thinking

	Reflection	Reflexion
Root word	Reflect	Reflex
Definition	Serious consideration about research activities, especially one that is related to data analysis and interpretation.	Account upon research activities that is recorded as a response to a stimulus without serious thought.
Temporal basis	Based on events in the past.	Based on stimulus encountered in real-time.
Relationship with stimulus	Passive, delayed and asynchronous.	Active, immediate and synchronous.
Degree of physical control	Reflection or meta-reflection on positive past events could increase the flexibility of meta-analysis and meta-interpretation.	Reflexion or meta-reflexion on positive stimulus could increase the flexibility of meta-analysis and meta-interpretation.
	Reflection or meta-reflection on negative past events might limit the flexibility of  meta-analysis and meta-interpretation.	Reflection or meta-reflexion on negative stimulus events might limit the flexibility of meta-analysis and meta-interpretation.

I also contrast the difference between vertical thinking and lateral thinking: 

Vertical thinking: selective, analytical and sequential problem-solving skills, e.g. evaluating the quality of an artwork by following a particular aesthetic principle. 

Lateral thinking: creative or indirect problem solving skills that are beyond step-by-step logic.  

I ended the class by introducing Edward de Bono's Six Thinking Hats: 

Blue Hat: Meta-thinking (conductor or organizer)
—White Hat: Objective thinking (evidence-based, looking for facts and figures)
—Black Hat: Critical thinking (judging the true value of statements, seeking errors)
—Yellow Hat: Positive Thinking (why it will work)
—Red Hat: Emotional thinking (feeling, opinion; how do you feel about the idea/ concept/ design?)
—Green Hat: Creative or lateral thinking (speculative, innovative, alternative)