Hear from Architecture Prof. Kristen Kelsch

Transcript

I incorporate communication-intensive teaching and learning into my course for the focus that it brings. I teach architectural design to beginning design students—students in their first or second years of study—and I find that students bring an incredible amount of passion for making. And they often forget that the other half of their work is to find ways to communicate their ideas in a compelling and elegant way. And so, teaching a C-I course really embeds this iterative and reflective moment into the course into the project into the course design. And I think that is my main drive: to make sure that I'm not just teaching them one skill set without teaching them the vocabulary and the poise to tell their stories. 

The most challenging thing—but also exciting thing—was that the transition to making it a C-I course really gave me a chance to think about my course design. I think we all say we give students feedback; we give them a chance to improve their work. Challenging me to go beyond that kind of rough idea of course design and to really start drilling down on specific moments and objectives, I was able to provide students with methods to explore their own creative process in an entirely different way.

I focused on literary imagination and using words to think about buildings and ideas for buildings and that really set the scene for an entire world of possibilities for those students. It got them so out of their comfort zone, but it was integrated into a course that supported that trajectory. And for me as an instructor I just had an amazing opportunity to work with people who I probably wouldn't have encountered. I'm speaking about, you know, all the wonderful opportunities—the CxC, the support the larger organization has. I also worked really closely with people in my college's CxC studio—in the College of Art and Design.

And so, for me it just gives me a chance to work with other really creative people who were interested in helping me design more successful courses. So teaching a C-I course has really influenced me as a teacher, I would say, primarily through relationship building. And so I think, you know, for people teaching at a really giant university, we have a tendency to stay siloed in our areas and its really personal connections and one-on-one bonds that really start to, like, break through those specific buildings, if you will. And I would say that the CxC is a wonderful avenue for that, because it really helped me work with someone in English on an assignment, or you know find different teaching tips and tricks from people who are teaching in science, or something really, really different from my everyday.

And then I would also say that it's really impacted my teaching by helping me focus and reflect as well. So I find that, you know, when you've been teaching the same courses for a number of years, you might feel a little positioned to run the course the same way. And I would say that, by integrating the communication-intensive process, it's really giving me a chance to, like, shake things up and to try things in new and curious ways.