Optimizing the teaching/learning experience in fashion education

Abstract

Three major factors are accountable for the substantial alterations made to the curriculum and the teaching/learning approaches of the BA in Fashion Design offered at the Faculty of Architecture of Lisbon, namely, the Bologna Process, the characteristics of the millennial students, and the changes undergone by the fashion industry itself. Beginning with an overview of the Portuguese context and the pros and cons of considering fashion design a problem solving activity, this paper discusses the structure of the redesigned BA (resembling the process of learning how to ‘read and write’), and the adopted pedagogical approaches to optimize the teaching/learning experience throughout the 3-year program. The focus on collaborative learning and class discussions proved that it enables students to find solutions they hadn’t thought of initially; the benefits of interchanging views and ideas showed also that students become more sensitive to the well-being of the (dressed) body and the world’s problems.