Education guide 'Eindhoven designs' - Technische Universiteit ...

Eindhoven designs / volume two 99
Staff roles
Our constructivist perspective on learning and
our competency-centred approach imply a shift
in educational goals. This requires a shift in
staff roles: from teaching specific knowledge to
facilitating, supporting and enhancing student
learning.
For each staff role the central question is: what
do students want or need to achieve, what is
required for this and how can I support and
enhance their process and results, given my
specific staff role and professional expertise?
The various roles are briefly discussed below.
Coach
Coaches play a crucial part in facilitating,
supporting and enhancing students’
competency development and growth as a
designer. Since we aim at creating an authentic
learning environment, about 40% of our
coaches are design practitioners.
The scope and focus of the coaching role
may vary: either competency development
over a semester as a whole (competency
coach, CC), or a curricular learning activity
such as a project (project coach, PC) or a
minor (exchange, internship). In most cases,
coaching includes both perspectives: for
a given group of students a staff member
performs both the role of CC and PC.
The role of competency coach focuses on the
process of students’ learning and competency
development. Within our framework this is the
competency area Self-Directed and Continuous
Learning, and the overall competence of
designing and growth as a designer. Students
discuss their PDP with their competency coach,
the progress within their learning activities,
the relationship between work results and
competency development, the integration into
their overall competence of designing and
vision on designing, and the creation of their
showcase to communicate all this. Competency
meetings are mostly individual (between
CC and individual student) but may also be
in small groups (between CC and several
students). The CC gives students feedback from
a holistic, competency development point of
view.
The project coach supports students in
the context of the project, which students
either do in teams or individually. So project
coaching includes team and individual
coaching. The focus of project coaching is the
design process, project management, team
processes and the quality of the deliverables.
This includes the students’ development of
separate competency areas in the context of
the project as well as the interaction between
the competency areas and the activities in
the design process. The PC gives students
feedback from a design process perspective.
Coaching third-year students who do a minor
is similar to project coaching; although there
is an essential difference: these students are
not at the department but at another university
or department, or in a company. This makes it
‘distant coaching’. Minor students also have a
coach at the university or company concerned,
the organisation coach. For the TU/e coach this