Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2018 - 60

procedures for admittance into IATSE.
Helping a student develop long-term
career goals will help them shape their
early career path, and help the educator
tailor the individual program of study towards those goals.

Rethinking Teaching
Approaches

As educators, we interact with students
who have varied interests and expectations. The majority of undergraduate
programs have a few-single-digit numbers-students who walk in the door determined to be lighting designers; even
fewer want to be electricians. The reality
is those who want to be designers will
start their first jobs in a technology area,
or if hired as the designer, they will be responsible for the design implementation.
Many of the excellent electricians we will
train come to lighting later in their educational career, often beginning as actors
or in other technical theatre disciplines.
With the incredible range of young people, it is imperative that the professor
set goals and expectations that are both
practical and aspirational.

J A Y

* Take a hard look at the program of
study and make sure the goals of your
program match that of the program
you are offering. Understanding the
strengths and weaknesses of the program will allow educators and students
alike to find additional resources and
opportunities. We must also be aware
of our own potential biases. Most lighting educators in higher education are
also professional lighting designers,
not technologists. That is not to say that
you cannot be both. It is important that
educators are aware of potential biases
while teaching and not imply that being
a designer is the ultimate goal of a lighting education.
* Each lighting program must find its
own balance between teaching design
and technology. Focusing on design in
an undergraduate program is just as
problematic as only focusing on technology. Lighting technology students
should know basic design principles,
and understand the kinds of choices
designers are making. Just as designfocused students should have a basic
understanding of electricity and net-

O .

working, a well-rounded lighting education will provide optimum opportunities
to students with both interests.
* Improve research skills by incorporating hands-on classroom projects
into the class. Break up the lecture
with short research projects about the
topic at hand. In a lesson about instruments, pause and have the students
use their devices to find examples and
discuss what features they find for that
instrument. Current students grew up
with information at their fingertips, and
there is little motivation to memorize.
Teach them how to use this to their advantage, and it will help build their critical thinking skills and troubleshooting
skills. Such exercises also teach them
where to look, which is especially important since the fixtures they use today
will be much different than what they
use one or two decades from now.
* Ensure classroom instruction includes training on how to research
equipment and lighting skills. For example, ask students to look up the data
sheet and ask them for specific data to
find on that sheet. Show them how to

G L E R U M

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THEATRE DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY

WINTER 2018

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