Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 2022 - 10

instead of asking " What do I need to
cover in this course? " ask " What do my
students need to learn to do? " (Hansen,
2011).
The answer to this fundamental question
needs to be considered carefully,
with a lot of reflection and some research
into student and industry needs (which,
as previously acknowledged, are susceptible
to many influences). The most
difficult part of the process at this stage,
especially for newer instructors, is the acknowledgement
that we are not, in fact,
going to be able to impart onto our students
everything we know how to do. Our
own knowledge comes from some years
of experience and is in itself colored by
the kind of works we tend to produce as
practitioners. So, whereas it may be helpful
to imagine ourselves into our students'
shoes, in the end, it may also be useful to
call upon colleagues who regularly hire
recent graduates as assistants or interns,
or perhaps our director and producer collaborators,
and ask them what they most
wish all their entry-level employees were
well-versed in.
At this stage of the process, it is instrumental
to look over the learning goals
for the program in which we teach and
evaluate a) with which goal (or goals)
would the course align in the most comprehensive
and logical way and b) how
can the language of the program goals
help clarify the more specific approaches
to the subject matter?
For example, if the program goals are
focused on preparing students for careers
in theatre and the greater entertainment
industry, it would mean that even
exploration of a more theoretical subject,
such as costume history, would need to
develop skills that would ultimately have
production as its quintessence. However,
if the program goals lean more toward
the liberal arts and aesthetic development,
the course can take a more philosophical
and scholarly view. For example,
one of the goals of the theatre program
where I teach is Cultural Awareness and
Sensitivity, and my new 300-level course,
Dress and Fashion: Global History and
Impact, fulfills this goal by " having students
examine a variety of fashion systems
across time and around the globe,
evaluate how fashion and dress figure in
the greater cultural contexts, and evaluate
how global political and socio-economic
developments use the textile and
10 | THEATRE DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY | FALL 2022
Student work by Mary Milbrath, Saint Mary's University of Minnesota, class TA-305 Dress and Fashion: Global
History and Impact. Project: Original design based on multiple sources. | Image courtesy Mary Milbrath and the
author.
garment industries to create and maintain
systems of power, identity, and relationships
to non-human environments. "
There is hope, too, that this work may
happen in collaboration with colleagues
across the department or program, and
that perhaps the overall goals will be reevaluated
and, if necessary, rewritten.
Big Ideas and Learning Objectives
The next important criteria to consider
is the intended student audience. Are
they primarily undergraduates or MFA
candidates? Are they, by and large, future
costume designers and craftspeople, or
designers and technicians of every theatrical
discipline? Perhaps they are costumers
as well as actors, directors, and
dancers? Or maybe this course is part of
a general undergraduate education program,
open to all majors?
The answer to this, in conjunction
with program goals, will let the educator
focus on the big ideas for the course.
Which will be most beneficial to our
students? Perhaps, in a research-based
liberal arts program with a course that's
open to both majors and non-majors,
it would be crucial to examine dress
through the lens of cultural connection,
environmental impact, and ideas of identity.
However, in a course geared toward
future costume professionals, learning
specific terminology, delving deeper into
textile science, and getting clear about
cultural and socio-historical contexts of
specific visual elements would best work
to advance students toward their future.
These big ideas, informed both by programmatic
goals and intended student
needs, will produce the learning objectives
for the course.
A note on syllabus language: some
syllabi use the phrase " course goals, "
while others use " learning objectives or
intended student outcomes. " Some use
a combination of any two, or even all
three. Terms such as " learning goals "
and " course objectives " are also in use. In
the instances where more than one term
is used, the distinctions are often determined
by institutional, rather than any industry,
standard. Most often, " goals " tend
to be the most theoretical ( " Introduction
to color theory " ), whereas " objectives "
tend to be a bit more practical and specific
( " Students will gain a basic understanding
of color theory " ), and " intended
outcomes " tend to focus on what students
will be expected to do ( " Students
will be able to apply color theory to analysis
of artifacts " ). At their heart, all of these
attempt to put into words what it is we
educators are hoping to achieve with our
class, and how we hope our students will
have grown when they are finished.
The argument thus far has been that
the student outcomes, i.e., what should
the students learn to do, should be the
pinnacle of attention when designing
the course. However, it is true that some
syllabi phrase it differently, or lack the
language altogether. Work closely with
your institution's Office or Center for
Teaching and Learning to make your
course design document and/or syllabus

Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 2022

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