Kan, R.Y.P., & Khoo, C.S.G. (Eds). (2025). Signature pedagogies for professions in arts and design: Issues, methods, contexts, practices. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-96-2616-8 (Open Access)

Extracts from the Introduction [Chapter 1]:
Signature pedagogy is a multifaceted concept developed by Shulman (2005a & 2005b) and his colleagues at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching for analysing and characterising pedagogical methods and educational programmes that prepare students for particular professions. The abstract and multifaceted nature of the concept provides a rich framework for analysing pedagogical methods deeply, identifying their core characteristics and their relation to professional thinking, practice and attitudes.
Kan, R.Y.P., & Khoo, C.S.G. (Eds). (2025). Signature pedagogies for professions in arts and design: Issues, methods, contexts, practices. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-96-2616-8
This exploration of professional arts and design education is carried out in the context of a premier arts education institution in Singapore—the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (hereafter NAFA), one of two constituent institutions of the University of the Arts Singapore. … As each chapter examines particular educational methods, concepts and issues that reflect important characteristics of an art or design profession, it will in the process clarify and enrich the framework of signature pedagogy. Each substantive chapter is followed by a codetta that comments on, or elaborates on an issue that has enriched the signature pedagogy framework. The concepts, issues and themes examined are relevant to other professions as well, but analysing them in the context of arts and design education has thrown them into sharp relief.

There are nine salient themes in professional arts and design education that are briefly explored here before they are treated in more detail in this book.

[From Chapter 20]

  1. The artist’s voice, style and identity;
  2. Interpersonal interaction and collaboration;
  3. Reflection and reflexivity;
  4. Technology-enhanced teaching and learning;
  5. Linking/connecting/relating, synthesis and coherence;
  6. Creativity;
  7. Truthfulness, authenticity and trust;
  8. Creative collaboration with other artists/designers;
  9. Surface structure and deep structure.

These nine themes are like the weft that is threaded through the warp of the main topics of the chapters. Some themes such as creativity, voice/style/identity, truthfulness/authenticity/trust and creative collaboration are of particular relevance to arts and design practice, performance and education. The other themes—linking/synthesis/coherence, interaction/collaboration/exchange, reflection/reflexivity, surface/deep structure, and technology—seem to be generic themes that are important for all professions and professional education. A theme may be given particular prominence in a chapter—for example, creativity in Chapter 16, creative collaboration in Chapter 14 and truthfulness/authenticity/trust in Chapter 12. Even if they are not explicitly mentioned in a chapter, they may have an implicit quiescent presence that may be foregrounded and interrogated in future work. The nine themes thus point to issues that may be productively investigated in future studies on signature pedagogies.