CHAPTER 8: Collaborative Learning in Fashion Education.

Conventionally the Fashion Design senior students of the University of Lisbon present to the public their final collections. Accordingly, until 2005 the graduation shows comprised solely the individual projects by the senior students of the 5- year BA programme. Therefore, with the implementation of the 'Bologna Process' (and the split of the former BAs into two study cycles) the graduation shows would also involve the senior students of the 3- year BA programme. However, we realized that they were not sufficiently creatively mature and technically competent, as each one tended to design basic and uninspiring collections. In 2015 we devised a strategy with the purpose of including third- year students in the graduation show, dividing each class into small teams, who respectively have to structure, design and make one capsule collection under a common theme. The main goal was to engage each class 'in a coordinated effort to solve a problem together',1 i.e., to develop a cohesive, complex and appealing collection together. The idea behind the adoption of the collaborative learning approach was also to oppose the enduring model adopted by fashion schools 'all over the world [that] keep training students to become catwalk designers, highly individual stars and divas'.2 Instead we endorse the pedagogical practice of other creative disciplines that 'have acknowledged the need in their students to cooperate and form groups [and] teams'.3 The impact of the three collaborative collections realized until now was perceived by most of the students as a 'golden period, during which they learned from teachers and classmates more than they had learned the previous years of the course', as one student stated. In fact, 95 per cent of them acknowledged how much the created collaborative environment contributed for their personal achievements, capabilities and competencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]