Mapping current practices and gaps in technical teaching
As part of my Action Research Project, I circulated a survey to the 13 tutors teaching across Year 1 and Year 2, and received 10 responses.
My intention was to understand how technical skills, support, and studio teaching currently intersect.
The survey was structured around three areas:
1-Mapping tutor expertise
2– Understanding the impact of technical skills on design development
3- Reflecting on time management (at the scale of tutorials, throughout the year, accross years)
Mapping tutor’s technical expertise
The first section aimed to map existing expertise across the teaching team, focusing on technical tools that students are required to use and are formally assessed on.
While tutors are not expected to teach software, identifying tools that sit outside their practice highlights gaps that cannot be resolved simply by allocating more tutorial time.
Results show that a large majority of tutors are not confident supporting students in Rhino, with 70–90% reporting low confidence, alongside similar findings for 2D CAD drawing in AutoCAD. Only one respondent felt confident in each software. This is notable given that both tools are required as part of the curriculum.
In contrast, tutors tend to share confidence in other areas. All felt able to support portfolio layout, and most were confident with graphic tools such as Photoshop and InDesign. This reveals an uneven support landscape, where some forms of help are widely available while others depend on which tutor a student happens to have.
Technical skills as a barrier to design development
All tutors agreed that a lack of technical skills impacts students’ design development, with most reporting that this occurs often. When asked how this manifests during tutorials, tutors unanimously highlighted students’ difficulty in translating ideas into drawings or models.
This reinforces the idea that design development and technical skills cannot be meaningfully separated. Without the ability to translate ideas into visual or spatial outputs, students struggle to communicate and develop their projects. This strongly supports the value of embedding technical support within studio time, where design thinking is already being discussed.
How barriers shift across the course
When tutors identified which technical areas most commonly act as barriers, all selected 2D CAD drawing, followed by hand sketching and 3D modelling.
While 3D appears less prominent overall, a closer look by year reveals that all tutors teaching Year 2 identified 3D modelling as a barrier, alongside 2D CAD. Year 1 tutors, by contrast, focused mainly on 2D drawing and hand sketching.
This suggests that technical barriers evolve in line with curriculum progression, reinforcing the need for year-specific and staged technical support.
Time, confidence, and access
Tutors felt that students would benefit from additional time or perspectives during tutorials, particularly when trying to translate ideas into drawings or models. They also highlighted that students may feel less confident asking for help, supporting the case for visible, embedded technical support that reduces the need for students to actively seek it out.
At the same time, it is important that technical support complements, rather than replaces, studio tutoring, and does not blur ethical boundaries around teaching roles.