Episode Overview
What if you’re already teaching design… but just don’t realise it?
In this episode, Stephen Anderson is joined by Dominique Falla from Griffith University’s Queensland College of Art and Design to explore a powerful reframe for Design and Technology education.
Dominique shares why design isn’t about being “creative,” but about structured problem solving—and why every teacher is already doing this every day in their classroom.
The conversation explores the importance of studio-based learning, the role of hands-on experimentation, and why students need opportunities to tinker, test, and fail in order to truly understand design.
A key takeaway is the shift from abstract design challenges to personally meaningful problems. Instead of asking students to solve generic tasks, Dominique encourages teachers to start with what genuinely frustrates students—because that’s where real engagement and authentic design thinking begins.
This episode is particularly valuable for teachers who feel out of their depth teaching design, especially those coming from trade or technical backgrounds. It offers reassurance, practical strategies, and a clear pathway to embedding design thinking more intentionally in the classroom.
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About the Bridge Building Podcast
“This is the place where we dissect and then discover the many ways ITD teachers all over this country are using their passion to create passionate students. We talk of measuring and manipulating a multitude of materials of design and divergent thought, of creation with our minds and with our hands. And most of all, we talk of growing great young people because of course that is what we do.”
So what does that mean other than I like to show off my alliteration skills? Since coming back to teaching a few years ago the thing that strikes me most, and frankly scared me most is how lonely this job is. How little we know about what is happening in our subject area. The classroom next door, a class in the next school, let alone the next town are a mystery to me. I know there are teachers out there doing incredible things and this (the podcast) is a way for me to find out and be inspired. I would like to invite you along to listen and learn, to be inspired by some of the sensational teachers I speak to on the “Bridge Building Podcast – from technology to the trades”
About the Podcast Host
Stephen Anderson is a Design Technology, Trade Training and accidental Science teacher at a small high school 2 hours North West of Brisbane.
Over To You
If you know someone who is doing something spectacular or just great fun in design and tech or in trade training, I would love to know about them.
Contact me through my email osaerial@gmail.com
Music by:
Viola Pink