As people's views and interests have changed, interior design, which used to a part of constructional design, is considered an independent special field and more attention is drawn to activities of interior designers, and education and training of int...
As people's views and interests have changed, interior design, which used to a part of constructional design, is considered an independent special field and more attention is drawn to activities of interior designers, and education and training of interior design keeps developing.
Since 1995, as people's interest in interior design increased, many universities in Korea have had department of interior design. And also at technical high schools, department of interior design was newly established in accordance with the 6th amendment of curriculum in 1992.
The original purpose of technical high schools was to help students equip themselves with practical skills needed for employment after graduation, but as our society has changed, recently only 20~30% of students graduated from technical high schools want to get jobs and the rest 70∼80% go to college or university. Situation being so, it is necessary to make curriculum at technical high schools more focused on foundation for further study in college and university than on preparation for employment.
The purpose of this study is to suggest a new curriculum of interior design at technical high schools which will help students achieve their potentials in interior design and will also help students who want to go to university learn knowledge for further study, by analysing the curriculum of interior design course at university.
Methodologies of the study were literature study and case study. Theories of occupational education and curriculum were examined through literature study, and an analytical frame was set by studying data from Korea interior design Association.
As for case study, method and purpose of education and curriculum were studied by information from each school's homepage and teaching plan.
The result of comparison between curriculum of interior design course at university and that of technical high school is as follows.
Universities and technical high schools that have interior design course are located mainly in Seoul, Incheon, Gyunggido, Busan, and Gyungsando, which shows the fact that demand for interior design is high in big cities.
The notion that interior design course at university and that of technical high school are inherently different may result in lack of continuity and consistency in curriculums.
As for difference between curriculum of interior design course at university and that of technical high school, university curriculum evenly covers interior space design and other theories, but that of technical high school focuses on interior space design, interior design theory and subjects related to digital design.
A suggestion was made to improve curriculum of interior design course at technical high school, which is in fact repetition of basic knowledge learned at universities.
First, curriculum of interior design course at technical high school should be organized as a preparatory one for higher course at university. And more consistent curriculum should be set for interior design course at technical high school. And for development of creativeness, current required subject in the first year such as 'introduction to engineering' should be replaced with 'general design' and current recommended subjects in the second year such as ‘interior design’, ‘furniture design’, ‘display’ should be designated as required subjects. And in third year, on the basis of foundation knowledge learned in the first and second year, project-oriented class should be done for development of creativeness.
And for students who want to get employed after graduation, opportunities should be given to learn practical skills such as CAD, 3D-MAX using after school class or discretionary activity.
Second, nominally curriculum at technical high school is connected with that of technical college, but in fact, there is no practical connection between them. Therefore, curriculum at technical high school should be organized in such a way that it is efficiently connected with that of university by eliminating unnecessary or overlapping subjects.
Third, currently interior design course at technical high school is considered a branch of architecture, so education of interior design as an independent discipline is hard to be done. To remedy the situation, textbook of interior design with more practical contents should be developed.
Fourth, most teachers at interior design department of technical high school majored in architecture and one teacher teaches average 24.1 students. If interior design course is designated as a special field and number of students a class is limited to 25, number of students per teacher will be 20. And opportunities of refreshment course should be provided to teachers of interior design course.
It is believed that if effort to improve is made according to the above 4 suggestions, many competent interior designers will be produced.