One of the main outcomes I value for my students is not one I have direct influence on. It’s not the skills I teach them, or the knowledge I pass on. It is something that happens somewhat out of my reach: Peer-to-peer connections. However, it is something I could try to encourage and help to support.
For my intervention proposal, I would like to design a session that could do just that.
Inspiration
In my teaching, I often take inspiration from my own experiences as a student. I am an alumna of the MA Footwear course at LCF, UAL (2026) and prior to that, an alumna of the BA Product Design course at ArtEZ in the Netherlands (2026). I value the connections I’ve made with other students back then and value them still, many years (decades even!) onwards. I also remember fondly the sessions we had together with students from other year groups. Especially as incoming students in year one, you have so much to learn from students in higher year groups. But that learning gap is exactly what makes peer-to-peer support so valuable. What a more experienced student can offer, in a casual, non-hierarchical way, is something no teacher can fully replicate. This kind of exchange creates the conditions Vygotsky described as the ‘Zone of Proximal Development’, the space between what a learner can do alone and what becomes possible through interaction with a more knowledgeable or experienced peer (Vygotsky, 1978).
Zone of Proximal Development
Teach HQ Limited, (2026) Zone of Proximal Development. Available at: https://teachhq.com/article/show/exploring-vygotskys-zone-of-proximal-development (Accessed 06 June 2026)
During my BA at ArtEZ, there were two sessions I take inspiration from:
- Trans 8 was organised by the philosophy lecturer as an informal evening gathering, held at a café at the address the session took its name from. It brought together students from all 4 year groups. Two final-year students would then present their Final Major Projects, then open the floor, inviting questions, feedback, and suggestions. Afterwards, there was ample opportunity to socialise.
- Workshop Week was when students across all years were grouped together and given a brief to respond to. At the end of the week, one group would be crowned winner having the best design/outcome. Third-year students took the lead in organising and facilitating, working alongside lecturers. The briefs were speculative, extreme, and deliberately outrageous. When it was my year’s turn to organise, we named our workshop ‘Amazing Inventions’. Our group designed a pancake-sushi machine and produced a ninja-fighting promotional video to go with it. It was absurd and wonderful!
What both sessions have in common is a refusal to take themselves too seriously. They were social as much as they were academic — relaxed enough to allow real connection, but purposeful enough to leave a lasting impression. I believe they were quietly formative: building an atmosphere of collegiality and mutual support that raised everyone’s standards, and forging relationships that have followed many of us well into our professional lives.
Intervention draft
The above is the ultimate outcome I am hoping for my students. I can’t manufacture it, but I can help to create the conditions for it. For my Intervention, I would like to design an event that brings students across year groups together, ideally at the start of the academic year. This could mirror the Trans 8 event where final year students present their final major project proposal and initial research to the BA Footwear cohort.
References
Artez University of the Arts (2026) Product Design. Available at: https://www.artez.nl/en/programmes/bachelor/product-design-arnhem (Accessed 06 June 2026)
Teach HQ Limited (2026) Zone of Proximal Development. Available at: https://teachhq.com/article/show/exploring-vygotskys-zone-of-proximal-development (Accessed 06 June 2026)
University of the Arts London (2026) MA Footwear. Available at: https://www.arts.ac.uk/subjects/accessories-footwear-and-jewellery/postgraduate/ma-footwear-lcf#course-summary (Accessed 06 June 2026)
Vygotsky, L.S. (1978) Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.