The Future of Education

This paper analyzes a pedagogical project developed at the University of Saint-Étienne School of Art and Design (ESADSE), in February 2026, as part of an ERASMUS+ higher education teaching mobility program, and outlines the next stage of this educational initiative based on the results obtained. The project began with meetings with representatives from the host institution’s International Relations department, which allowed us to outline the objectives and prepare the in-person week. The implementation of staff mobility programs facilitate the establishment of significant educational exchanges and the strengthening of international cooperation agreements [1].  It’s important to emphasize the significance of this type of program and the opportunities created through the implemented mobility: it creates opportunities for cultural exchange, leading to a cross-pollination of ideas from one institution to another. The project involved the implementation of teaching approaches in the delivery of a practical workshop on drawing, character design, and creation. This allowed us to understand how students apply concepts of creative and visual representation when developing a character within a specific framework [2]. The workshop promoted imaginative thinking among the students, by their defining of silhouettes and visually representing personality traits based solely on their understanding of an object as described by a classmate. Further educational opportunities that contributed to this understanding included the presentation of reference materials, monitoring and discussion with individual students, the promotion of communication skills, and the collection of student feedback from a survey. The monitoring and discussion along with the survey enabled the analysis of the contributions regarding the various dimensions and stages implemented. The preparation of the workshop results from teaching practice, based on the various methods and techniques of observation and representation used in the Drawing Curricular Unit (UC) of the Graphic Design degree course at the School of Design (ESD) of the Polytechnic University of Cávado and Ave (IPCA), where research, analysis and drawing stages aim to produce an illustrative representation of a character design with distinctive characteristics. Key stages leading to the creative process were applied, and the results show that the students were able to apply them in the process of creating a character design, thereby developing their critical, creative and visual communication skills. Thus, it was found that the application of specific pedagogical practices, techniques and resources inherent to drawing, as well as assessment strategies, are important analytical tools for the continuous improvement of the pedagogical approaches used in the teaching of drawing.