Seeking Responsive Forms of Pedagogy in Architectural Education, Ashraf M. Salama, 2013 (original) (raw)
Related papers
2010
Salama, A. M. (2010). Delivering Theory Courses in Architecture: Inquiry Based, Active, and Experiential Learning Integrated, Archnet-IJAR –International Journal of Architectural Research, 4(2-3), pp. 278-295. ISSN # 1938 7806. Advocating the integration of interactive learning mechanisms into theory courses in architecture, this paper responds to the misconceptions that continue to characterize the delivery of knowledge content in architectural courses. Such misconceptions are identified as: a) science as a body of knowledge versus science as a method of exploration, b) learning theories about the phenomena versus getting the feel of the behavior of the phenomena, and c) the real versus the hypothetical. Based on reviewing the literature on pedagogy the paper explores the value and benefits of introducing active and experiential and inquiry-based learning (IBL) in theory courses in architecture. A framework is developed and employed to demonstrate the way in which these types of learning can be incorporated. The development and implementation of a series of in-class and off campus exercises in two different contexts reveal that structured actions and experiences help students to be in control over their learning while invigorating their understanding of the body of knowledge delivered in a typical lecture format.
The Proceedings of The Malaysia Architectural Education Conference held at Lecture Hall, Faculty Of Design and Architecture, Universiti Putra Malaysia on 4 -5 October 2012, 2012
This paper responds to some of the negative tendencies that continue to characterize the delivery of knowledge in architectural education. It accentuates the shift from mechanistic pedagogy to systematic pedagogy and outlines the characteristics of each. Building on critical pedagogy and the hidden curriculum concept transformative pedagogy is introduced as a form of pedagogy that can be interweaved into conventional teaching practices. Translating the premises underlying these pedagogies and building on the author’s earlier work on design studio pedagogy and the teaching practices involved, a theory that explores the integration of knowledge in architectural design education is articulated. The paper demonstrates how the theory and its underlying components and mechanisms can be applied to both lecture-based courses and design studio sittings. In an attempt to address the challenges architectural education should encounter, the implementation of the theory would offer students multiple learning opportunities while fostering their capabilities to shift from passive listeners to active learners, from knowledge consumers to knowledge producers, while positioning themselves in a challenging future professional world.
Transformative Pedagogy in Architecture and Urbanism, Ashraf M. Salama, 2021
Transformative Pedagogy in Architecture and Urbanism, 2021
Routledge Revivals Edition Salama, A. M. (2021). Transformative Pedagogy in Architecture and Urbanism. Routledge-Taylor and Francis Group, London. ISBN: 978-3937954-042 (print) - 9781003140047 (eBook) Earlier Edition Salama, A. M. (2009). Transformative Pedagogy in Architecture and Urbanism. Umbau-Verlag, Solingen, Germany ISBN # 978-3937954-042. Research developed over the past two decades indicates that many problems that exist in the built environment have their roots in the current educational system of architecture and urbanism. Since architectural and urban education is the backbone for the practice of producing meaningful environments and since architectural and urban design is the main concern of educators, it is essential to encounter their pedagogical aspects while dealing with the subject as a rich field of research whose con tents, methods, techniques, and tools should be examined and questioned. __________ This book introduces a new form of pedagogy in architecture and urbanism; trans- formative pedagogy — a term that refers to interactional processes and dialogues be tween educators and students that invigorate the collaborative creation and distribution of power. As a concept, it is based on the fact that the interaction between educators and students reflects and fosters the broader societal pattern. Transformative pedagogy in architecture and urbanism is about balancing the creative act required for successful design and the social and environmental responsibilities that should be embedded in this act. While transformative pedagogy as a concept is not confined to a static definition, it builds on the perspectives of critical pedagogy and its under lying hidden curriculum concept. __________ Critical pedagogy aims at reconfiguring the traditional student/teacher relation ship, where the teacher is the active agent — the knowledge provider — and the students are the passive recipients of the teacher’s knowledge. Grounded on the experiences of both students and teachers new knowledge is produced through the dialogical process of learning. The hidden curriculum concept is thus concerned with questions that pertain to the ideology of knowledge and the social practices that structure the experiences of educators and students. Adopting transformative pedagogy enhances the capability of educators in architecture and urbanism to interpret the relationship between knowledge and power. In this respect, one should recognize that educational settings — whether studios or classrooms — are not neutral sites; they are integral to social, cultural, and political relations that characterize real life conditions. Transformative pedagogy is about understanding how knowledge is produced, what the components of such knowledge are, and what are the learning processes and social practices that can be used to transmit it. __________ The broad goal of this book is to establish methods and approaches for ameliorating the current design studio pedagogy. The overall argument is based on the importance of internalizing relevant social and ethical approaches to the design studio that elucidate the role of the architect-planner or urbanist in society and that form a basis for future professional judgment. The argument conceives the present value system imbibed in the design studio, based on self-expression and the exclusion of many other important factors, as inappropriate to the present professional milieu, which, in turn, results in the reduction of the influence of the architect-planner in shaping the built environment and of the effectiveness of the profession in society. __________ As a new round of pedagogical dialogue on architecture and urbanism it resets the stage for debating future visions of transformative pedagogy and its impact on design education. This is a forward looking effort that comes to amalgamate concerns, concepts, and practices that Ashraf M. Salama has explored and introduced over a period of two decades. It is about balancing the creative act required for creating responsive environments and the social and environmental responsibilities that should be embedded in this act. It is also about understanding how knowledge is produced, what the components of such knowledge are, and what are the learning processes and social practices that can be used to transmit it. Structured in five chapters the book presents a wide range of innovative and practical methodologies for teaching architectural and urban design. It traces the roots of architectural education and offers several contrasting ideas and strategies of design teaching practices. The book includes five chapters: 1) A New Theory for Transformative Pedagogy in Architecture and Urbanism 2) The Architect, the Profession, and Society 3) The Conventional Approach to Studio Teaching Practice 4) Against the Conventional Studio Pedagogy 5) Empowering Transformative Pedagogy ..
AMPS: Education, Design and Practice – Understanding skills in a Complex World, 2019
Designing for a complex world requires architects to think critically, creatively, and collaboratively. To support the development of this skillset, the atmosphere of the design studio in architectural education challenges students to develop ideas creatively and critically reflect upon their conceptual designs for given projects. In design education, thinking collaboratively does not need to be solely defined by the sharing of ideas and information among peers, but instead can be applied to how architecture and its site can collectively inform one another throughout the design process to achieve a desired solution. Often, students are taught to sequentially operate within the design process by observing, recording, and then responding to it conditions with an architectural intervention. This procedure, while beneficial in teaching students to acknowledge and appreciate the contextual environment for their design, can be misguided as it emphasizes the site as a given, invariable constraint that is static and impermeable in nature. Architectural design involves a mediation of the designer’s intentions with the site. As such, students should be encouraged to consider architecture and the conditions of the site as malleable, accommodating bodies. This paper will present a series of projects, introduced to students in their second-year of study, that encouraged students to break the sequence of observe, record, and respond to allow site and architecture to be responsively in dialogue with one another throughout the design process. At the outset of each project, students were asked to blur the demarcations of architecture and site, among the earth and beyond to the sky, towards discovering ways in which the architecture and its contextual surroundings might respect, respond, and support one another to cultivate a desired user experience. These exercises offered students an avenue to creatively and critically maneuver the design process while promoting collaborative thinking between architecture and its environment.
All education reforms are worthless if university students continue to go to learning environments that do not support their cognitive abilities, or hinder their creativity. Students do not learn much just by sitting in class listening to faculty, memorizing pre-packaged fragmented pieces of knowledge. This mechanistic orientation of pedagogy results in the treatment of students as if they were machines with the combined properties and characteristics of DVD recorders, cameras, and computers. The student is evaluated with respect to his/ her ability to reproduce what he/ she has been told or shown. In turn, examinations are tests of the ability to reproduce material previously presented to the examined. The mechanistic pedagogy is based for the most part upon showing-telling modes of communication and discouraging the natural process of inquiry as a characteristic of human beings. Thus, there is a crucial need to introduce systemic pedagogy which places emphasis on learning by experience, learning by exploring and doing, and also by reflection. Students must talk about what they are learning, think about it, write about it, and relate it to past experiences. I argue that while the mechanistic mode still prevails in most higher education institutions worldwide, this article manifests a commitment to systemic pedagogy with inquiry based learning (IBL) adopted as a driver for course delivery.
Transformative Pedagogy in Architecture and Urbanism, Ashraf M. Salama, 2009
2009
Salama, A. M. (2009). Transformative Pedagogy in Architecture and Urbanism. Umbau-Verlag, Solingen, Germany ISBN # 978-3937954-042. As a new round of pedagogical dialogue on architecture and urbanism it resets the stage for debating future visions of transformative pedagogy and its impact on design education. This is a forward looking effort that comes to amalgamate concerns, concepts, and practices that Ashraf M. Salama has explored and introduced over a period of two decades. It is about balancing the creative act required for creating responsive environments and the social and environmental responsibilities that should be embedded in this act. It is also about understanding how knowledge is produced, what the components of such knowledge are, and what are the learning processes and social practices that can be used to transmit it. Structured in five chapters the book presents a wide range of innovative and practical methodologies for teaching architectural and urban design. It traces the roots of architectural education and offers several contrasting ideas and strategies of design teaching practices. The book includes five chapters: 1) A New Theory for Transformative Pedagogy in Architecture and Urbanism 2) The Architect, the Profession, and Society 3) The Conventional Approach to Studio Teaching Practice 4) Against the Conventional Studio Pedagogy 5) Empowering Transformative Pedagogy ____________________ Review by Nikos A. Salingaros, University of Texas at San Antonio, USA Professor Salama brings here a career's worth of insights into architectural education. Most importantly, his experience spans across many continents and cultures, and is thus extremely valuable for world architecture... And so we have at hand a vast new resource for adapting the design studio to the real needs of architectural education. _____ Review by Henry Sanoff, North Carolina State University, USA Ashraf Salama aggressively identifies the ritualistic aspects of architectural education that act as constraints to innovation. this is an important book because it probes into the motivations of design educators by placing a mirror before them and allows for a critical examination of the design studio. Dr. Salama paves the way for design educators to openly discuss and debate the delivery system of architectural education and its impact on the future role of the architect. _____ Review by Amira Elnokaly http://archnet.org/publications/5355 _____ Review by Smita Khan http://archnet.org/publications/5468
'Live Projects Participation' in Architectural Education
Architecture practices have often voiced concerns that schools of architecture do not provide students with the right set of skills needed in practice. Schools often defend their teaching by emphasizing the role of Universities in developing creative and aesthetic capabilities that will produce good designers and ultimately good buildings and spaces. This kind of teaching is usually delivered within a studio environment that presents students with fictional rather than 'real time' challenges considered to be more likely to produce visionary and creative design output achieved with " hands-on " learning. The majority of architecture students have no contact with clients or with the consultation process until after they graduate. Working on a Live projects not only addresses this but they also enable students to gain practice-ready professional experience such as job running, as well as develop a sense of civic social engagement and gain an education that is aimed at nurturing tomorrow's citizens for lives of consequence. The principle motive of this Paper is to critically examine the learning value of live projects to students of architecture and to consider how they are approached in architectural colleges, particularly in terms of the students' professional development and to the shaping of the profession as a whole (Harriet Harriss 2012). An attempt will be made to bridge the knowledge gap between pedagogy and practice via live projects. A literature study will be done of 4 live project studios in the world, Architecture and Spatial design-London Metropolitan Univ, The Building Project (Yale University). Apart from this live case studies are done on live projects in India in which architecture students have participated and their learning/ contribution to the architecture knowledge bank will be analyzed. Further, a survey is done of existing live projects that can be incorporated by architecture academicians into the education system to enhance the knowledge and experience of students. Motivation for the study: More than 2000 years ago, Confucius said, " Tell me and I may forget. Show me and I may remember. Involve me and I will understand ". Traditional forms of instructional and rote methods of learning are now becoming outdated and have failed to inspire anything in the new generation of students. The concept of utilizing the built environment as an open textbook or building to learn is now being incorporated into studio teaching. Transformative pedagogies represented by interactive teaching approaches are " hands-on initiatives " taken by university professors. Experiential learning or " learning by doing " is the best form of acquiring knowledge. If the required architectural education norms do not fulfill this gap, alternate pedagogical approaches and initiatives are being taken by some dedicated professors, and this research is to explore just that. Introduction to Live projects Pedagogy In standard educational environments, architecture students are often restricted to the design stages of a project, and thanks to the industry's progressive segmentation of roles, many have limited experience with construction. Live projects Pedagogy is an alternate pedagogical initiative taken by the design-build cell of the institute/ university along with a community body to provide a unique " hands-on " experience to the third year/fourth year under graduate degree students in designing and building a community project under the tutelage of their faculty. Due to the limitations of design studio teaching and the abstract designs made by the students, there is a strong disconnect between drawings and reality. Unless the students experience the building from design to construction, the lines on their drawings will remain just that-lines on paper.
Proceedings of the 2nd Annual Conference of AAE-Association of Architectural Educators, 2014.
Salama, A. M. (2014). 'Liveness' Beyond Design Studio Pedagogy: Layers of ‘live’ Within and Across the Boundaries of Classroom Settings. Proceedings of the 2nd Annual Conference of AAE-Association of Architectural Educators. Sheffield, United Kingdom. PP. 88-93. ISBN # 978-0-9929705-2-9. ____________________________ This paper is a response to some of the predispositions that continue to typify teaching in lecture-based courses in architecture and related disciplines. It aims to interrogate various degrees of ‘liveness’ in design pedagogy and the way in which they can be introduced in typical lecture formats. ‘Liveness’ has been recently emphasised as a ‘university without walls’ approach to teaching in studio settings but has received little or no attention as a mechanism that can be accommodated in classroom settings. Departing from communication modes such as instruction/reaction and showing/telling that rely only on knowledge consumption, the paper introduces mechanisms by which knowledge can be constructed. It presents a number of mechanisms, which were developed by the author and were implemented through a series of exercises in various lecture-based courses in different universities. Two layers of ‘live’ are conceived; the first is an approach that aims to bring the built environment into the classroom, while the second utilises the built environment as an open textbook. Categorized under these two layers, the exercises place emphasis on critical reflection, interaction with behavioural phenomena, contemplating settings and systematic observations, behavioural mapping and active engagement. Students’ feedback and outcomes manifest the uniqueness of these approaches and their potential contribution to effective learning beyond studio settings. https://aaeconference2014.wordpress.com/
Architecture as Pedagogy: Alive and Kicking
2014
Architectural education can be valued not only as a process that delivers architecture-specific skills and knowledges, but also as a process that transforms people into critically active contributors to society. We are keen to examine how and where those skills are developed in architectural education and trace their existence and/or application within practice. We intend to examine whether some architectural and spatial practices are intrinsically pedagogical in their nature and how the level of involvement of clients, users and communities can mimic the project-based learning of architectural education – in particularly in the context of ‘live project learning’