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Enhancing Critical Thinking Through “Independent Design Decision Making” in the Studio

Mallika Bose (Department of Landscape Architecture, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA)
Eliza Pennypacker (Department of Landscape Architecture, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA)
Thomas Yahner (Department of Landscape Architecture, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA)

Open House International

ISSN: 0168-2601

Article publication date: 1 September 2006

73

Abstract

A group of faculty at Penn State's Department of Landscape Architecture observed that the traditional master/apprentice model of studio instruction fosters greater student dependence on faculty for decision-making guidance than the faculty considers desirable. They contend that this traditional model promotes a studio dynamic that encourages students to look to the professor for design ideas and wait for faculty approval before making design decisions. The faculty considered this decision-making dependency to be in conflict with the need for students to develop the critical-thinking skills required to address the complex and ill-structured problems that are common in architecture and landscape architecture. In response to their concern this faculty team developed a studio teaching method they termed “independent design decision-making.” They speculated that by transferring the responsibility for design decisions from professor to the student, students could improve their critical thinking and gain confidence in design decision-making. The faculty conceived a set of strategies to implement in a 3rd year team-taught site planning and design studio that presents a range of complex design issues and scales. In collaboration with Penn State's Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence, the faculty researchers developed a 2-year comparative study to test this new teaching method in the same design studio with two consecutive student groups-evaluating the strategies implemented in the first year, refining methods, then applying and re-evaluating the results in the next year's class. These new strategies included ways students receive information to inspire their designs (“input strategies”) and ways to receive critique on their design ideas (“feedback strategies”). Two evaluation instruments were chosen to assess this method of studio teaching: 1) the Group Embedded Figures Test (GEFT), and 2) Student Assessment of Learning Gains (SALG). This paper presents this teaching/learning method and reports on the results of the comparative study.

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Citation

Bose, M., Pennypacker, E. and Yahner, T. (2006), "Enhancing Critical Thinking Through “Independent Design Decision Making” in the Studio", Open House International, Vol. 31 No. 3, pp. 33-42. https://doi.org/10.1108/OHI-03-2006-B0005

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Open House International

Copyright © 2006 Open House International

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