Enabling transformation: a model for facilitating successful design learning outcomes in first year Bachelor of Architectural Studies

[摘要] Transformation in South Africa encompasses sociopolitical change towardsracial equity and national unity, supported by sustainable growth. True socialjustice would require that the physical access to higher education of previouslydisadvantaged students also be undergirded by epistemological access.Regrettably, performance‐driven and outcomes‐based pedagogies oftensupport students inadequately, resulting in attrition and slow transformation inthe architectural profession.Architectural design involves complex problem‐solving skills, learned throughindividual mentoring in studio contexts, and demands intensive, criticalengagement. Motivated students with good spatial aptitude from eitherpreviously marginalised communities or authoritarian backgrounds oftenpossess lower dominant language skills. Students arriving with lower socialcapital are underprepared for the personal, cultural and academic demands ofthe course. This combination creates a larger zone of proximal development(Vygotskiĭ et al., 1994), resulting in underperformance and higher failure rates.In South Africa poor results are increasingly exacerbated by disparities betweenschool and university education (Scott et al., 2013) and potentially affected byunrecognised internalised oppression.As a lecturer at the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of theWitwatersrand, Johannesburg, I confronted the challenge of opening upopportunities for successful outcomes to all students by embedding additionalteaching and support into the first year design course. Instructional core theory(City et al., 2009) postulates that learning is centred in the instructional task andis effectively improved only by simultaneous attention to teacher knowledgeand skills, responsive course content and improving student engagement.iiiTransformational teaching requires applying this triumvirate on social, academicand professional planes.In this study architectural instructional tasks were designed to simultaneouslyteach academic skills, broaden the cultural discourse and facilitate socialcohesion. This promoted support and peer learning to facilitate academicsuccess in a diverse studio, while promoting fundamental transformation. Thesedynamics are inseparable.This thesis describes the strategies employed in my first year design studio from2009 to 2011, using various interventions. Over three action research cycles,design studio engagement, social cohesion and student learning outcomesimproved. These theorised strategies are summarised as a model for similarlysituated professional learning classes in diverse settings.

[发布机构] University of the Witwatersrand