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Course Details ARCH
351 & 371 “Architecture Materials & Construction” and “Third-Year
Design Studio” 62-students
in ARCH 351 lecture course; 17-students each in ARCH 371 studio sections |
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Course Objectives Working knowledge of construction technologies and "material vocabulary", using materials in both the technical and aesthetic sense. Technical content is illustrated through examples construction processes, building systems and building assemblies. The linked studio course applies information from the content course to design problem-solving. The integrative paradigm
of studio-based learning, where fundamental technical material from content
courses is applied to simulated problem-solving is widely used in design
disciplines. This pedagogical model is also applicable to linked courses in
other disciplines, such as professional writing linked to a student’s major. |
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Why is student engagement
in your course important? It’s
more fun to interact with students who are engaged by course content. This
allows instructor and students to proceed on the basis of a “shared mission”.
You catch flies with sugar, not with vinegar. Students learn more if they
enjoy the material you’re offering and are hungry for it. Studio courses
(like labs) allow students to apply and integrate things they are learning in
content courses, taking ownership of the knowledge they’ve gained. |
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What did you do to engage
students in your course? Tasks, actions, activities: ·
Illustrate
your subject with examples and well-selected images. Tell a story. ·
Package the content in digestible installments; make sure that
students have a sense of the overall framework. ·
Engage students in discussions and exercises that invite them to
articulate that “they know what they know.” Help students feel good about how
much they have grown. ·
Start with a brief, no-risk warm-up writing exercise focused on an
upcoming topic or previous class period crucial content. ·
Assume that students will learn more if they show up. Reward and
acknowledge students who are engaged. The critique process allows an
instructor to commend students. ·
Give incremental and meaningful feedback. ·
Help students connect information from other courses. Behaviors,
approaches, attitudes: ·
Engagement
is a contact sport. Teaching requires a substantial investment. ·
Bring the world into your classroom. Ground yourself in something
students can observe. ·
Keep it fresh; vary the pace and content. ·
Bring your own enthusiasm.
Convey that the material is important to you. Be engaged yourself;
care about your subject matter. ·
Arrive prepared. Develop an “ear” for how you’re being heard. ·
Know what you know and know your audience. Can you read their faces? ·
Work at it. Don’t become lazy. You are there to lead, challenge, and
stimulate inquiry; don’t expect students to discover for themselves. Engaging
students never gets any easier. ·
Be artful, be flexible, experiment; work at the craft of teaching. If
it’s not working, try something different. ·
Treat students (and other people) with dignity and respect. Exploit
informality appropriately. [“As an
intern 30-years ago, I did a dumb thing . . .”] ·
Try to coordinate deadlines with other course demands. Try to know
what students are doing in other courses. ·
If you’re a little bit in touch with “popular culture”, bring in some
bits of information from that venue (song lyrics, advertising slogans, etc.)
that may relate to course content.
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What are some challenges
in engaging students in your courses?
Not all students are willing to be
engaged, and some will expend a tremendous amount of effort to avoid
engagement. Students may tend to live social lives that cause them to come to
class in a condition that is not well suited to engagement (e.g.; students
who stay at the bar until closing time may fall asleep in your course). Some of the best, most-engaged teaching is inefficient. It can’t be replicated through time-motion studies or boiled down to a format that can be carried out by rote. Efforts to “perfect the formula” for effective engagement are probably misguided. There’s a different, non-scientific model for becoming a more effective teacher. Engaged teaching is more art than science. There are increasing pressures to do it “by the numbers” or according to an easy algorithm. Art is learned from reflective practice. At some universities, dedicated teachers develop a sense that faculty rewards don’t place appropriate value on engaged teaching. The only people who really care about engaged learning are you and the future alumni. You must engage students whether or not the university sees it as a priority. How
do you know if students are really engaged? Can you measure it or do you have
to sense it? Sometimes they won’t admit how much they’ve been engaged until
after they’ve graduated. Being an engaged learner is more than just being
“satisfied”. |