Enabling transformation: a model for facilitating successful design learning outcomes in first year Bachelor of Architectural Studies
Date
2016-04-05
Authors
Janse Van Rensburg, Ariane
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Abstract
Transformation in South Africa encompasses sociopolitical change towards
racial equity and national unity, supported by sustainable growth. True social
justice would require that the physical access to higher education of previously
disadvantaged students also be undergirded by epistemological access.
Regrettably, performance‐driven and outcomes‐based pedagogies often
support students inadequately, resulting in attrition and slow transformation in
the architectural profession.
Architectural design involves complex problem‐solving skills, learned through
individual mentoring in studio contexts, and demands intensive, critical
engagement. Motivated students with good spatial aptitude from either
previously marginalised communities or authoritarian backgrounds often
possess lower dominant language skills. Students arriving with lower social
capital are underprepared for the personal, cultural and academic demands of
the 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 between
school and university education (Scott et al., 2013) and potentially affected by
unrecognised internalised oppression.
As a lecturer at the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of the
Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, I confronted the challenge of opening up
opportunities for successful outcomes to all students by embedding additional
teaching and support into the first year design course. Instructional core theory
(City et al., 2009) postulates that learning is centred in the instructional task and
is effectively improved only by simultaneous attention to teacher knowledge
and skills, responsive course content and improving student engagement.
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Transformational teaching requires applying this triumvirate on social, academic
and professional planes.
In this study architectural instructional tasks were designed to simultaneously
teach academic skills, broaden the cultural discourse and facilitate social
cohesion. This promoted support and peer learning to facilitate academic
success in a diverse studio, while promoting fundamental transformation. These
dynamics are inseparable.
This thesis describes the strategies employed in my first year design studio from
2009 to 2011, using various interventions. Over three action research cycles,
design studio engagement, social cohesion and student learning outcomes
improved. These theorised strategies are summarised as a model for similarly
situated professional learning classes in diverse settings.
Description
A thesis submitted to the
Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
in fulfilment of the requirements
for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
Johannesburg 2015