Teaching Methodologies

“Education is not an affair of 'telling' and being told, but an active and constructive process.”

John Dewey 

In recent years we have amplified peer learning. International students tend to be more reliant on their teachers, which can make the transition to graduate degrees a challenge.

"The peer learning method is a continuous part of human learning and a teaching strategy in which lay teachers of different ages and at the same level of learning help each other to learn from each other (1)."

The teacher also becomes a learner, which opens up new perspectives for both and encourages activity and interaction for all involved. It enables students' needs to be assessed and the teacher's pressure for preparation to be reduced.

Instead of conventional lectures and seminars, we have bundled this under the premise of increased peer learning, in which the students take the most active part.

1) .Topping KJ. The effectiveness of peer tutoring in further and higher education: A typology and review of the literature. Higher education. 1996;32(3):321–45.

On the whiteboard: a quick sketch design demonstration 5 minutes.

Working in section, plan and isometry. 

Mind The Gap: Spontaneous sketch proposal to fill a gap on Percy Street in Newcastle. Demonstration, sketching, explaining and reflecting.

Peer-learning experience:  IClass summer school in St. Petersburg

Demonstrating

“The learner always begins by finding fault, but the scholar sees the positive merit in everything.”

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

Peer-learning is one of the most effective ways to encourage active student participation and one of the most effective learning methods in architecture.

When developing a task description, it is important that teachers test the task themselves. I encouraged my team to practically demonstrate how they would approach a task.

In doing so, it is necessary to concentrate on the essentials and allow experiments without striving for perfection.

It may sound challenging, but teachers’ perfection is not required. Students can learn far more from the teachers’ own difficulties with a task rather perfect mastery. 

Students embrace this method and want to see more of it. It also supports student productivity and time management.

What is clear is that the traditional master-apprentice relationship still has its merits. It also keeps teachers' skills updated and fresh. Personally, I have learned a lot from practicing this method and continue to learn through demonstration.

Total Recall: The task is to draw a floor plan from memory of a place of belonging. My own contribution, of our flat where my family lived from 1964 - 1973.