The Future of Education

This paper describes a focused study on using multiple pedagogical perspectives to improve teaching and learning in the Department of Architecture at the Islamic University of Gaza (IUG). The specific context of the development is the courses of architectural design, where applying practical examples in one-to-one-teaching studios has been the main awareness and perception of best teaching methods. This study showed that other methodologies and approaches can be introduced to the process of teaching and learning in these basic design courses. The preliminary analysis of the teaching practices at the department of architecture at IUG showed that teachers partially apply pedagogical theories such as cognitivism and constructivism; e.g. in situations where problem-based learning is used to simulate professional scenarios through which students learn the profession itself. Teachers partially depend on behaviorism, and sometimes on social constructivism, where the focus is directed towards the social origins of thinking and interpretations according to which actions and behaviors are constructed. They also support students by extending the zone of potential (zone of proximal development 'ZPD') by using scaffolding methods. Constructing and analyzing integrated architectural structures and then creating and generating new ones are the primary learning activities in the studios, whereas lectures are separately used to deliver knowledge about different independent aspects. Combining knowledge from lectures to create or generate new architectural structures has been a big challenge for students. According to this study, teaching and learning at the department of architecture can be developed and many challenges can be overcome by analyzing teaching and learning processes pedagogically and by increasing awareness on the basic theoretical dimensions of teaching and learning conceptions and perspectives and their connections to practices. Integrating studio teaching methodologies (such as social constructivism) into the lectures and vice versa and using tools such as flipping classes and group work could overcome the main challenges. Teaching and learning in the studios should support humanistic perspectives such as self-potential and motivation so that students feel that they belong and they will fulfill their potential and their own will. Both summative and formative assessment is consequently used to support teaching and learning in both theoretical and practical parts.

Key words: Studio-based teaching, social constructivism, formative assessment;

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