The improvement of instruction has been a goal of educators as far back as the teachings of the Greek philosopher Socrates. Lueddeke (2003) pointed out that the professionalization of teaching practice in higher education is becoming more important as universities try to respond to an increasing diverse and discerning student population, issues relating to standards and quality, growing international competition, and generally “doing more with less.”
Although there are a wide variety of individualized approaches, in most cases instruction can be characterized by the following tasks: setting objectives, teaching content based on these objectives, and evaluating performance. This formula is indeed the most common; however, there have been many advocates of using alternative approaches. There is a focus on a more individualized approach to instruction in teaching design (especially in art-based discipline like architecture), where the traits of the individual learner are given more consideration. In the design studio, each approach to individualizing instruction might be different, but they all seek to manipulate the three following fundamental variables:
- Pace:the amount of time given to a architecture student to learn the content
- Method:the way that the instruction is structured and managed
- Content:the material to be learned
Lueddeke, George R. “Professionalizing Teaching Practice in Higher Education: a study of disciplinary variation and ‘teaching-scholarship’.” Studies in Higher Education 28, no. 2 (2003): 213-228.
Mary Ashkan 