Pedagogy Panel

J Benedict Brown, S Denicke-Polcher, M Barac and D Warren will each give a short presentation on their ideas about education, pedagogy and research, with a focus on architecture.

Pedagogy Panel: Teaching, Research, Architecture

At this Cass Reseach Seminar, four educators will discuss the relationship between teaching, research and pedagogy, with a focus on architecture. Each contributor will make a short presentation, followed by a lively panel discussion with the audience, with provocations from the chair and discussant Cecile Tshirhart (London Met's Head of Student Experience and Student Outcomes).

James Benedict Brown (editor of Charrette, Royal College of Art): The UK (population 65 million) now has more than 50 schools of architecture. France has a similar population, and about 25 architecture schools. Even the USA, more than five times our population, has about 100 schools. What's behind this explosive growth in the number of architecture schools and – more importantly – why are they all the same? In this polemic, James Benedict Brown makes the case for a radical and long-overdue deregulation of architecture education. James Benedict Brown is the Editor of Charrette, the journal of the Association of Architectural Educators, and a podcaster on architecture education. He currently teaches at the Royal College of Art.

Sandra Denicke-Polcher (The Cass, deputy head of architecture) will speak about an Architecture of Multiple Authorship. The initiative Architecture of Multiple Authorship explores the opportunities and challenges of engaging with live projects as part of the university-based architectural education. The work identifies the complex relationships between architectural education and practice. With a situationist approach to architecture, community projects are initiated by students, graduates and tutors. Negotiating between academia, practice and society, the development of architecture projects within the university context permits a generous approach to practice and offers students the experience of working on real issues for real clients, whilst enabling an experimental and inquisitive approach to architecture. Live projects include Crossing Cultures, Made in Hayes, The Aldgate Project, Outdoor Stage in Kronberg, Germany, and others. Sandra is deputy head of architecture and has been teaching the Live Projects Studio 3 since 2000, exploring the relationships between architectural education and practice. She is responsible for the School’s international links with MARCH in Moscow and for the Brazil Programme in São Paulo.

Digby Warren (London Met's Head of the Centre for Professional Education and Development, CPED) will speak on the topic of Connecting Pedagogy and Research – Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. Following Boyer's (1997) call to recognise the "systematic study of teaching and learning processes" as a form of scholarship, there has been a proliferation of educational literature and research aimed at elaborating this concept and/or investigating what makes for effective learning in different contexts and disciplines. This brief talk will outline key attributes and steps involved in the scholarship of teaching and learning, illustrated with examples from his own practice-based research. Associate Professor Digby Warren, head of CPED, has been working in Higher Education development for over 25 years, specialising in staff professional development and curriculum/learning design for student diversity.

Matthew Barac (The Cass, Head of the Professional Diploma in Architecture RIBA2 - now Architecture RIBA 2 MArch) is a chartered architect with a background in professional practice. His doctoral research, which investigated the role of design at the interface between formal and informal urban orders, won plaudits, including the RIBA President's Award for Research (best PhD category) and the International Bauhaus Award. Matthew has written extensively on pedagogy in architecture, in particular as the former director of Architecture Sans Frontieres; and his talk will cover these topics.