Speaker
Description
In the past two years the School of Planning at the University of Cincinnati explored studio teaching as an engaged pedagogy, incorporating interdisciplinary approaches to education for sustainable development (ESD) and themes from the American Planning Association’s (APA) Future Trends reports. These approaches have been tested in multidisciplinary capstone studios addressed to urban planning undergraduate and graduate students of different programs offered by the school. Inter- and multi-disciplinarity was evidenced through faculty education and experience as well as disciplinary enrolment of student participants. The second iteration of this (January-May 2025) studio has expanded its scope by including non-planning students, including urban studies, landscape architecture, and horticulture students. As a result, the resource base for students was broadened to incorporate documents associated with these fields.
The future-oriented nature of planning and its affiliated professions requires that students be comfortable working in a constantly changing environment, adaptable to the wide-ranging effects of human and natural action, and at multiple scales simultaneously. Our capstone studio was designed to encourage students to develop new skills and interests in upcoming and emerging urban planning trends while also employing their solid base of developed skills and knowledge. Student learning outcomes improved, anecdotally, over previous years as students were able to tailor their capstone experience to their own disciplinary interests and professional experience. However, the overarching theme of “planning futures” broadly aligned student projects to a realm where there was much crosspollination of data and resources.
Lessons learned from the first iteration (Park et al., 2025) were incorporated into the second iteration as the resource base was widened from planning-centric documents to incorporate national and international future-oriented resources, encouraging students to engage with global challenges. The existence of under-explored themes in the first studio iteration demonstrated a need to foreground more esoteric, but vital, topics for student appreciation.
As a result of the capstone makeup in the second iteration, there is a widely differing level of knowledge on planning and related topics. The first iteration consisted of 19 undergraduate and 15 graduate level planning students while the second iteration had 18 undergraduate and 16 graduate planners, 2 master of landscape architecture students, and 4 undergraduate urban studies and 3 undergraduate horticulture students. Integrating these students and their pre-existing education and interests into multidisciplinary working groups requires the students to adjust their thinking and approaches. Simultaneously, the variety of academic backgrounds enriches the studio through the exchange of ideas and innovative approaches to problem-solving. To be specific, engaging students with varied perspectives has encouraged the exchange of ideas and fostered creative problem-solving approaches to planning challenges. Also, it has broadened students’ understanding and enabled them to connect planning principles with other fields.
This presentation will share findings on how a multidisciplinary studio teaching approach has contributed to innovative solutions, like addressing socio-economic and environmental challenges. It highlights the potential of innovative pedagogical approaches to equip students with the skills needed to navigate complex, interconnected issues in urban planning. By reflecting on the studio’s progress and lessons learned, this contribution aims to inspire dialogue on advancing planning education through interdisciplinary engagement.
References
Park, Hye Yeon, Danilo Palazzo, Leah Hollstein (2024) Case study for planning education: Lessons from incorporating interdisciplinary teaching approach and APA Trend reports in capstone planning studios. Sustainability,14,x (In Process).
| Keywords | Planning Education, Pedagogy, Planning Futures, Studio Teaching |
|---|---|
| Best Congress Paper Award | Yes |
