I - ETA - Excellence in Teaching Award

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2016 AESOP award for excellence in teachning
(AESOP, 2016)
THE THEME OF THE PRIZE IN 2016 One of the key features of planning as a disciplinary field is the interconnected and diverse range of challenges that it is called upon to respond to. As Ritter and Webber (1972)[i] noted, many of the problems which planning seeks to address may be characterized as ‘wicked’ in that they are complex, highly interrelated, and defy the ‘traditional’ models of ‘expert-led’ definition and resolution which apply to many areas of the natural sciences or engineering. Given this reality, planners are often called upon to work at the interface of many different kinds of knowledge and disciplinary spheres drawing from an eclectic range of theoretical perspectives, methods, and professional traditions. This characteristic of planning has long been a theme of reflection for planning practitioners, scholars and students, and the design and delivery of teaching on many planning programmes seeks to take this into account. In recognition of this, in 2016, the AESOP Excellence in Teaching Prize Committee are keen to encourage entries from courses that seek to use innovative approaches to develop learners’ capacity to reflect on and develop interdisciplinary perspectives and solutions in response to contemporary planning challenges. Because the Committee is seeking to encourage entries from a diverse range of courses we are not being prescriptive in terms of the definitions of interdisciplinarity and innovativeness, which will always to an extent be subjective. Entrants may however, find it useful to consider some of the previous work which has explored notions such as multi-, cross- and interdisciplinarity[ii]. As regards innovation, entries are called upon to demonstrate how the approach adopted represents a change, or evolution, from the previous pedagogical approaches used in the specific Member School, with additional credit for demonstrating that the approach adopted is innovative as regards teaching in the wider field. Entries must also demonstrate how the capacity of learners to reflect on and respond to planning challenges is being developed through the interdisciplinary teaching approach which is being used.
Open Access
2017 AESOP award for excellence in teaching
(AESOP, 2017)
THE THEME OF THE PRIZE IN 2017 One of the key features of political debates in recent times has been the rising scepticism displayed towards different forms of expert knowledge by certain political movements and sections of society. The prevailing mood was captured by an anti-EU politician during the 2016 UK referendum on EU membership, who remarked that people in Britain have “had enough of experts”. Such attitudes have been accompanied by the rise of mendacious and manipulative discourses and narratives in recent political processes, leading to the growing use of term ‘post-truth’ politics to describe this phenomenon. If the realization of true democratic participation requires what Habermas termed to be ‘undistorted’ communication characterized by the features of comprehensibility, legitimacy, truthfulness and sincerity, then the ‘democratic’ quality of many recent electoral episodes is perhaps rather moot. Instead crude majoritarian views of what is ‘right’ and ‘should’ happen dominate, whilst the rights of minorities, or those, including experts, who take a different view, to be heard are often questioned. This is the case even where a majority of the electorate did not actively support certain choices (e.g. 63% of the UK electorate did not vote for so-called ‘Brexit’), or in truth the absolute majority of voters backed the ‘losing’ side (e.g. Hillary Clinton polled more votes than President-elect Donald Trump in the 2016 US Presidential election). The political and societal context described above brings clearly into view notions of the relativity of what constitutes ‘truth’ and who can authoritatively claim to articulate it in given social situations. It presents particular challenges for societal groups such as professions that claim to possess forms of specialized or expert knowledge in relation to a particular field of human action and endeavour. It brings clearly into view notions of the relativity of what constitutes ‘truth’ and who can authoritatively claim to articulate it in given social situations.
Open Access
2018 AESOP award for excellence in teaching
(AESOP, 2018)
THE THEME OF THE PRIZE IN 2018 Citizens in the New Urban Agenda(s) In a rapidly urbanising world the 21st Century has been described by many observers as the ‘urban century’ with international debates and reflection on cities being reflected across a range of political arenas and policy agendas. Though cities and urban regions are seen as being key sites of economic and social progress in the 21st. century they are also facing many challenges surrounding issues such as social equity and environmental pressures. Informed by this context in 2016 both UN and the EU adopted New Urban Agendas[1]. The Quito Declaration on Sustainable Cities and Human Settlements for All, which accompanies the New UN Urban Agenda, thus commits to “Reinvigorating long-term and integrated urban and territorial planning and design in order to optimize the spatial dimension of the urban form and deliver the positive outcomes of urbanization”. It also commits to promoting “institutional, political, legal, and financial mechanisms in cities and human settlements to broaden inclusive platforms, in line with national policies that allow meaningful participation in decision-making, planning, and follow-up processes for all, as well as an enhanced civil engagement and co-provision and co-production”. This follows UN Habitat’s International Guidelines on Urban and Territorial Planning of 2015 in which it is stated that “Urban and territorial planning represents a core component of the renewed urban governance paradigm, which promotes local democracy, participation and inclusion, transparency and accountability, with a view to ensuring sustainable urbanization and spatial quality” (emphases in original). Meanwhile, amongst other objectives, the Urban Agenda for the EU “strives to establish a more effective integrated and coordinated approach to EU policies and legislation with a potential impact on Urban Areas and also to contribute to territorial cohesion by reducing the socioeconomic gaps observed in urban areas and regions”. The Pact of Amsterdam agreed at the Informal Meeting of EU Ministers Responsible for Urban Matters on 30 May 2016 in Amsterdam, also places emphasis on “Effective urban governance, including citizens participation and new models of governance”; “ Sound and strategic urban planning ...with a place-based and people-based approach”; and, an “Integrated and participatory approach”, which are seen as cross-cutting issues in the delivery of the EU’s Urban Agenda. This emphasis on participation takes place against a background where since the 1960s there has been much reflection on the extent to which professionals should have primary responsibility for guiding the evolution of places or if the public should be more actively involved in decision-making. Reflecting this, the planning profession and its theorists and educators have thus long grappled with the issue of what gives planning and planners their legitimacy to ‘pronounce’ on the forms and outcomes of development which can be identified as serving a common good, or the public/collective interest. Since the 1960s In recognition of the context and themes discussed above, in 2018, the AESOP Excellence in Teaching Prize Committee are keen to encourage entries from courses that seek to use innovative ways to root appreciation of wider contexts for planning - such as the EU integration project and UN and EU urban agendas, in planning studies. Courses which seek to explore how citizens can be engaged in the evolution and co-production of these wider settings and urban and planning agendas are particularly encouraged to apply. The Committee will also be looking for approaches which seek to develop learners’ capacity to reflect on the kinds of issues outlined above and prepare them to work as practitioners in a world where the influences on, and challenges and opportunities of planning, are increasingly mobile, multi-scalar and animated by “enhanced civil engagement and co-provision and co-production” (Quito Declaration, 2016).
Open Access
ETA Structure Application Form
(AESOP, 2019)
Open Access
How we teach and talk about Single Family Homes : “Single Family Homes” and “Single Family Home – thinking ahead” as a set of courses : 2023 Aesop Excellence In Teaching Award
(AESOP, 2023) Steinbrunner, Barbara; Stumfol, Isabel; Schartmüller, Lena
The two courses „Single Family Homes“ and „Single Family Homes – thinking ahead“ were offered in the degree programs Spatial Planning and Architecture at the TU Wien (both Bachelor and Master degree). Student interest in this very emotionally discussed topic is enormous. Facing different current challenges, such as high land consumption and climate change, the aim of the courses is to enable a critical discourse about the single-family house to prepare future planners and architects for professional practice. To cover different perspectives and the broad range of challenges within the topic, various methods were applied - such as elaborating basic knowledge (numbers/data/facts) and carrying out a personal interview with a single-family homeowner to learn more about individual motives and living preferences (course 1) or discussions following lectures on different topics and reviewing these as a group in specific settlement areas (course 2)
Open Access
Runner-up 2024 AESOP Excellence In Teaching Award - The Urban and environmental design studio
(AESOP, 2024) Lemes de Oliveira, Fabiano; Torrigiani, Emanuela
The Urban and Environmental Design Studio (UEDS) is a 10-credit mandatory course for master’s students in Sustainable Architecture and Landscape Design at Politecnico di Milano. The studio integrates ecological and sustainable principles into urban planning and design across scales. It equips students with skills necessary to address climate change, ecological depletion, and urban crises through systemic design. Students first conduct territorial analyses and develop a green infrastructure plan, followed by the creation of strategic masterplans that integrate nature-based solutions for urban sustainability and resilience.
Open Access
Second Runner-up 2024 AESOP Excellence In Teaching Award - Building competence of participation in planning - Module-based teaching in/for/on knowledge, skills, and experience
(AESOP, 2024) Holsen, Terje; Standal, Anja; Børrud, Elin
The course is an elective interdisciplinary course for students in spatial planning education. It contains three modules covering three aspects of participation competence: knowledge of, skills in and, experiences with participation. Different study backgrounds have been reflected in their learning activities and through peer-to-peer learning. The course is theoretically grounded in the theory of multiple learning loops that not only includes the students, but the educators and institution as well. Students learn through reading and reflection of theoretical concepts, practical case studies and experiencing a real-life case, running a participation activity with children and/or youth. The students have to deliver a range of assignments reflecting the aimed learning outcome for each of the three linked modules. The feedback from students, based on course evaluations, and surveys before and after the course, indicates a significant learning curve, particularly in practical applications, compared to theoretical learning alone.
Open Access
Winner of the 2024 AESOP Excellence In Teaching Award - The city and the environment
(AESOP, 2024) Román López, Emilia; Hernández Córdoba, Rafael
‘The city and the environment’ is a compulsory urban planning course taught in the 3rd year of the Foundation Degree in Architecture at the School of Architecture of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. It deals with the relationship between the city and its physical-climatic environment through the study, analysis, diagnosis, and proposals at the territorial and urban scale. It is organised based on a practical workshop but considering the need for a concrete and exhaustive knowledge of the basic concepts and relationships established between urban centres and the physical environment in which they are located. In the first part of the workshop, an approach to the city and its territory will be made at different scales, carrying out different analysis exercises: physical and climatic environment, environmental aspects, landscape, etc., to end with a synthesis and territorial diagnosis to obtain the suitability of the land for certain uses (urban, agricultural-livestock and protection). This part will be supported by an instrumental block, which will help to know the analysis tools used in practice, based on the Geographic Information System (GIS). In the second part of the workshop, an environmental assessment of a specific urban area will be carried out with the aim of proposing microclimatic improvements, focusing on healthy urban design, in its outdoor public spaces (streets, squares, urban edges, facilities, etc.) During the workshop classes, a debate will be established between all the working groups, which will constitute the main scenario for the development of the practical work and for its follow-up by the teachers.

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