2016 AESOP award for excellence in teachning
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Date
2016
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AESOP
Abstract
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.
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AESOP award 2016, Excellence in Teaching Prize