Reflective connections for student success in an undergraduate architecture program
This paper examines the role of critical reflection in building student success in two units of the undergraduate Architecture course at Curtin University: a first-year communications unit and a third-year architectural science unit. The study reported here was prompted by a 2010 review of the Archi...
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| Format: | Conference Paper |
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Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia
2012
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| Online Access: | http://www.herdsa.org.au/wp-content/uploads/conference/2012/HERDSA_2012_Grellier.pdf http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/5923 |
| _version_ | 1848744931708895232 |
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| author | Grellier, Jane Mackintosh, Lara |
| author2 | N. Brown |
| author_facet | N. Brown Grellier, Jane Mackintosh, Lara |
| author_sort | Grellier, Jane |
| building | Curtin Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | This paper examines the role of critical reflection in building student success in two units of the undergraduate Architecture course at Curtin University: a first-year communications unit and a third-year architectural science unit. The study reported here was prompted by a 2010 review of the Architecture course, which introduced changes in the curriculum and patterns of teaching. The first-year 2011 unit discussed in this paper is part of the revised course, while the third-year unit in the same year followed the old pattern, except for the introduction of a reflective segment to the Science of Architecture Unit. Critical reflection, challenging commonly held assumptions, has been shown to be a valuable tool for enhancing learning. Our research – a collaboration between staff from architecture and academic communications backgrounds – found that the first-year students demonstrated greater reflectivity, albeit at a basic level, than their third-year counterparts. This surprising finding supports the premise that reflection, an order of thinking that is generally fully achieved only in adulthood, needs to be developed gradually over an extended period. In this paper we explain the context for the reflective writing exercises in each unit, present examples of student writing, and explore reasons for the variations between years. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T06:09:18Z |
| format | Conference Paper |
| id | curtin-20.500.11937-5923 |
| institution | Curtin University Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T06:09:18Z |
| publishDate | 2012 |
| publisher | Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | curtin-20.500.11937-59232023-02-02T07:57:36Z Reflective connections for student success in an undergraduate architecture program Grellier, Jane Mackintosh, Lara N. Brown S.M. Jones A. Adam first-year experience architectural education critical reflection This paper examines the role of critical reflection in building student success in two units of the undergraduate Architecture course at Curtin University: a first-year communications unit and a third-year architectural science unit. The study reported here was prompted by a 2010 review of the Architecture course, which introduced changes in the curriculum and patterns of teaching. The first-year 2011 unit discussed in this paper is part of the revised course, while the third-year unit in the same year followed the old pattern, except for the introduction of a reflective segment to the Science of Architecture Unit. Critical reflection, challenging commonly held assumptions, has been shown to be a valuable tool for enhancing learning. Our research – a collaboration between staff from architecture and academic communications backgrounds – found that the first-year students demonstrated greater reflectivity, albeit at a basic level, than their third-year counterparts. This surprising finding supports the premise that reflection, an order of thinking that is generally fully achieved only in adulthood, needs to be developed gradually over an extended period. In this paper we explain the context for the reflective writing exercises in each unit, present examples of student writing, and explore reasons for the variations between years. 2012 Conference Paper http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/5923 http://www.herdsa.org.au/wp-content/uploads/conference/2012/HERDSA_2012_Grellier.pdf Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia fulltext |
| spellingShingle | first-year experience architectural education critical reflection Grellier, Jane Mackintosh, Lara Reflective connections for student success in an undergraduate architecture program |
| title | Reflective connections for student success in an undergraduate architecture program |
| title_full | Reflective connections for student success in an undergraduate architecture program |
| title_fullStr | Reflective connections for student success in an undergraduate architecture program |
| title_full_unstemmed | Reflective connections for student success in an undergraduate architecture program |
| title_short | Reflective connections for student success in an undergraduate architecture program |
| title_sort | reflective connections for student success in an undergraduate architecture program |
| topic | first-year experience architectural education critical reflection |
| url | http://www.herdsa.org.au/wp-content/uploads/conference/2012/HERDSA_2012_Grellier.pdf http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/5923 |