Using Architecture Pedagogy to Enhance Engineering Education

Abstract

Based on evidence, numerous advisory boards and scholars insist engineering education must change (NSB, 2007; McKenna, Froyd, King, Litzinger, & Seymour, 2011) and that hands-on, inquiry-driven, project-based learning pedagogies can enhance STEM education (Boyer & Mitgang, 1996). These pedagogies have formed the core of architectural education since the Renaissance and have been in continuous use since that time. As such, engineering educators can benefit from observing how architecture students learn and understanding how they are taught. Likewise, architecture can benefit from applying the group-based learning strategies employed by engineering teachers who use studentcentered, project-based pedagogies. Trans-disciplinary approaches hold particular merit.