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This study explores an integrated approach for sustainable urban early childhood education and development within the context of urban planning and preschool infrastructure in rapidly urbanizing areas. It focuses on a case study conducted in both private and public preschools in Addis Ababa. The study adopts a qualitative case study design, utilizing data from secondary sources such as documents related to urban planning and design policies, preschool education policies, standards for early childhood care and education, policy implementation reports, academic literature, and theories on child education. The primary objective is to identify policy, institutional, and practice gaps in the assessment of urban design, planning, preschool education infrastructure, and early childhood care and education policies. The data collection instrument employed is document review, and the data analysis technique is a discourse thematic data analysis approach.

The COVID-19 pandemic influenced academia in many ways, impacting learners and teachers. This article is authored by six sustainable urban development doctoral researchers from various backgrounds and stages of their journey, and an academic advisor. The article is an outcome of remote collaboration through a substantial period during the pandemic. We offer self-reflective and collaborative accounts of how the pandemic affected doctoral research in a domain that requires in-depth connection with a physical field or site. We explore the impact of COVID-19 on the field through the themes of resonance and credibility, ethics and rapport, and the doctoral researchers' academic experience with regard to physical disconnection and virtual connectivity. In lieu of a conclusion, the supervisor's perspective offers insights into the future of the field and links the discussions in this article to wider debates in the literature on the role of the screen in delivering, presenting, and sharing research. The key takeaway is that the field and how we approach doctoral research and teaching have changed irrevocably. While we adjust to these new realities, it is important to look outwards as much as inwards to navigate the new complexities we now face.

New pedagogic approaches combining Transdisciplinary, Experiential, and Adaptive perspectives are emerging to respond to increasingly complex urban conditions. By addressing the gap in current urban design studio education, the study defined a framework to assist teachers in designing novel teaching formats based on TEA learning approaches. The framework proposed provides a reference to set up TEA urban design studios and an assessment toolkit to assess their effectiveness in learning and teaching. The comparative analysis of two studio applications shows interdependence of TEA learning and teaching dimensions and generates transferrable recommendations to support a new urban design studio pedagogy that effectively responds to contemporary societal and environmental challenges.

Humans use space as a lens to navigate and make sense of the world, thus successfully applying spatial concepts is an important life skill. Spatial thinking and developing spatial concepts are core components of school Geography curricula. Teachers teach geographical skills systematically aligning to the curriculum; however, students can struggle to understand and apply some spatial concepts and less is known about how students use conceptual skills in open-ended tasks. Set alongside a larger study (Kriewaldt et al., 2021), this paper reports on how young people were challenged to employ and develop spatial thinking during an open-ended task situated in place. We examine how students approached two challenging geospatial concepts: scale and slope. This article argues that Year 7 students were less consistent and precise in applying scale than the Year 9 cohort, with Year 9 students more advanced in awareness and comprehension of slope than those in Year 7. As well, it points to the actions of teachers to foster the long-term understanding of geographical concepts.

This practice report highlights changes made to a first-year unit in an Urban and Regional Planning degree, designed to enhance students' levels of cultural competency. We briefly discuss the history of cultural competency highlighting a lack of application in the field of urban planning. We report on a practical case study where six strategies were developed to enhance students' cultural competency. We reflect on the experience of designing and delivering a unit called Diversity and Cultural Planning. The results from 38 students who completed a cultural competency survey at the start and at the end of term, revealed an increase in overall self-assessment scores of around 12%. As cities become more diverse, this practical case study highlights the need and benefits of enhancing the cultural competency of those who both teach and learn about urban planning.

This paper examines a PBL project module "Sustainable Urban Transformation" in an Urban Design master's education. The module combines urban design and hydrology engineering. Within the module, students are supported by lectures and study circles on various dimensions of sustainability, especially vis-a-vis climate change. However, they are left with the freedom to choose how they balance between design and engineering approaches when they give a physical form for sustainability in the site transformation projects with which they work through the semester. This paper discusses the development of their skills building on three Aristotelean concepts: techne (engineering), poiesis (aesthetic form-giving), and phronesis (making of ethical judgments). The last two concepts, the paper argues, are especially important when at issue is design education. Based on an analysis of the student projects in Fall 2022, the paper examines whether and how the students manage to find a balance between engineering skills, on the one hand, and aesthetic creativity and ethical judgement, on the other hand, in their project work.

This pedagogical paper presents an approach to urban design taught in the "Complex Densities Studio" CDS of the Institute of Architecture and Earth Sciences of Setif (IAST). This approach is based on urban analysis and scenario building, the use of parametric tools, and the constitution of reusable "parametric actions". The parametric approach invites students to state their project intentions. Parametric computing allows building a digital model from certain parameters. The digital model aims to verify the interactions of the student project in the urban context dynamically and iteratively. It offers the possibility of identifying the most efficient models concerning the stated criteria. The urban typologies and ambiances are evaluated throughout the design process, thus allowing for permanent adjustments. The chosen context is the El-Harrach district in the city of Algiers: the population density and the rapid transformation of urban areas offer a stimulating framework to experiment with a parametric approach to the student project. The approach of the CDS is based on numerous and diverse data, transcribed in diagrams, pre-formal plans, and parametric models, allowing to move from an abstract and quantitative dimension to the formalization of urban ambiances in a progressive and qualitative way.

This design case introduces a design and development process of theories from environmental psychology, humanities, and social sciences as heuristic thinking devices to measure human-centered design solutions. The pedagogical review of the traditional studio design process revealed obstacles as students translated their research and program to the development of the design. They created the latter without applying their theoretical understanding of research conducted on the human-environment relationship. Given this challenge, the authors evolved a revised design method utilizing theories to afford an empathetic design response. Students in two interior design studios adopted this approach to develop hypotheses for the design problem, and later the theories informed guidelines for cultivating a more empathetic design response. Project analysis by authors, and reflection statements from the students, capture the value of theory as thinking devices to assist directly in their work by improving their position and power, prompting a more imaginative and generative ideation process. The role of this design case is to acknowledge the role of theory as a heuristic device in order to generate, develop, and support the advancement of interior design as a discipline through interaction, mediation, and discourse.

The purpose of this study was to Local Governments' Education Strategy on the Public Service Delivery for Learning City. This study uses case studies to collect and analyze data, generate inductions, empirical observations, and SWOT analysis. Driving Thailand's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) policy showed that the area conditions were in place. Situations, environments, limitations, and highlights affect the targeting of public services. Local government education development strategies are constantly pushing local education policies. Building knowledge by developing 20 local courses in generating income for the community has a policy of "Creative City," including livable city, tourist town, investment city, and city to study. Under the critical base of thinking of executives who believe that education is the most potent weapon. In addition, to driving local education policy, A strong community committee is needed. Public participation plays an essential role in the development of cities. Some operations are conducive to driving the city of learning--continuous development of knowledge plans. There are programs to support learning at all ages that go through education work and professional policy network management. This is an important strategy to develop local education aligned with the Sustainable Education Development Goals.

There are three challenges in building a "smart city": technology, human resources, and government. A collaborative climate must be created to meet these challenges. The policy direction and the application of collaborative governance in developing a "smart city" in Balikpapan City, East Kalimantan, Indonesia, are described here. This study used the "collaborative governance" approach to dissect this research. This type of research is qualitative, and descriptive methods are used. Information is obtained based on the "smart city policy plan" adjusted to the regional Medium-Term Development Plan and the draft document for the "smart city master plan for the" city of Balikpapan. Researchers conducted in-depth interviews with several parties from the local government involved in the "smart city implementation council." Meanwhile, research supporting data was conducted based on searching various information from online sources, scientific articles, research journals, and several literary sources. The focus of the development of the "smart city of" Balikpapan City is directed at developing a livable city based on a sustainable environment. "Collaboration with Pentahelix," which is interdependent, is a prerequisite for the successful development of a "smart city" in which the vision of the mission of the City of Balikpapan is supported.

Urban design studio education aims to prepare future urban designers to more effectively understand how cities work and critically engage with the role of design intervention in the built environment. A design studio is an appropriate setting where this can take place. This paper details the design and delivery of a postgraduate urban design studio subject in the MA Urban Design programme at Cardiff University during the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK. We particularly investigate the capacities and challenges of blended learning and teaching, with a primary focus on the experience and perception of students in the context of design studio pedagogy. To this end, we discuss the findings from an online survey of postgraduate urban design students and reflect on their experience and perception of the related learning and teaching activities, assessment, feedback, field study visits, workshops, and digital platforms during the subject delivery period in the 2021-2022 academic year. The outcomes of this paper can inform future practices of blended learning and teaching incorporating a mix of face-to-face and online modes of delivery in relation to design studio education, particularly in the context of unprecedented global health challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

This paper presents the results of two community and citizen science research projects -- "Cities at Play" and "Community Drive" -- in which young students (aged 11-15) from vulnerable residential areas in Copenhagen, Denmark, collaborated with architects and urban developers to engage in urban development initiatives in their neighborhoods. An educational design was developed over the two research projects in which students underwent phases of discovery, interpretation, ideation, and experimentation. Data were collected from surveys, observations, and interviews to elucidate the ways that three bridges central to community and citizen science projects can function. These include professional (bridges student learning in school and professional communities outside school), citizen (bridges student learning in school and local communities), and student (bridges student learning in school and new student communities) bridges. This research makes both theoretical and practical advancements. Theoretically, it advances our thinking about the diverse roles that participants in multi-sector partnerships can have, as well as how CCS widens the view of cultural asset-based learning by viewing students as experts of their local communities. Practically, we offer four guidelines that were gleaned from the results that can be instructive for the design of future educational community and citizen science projects.

Climate change and the urban heat island (UHI) effect are increasing extreme heat risk in cities across the world, and have already made extreme heat the top weather-related cause of death in the United States. Despite this, understanding of viable strategies to address extreme heat is still limited, for both decision-makers and the public. Using a design-based research methodology, we developed an interactive educational game, "Chill City," which teaches players about possible heat planning strategies and their tradeoffs. We surveyed adult, non-expert players to understand the game's reception and impacts. Players expressed that they enjoyed the game and that it helped them better understand heat planning strategies and the environmental, social, and economic tradeoffs associated with them. We argue that environmental games offer educational potential for adult learners on issues of extreme heat and climate change that should be further explored to inform effective approaches and designs.

This study assessed the effectiveness of a learning module we developed for planning students aimed to enhance their understanding for design issues in public spaces faced by wheelchair users. The module involves training of students to effectively navigate the environment in a wheelchair before they experience the real outdoor spaces. Through this evaluation study, we also attempted to add clarity to the problems observed from empirical studies about these 'try-it-yourself' exercises, such as potential stigmatisation and ableism. We employed a mixed-method study approach consisting of wheelchair skill tests, 'walkabout' audits, and a focus group, with 28 second-year undergraduate urban planning students. The cross-over design of the study involving two components of the module -- (wheelchair) Skill Learning Experience (SLE) and Real-World Experience (RWE) -- allowed us to assess the effect of the former on the performance of the latter and the module overall. The focus group also asked students' perspectives about the module. Our findings suggest that the wheelchair skills training component likely contributed to a more nuanced and comprehensive understanding of design problems, while also fostering respect for wheelchair users. We believe that careful implementation is key to addressing potential negative consequences while optimising the benefit of experiential exercises.

Sport and geography may be considered allied and complementary disciplines. They share, variously, interests in ideological and physical spaces, political and socio-cultural processes of space- and place-making, historical dis-/continuities, individual and collective identity formation, demography and topographies and representational practices therein. Sports geography modules may, for example, be taught independently within Geography, Sport Management/Studies/Science, Urban Studies, Development or Liberal Arts programmes, or form a bridge across shared degree/honours courses as a way of attracting an interdisciplinary audience of students. Regardless of institutional "home", sports geography, affords a rich context for engaging students with critical contemporary issues, global-local analysis, and socio-cultural complexities and social justice concerns. We argue in this paper for a more pronounced place for sports geography -- specifically, critical spatial studies -- within Sports Management. We draw on our professional and personal experiences teaching sport and geography related courses. We contextualise the teaching of sports geography against wider Higher Education forces. Next we provide pedagogical illustrations of the benefits of a sports geography focus. We offer some recommendations and reflections. Ultimately, we advocate for improved collaboration between Sports Management and Geography fields, and call for continued scholarly and pedagogical symbiosis and play that might produce new and creative interdisciplinary inquiry.

Block mode delivery is widely practised in higher education institutions across the world. It is popular at postgraduate level, such as in business and management fields, but is less common at undergraduate level, especially for studio design teaching. There is a lack of literature on the block mode delivery for studio design teaching. The aim of this paper is to identify the favourable attributes and challenges of the block mode delivery for studio design teaching through the analysis of three undergraduate design studio units at an Australian university as case studies. Students' written feedback of studying these three units were collected and reviewed to evaluate strategies for enhancing student engagement. Challenges of block teaching to students and staff are discussed. The findings suggest that there are various ways to engage with students for active learning in block teaching, which are valuable for curriculum design and continuous improvement.

While critical methods have gained popularity in recent times, analysis of documents remains an under-explored area for developing methods of elevating the perspectives of oppressed populations. This is important given the agentic role documents play in systemic and institutionalized oppression. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to use a critical paradigmatic approach, combined with hermeneutic and phenomenological procedures, to develop the Critical Method of Document Analysis (CMDA). This four-stage method is developed using an exemplar study examining historical tools of oppression in a Southern metropolitan area's city-planning documents. CMDA provides a systematic process for investigating documents using the perspectives of marginalized communities. The article concludes with a discussion of the significance, limitations, and implications of CMDA.

Urban planning research usually requires researchers to undertake fieldwork. This fieldwork is frustrated or enabled by gatekeepers who can influence effective data collection. Traditionally, gatekeepers are perceived as monolithic, neutral, and static individuals, yet they are complex individuals with varying needs and expectations from the researchers. For novice researchers, especially postgraduate students, dealing with and handling gatekeepers may be a mammoth task. This study focuses on gatekeepers inherent in contested spaces and uses a reflective approach to analyze the gatekeeper politics characteristic of informal settlements as contested spaces. Informed by literature and the author's personal experiences, this study argues that gatekeepers are complex figures shaped by the socio-political context and ultimately influence the research process. This calls for researchers to effectively strategize before, during, and after data collection to avoid compromising ethical issues and digressing from the scope of the study.

Purpose: This paper aims to explore the effects of collaborative innovation (CI) in urban planning practice by investigating the influence of a platform for collaboration between academia and external partners (practitioners and community groups). Unlike previous research on learning outcomes from the perspective of students (Fokdal et al., 2020), the aim of this article is to investigate the transformative learning (TL) experience from the perspective of the external partners. Design/methodology/approach: The outcomes of the TL experience were assessed through four elements: disorienting dilemma; critical reflection; engagement in discourse; and reflective and critical taking action. Findings: The claim that collaboration with multiple actors through TL processes can help promote innovative ways to view and practice planning outside of academia has to a certain extent been confirmed. This paper provides evidence that such transformative processes can have an impact on the individuals involved and shows the importance of individuals acting as change agents--or drivers of innovation. In addition, the importance of a collaborative platform--acting as an intermediary--in facilitating TL processes in planning practices is highlighted in the context of Serbia. Originality/value: This paper is a continuation of existing research on educational initiatives that attempt to integrate sustainability into the curricula and bring innovation to urban planning practice; showcase outcomes of the TL experience for sustainable development, especially when addressing the innovative ways that planning is practiced outside of academia; and push for change toward a more sustainable future not only within and but also outside of academia.

Photovoice aims to impact those who view photographs and stories in culminating exhibits. This multi-phase research project, completed in partnership with city government and community partners, explored photovoice impacts on exhibit attendees, collaborating organizations, and decision-makers. Results show increased levels of awareness, concern, and willingness to take action among exhibit attendees. Additionally, collaborating organizations and decision-makers saw the power of "thicker" public engagement processes, like photovoice, to provide useful data to aid decision-making.

Geographical Information Systems (GISs) in architecture were initially limited to regional and urban development applications. Over recent years its potential has been recognized and its use has evolved to address urban planning and architectural heritage management subjects. Nevertheless, evidence shows that its use in architecture teaching is scarce and uneven. Directive 2007/2/EC, establishing the infrastructure for spatial information in the European Community (EU), is, in this way, an opportunity to develop a greater knowledge and application of GIS in the framework of higher education. In architecture, this can be achieved by problem solving based on real case scenarios, which can benefit from GIS-based techniques and analysis capabilities. In this paper, the authors aim to present a review of the use of GIS in teaching and research in architecture to assess its level in different European programmes. Experiences from three European universities (University of Seville, Spain, University of Beira Interior, Portugal, and Technical University of Crete, Greece), which are among the few in their respective countries that promote the inclusion of GIS in architectural education, particularly in the fields of urban and regional planning and architectural heritage, are compared and framed within the European scenario. The paper concludes with a reflection on the three universities' practice compared to the leading European architecture programmes listed in the main international university rankings. Main trends of future evolution on the use of GIS in architecture teaching are also presented.

Purpose: This study attempts to assess the status of sustainability across Urban and Regional Planning (URP) Undergraduate programs in Turkey by (1) examining the contents of sustainability courses, and (2) acquiring more information about how the courses are taught and evaluated. Research Methods: The study is based on a document analysis of course syllabuses, which are documents including course description, course objectives, course content, reading materials, recommended textbooks, and evaluation techniques. The course syllabuses are examined using both descriptive and content analysis. With the descriptive analysis, the current status, teaching and evaluation methods, and teaching instruments are identified; with the content analysis, common themes are defined. Findings: The results showed that sustainability was taught through different themes, including economic, environmental, and social contexts which are fundamental in URP undergraduate education. The most frequently recurring themes included tourism and conservation, alongside ecology, planning, urban ecology, and environmental issues. It was found that themes such as urban and sustainable planning, improvement, and development all had roots in the theme of sustainability. In contrast, it was also noticed that economy/economics, while important, was barely touched. Implications for Research and Practice: In this study, the findings regarding how sustainability is currently covered in URP undergraduate programs across Turkey have been systematically presented with the expectations that this contributes to curriculum development overall and in a better way.

This article demonstrates and explains the benefits accruing to communities that involve universities in their local community-based projects from the context of community-based work taking place in Europe. We include concrete arguments intended to stimulate the transfer of the universities' accumulated knowledge to local (urban) community projects in order to overcome the challenges of contemporary cities. A multiple case study analysis of relevant university-community partnership (UCP) projects in Europe is used to provide evidence for the value of urban community-university partnerships. This article as a whole represents an attempt to bring to light the considerable potential of universities, which should extend their focus (metaphorically and physically) outside the purely academic sphere and magnify their capabilities within local university-community partnerships.

This article details the ways a series of architecture graduate classes partnered with a nonprofit youth sports organization and other community groups to design a shelter to accommodate those experiencing homelessness in Lubbock, Texas. The researchers use a case study approach to discuss how graduate students repeatedly engaged with the public for feedback on their designs and eventually created a design for a community-specific homeless shelter and treatment center. This article shares the project's engagement methods, which included precedent studies, design charrettes, regular presentations to the public, meetings with stakeholders, and professional collaborations.

Time-honoured university policies, such as the credit-hour and academic freedom, present challenges for professional education programs tasked with operationalizing entry-to-practice competence frameworks for professional accreditation. A single embedded case study was used to explore how professional programs from one mid-sized Canadian university are approaching and perhaps problematizing the development and assessment of competence. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with educational leaders (faculty and staff, n=21) from a sample of nine programs. Following a grounded theory approach to qualitative analysis, the constant comparative method was used to inductively discern similarities and differences across programs, and to begin building theory about approaches to operationalization. While limited in scope given the use of a single university, our findings highlight: (a) diversity in approaches to operationalization across programs, (b) common attributes which can be used to classify the manner in which these programs operationalize competence, and (c) challenges with supporting faculty to buy in to competency-informed pedagogy and assessment. Given these findings, it is recommended that professional accrediting bodies and education programs spend time to consider the role university-based programs play in determining competence for entry-to-practice, as well their intents for implementing a competence framework, to ensure sufficiency in the approaches being used.

The aim of this study was to determine the perceptions of bicyclists to promote the use of bicycles in the cities. The sample was selected using simple random sampling method. A total of 1087 bicyclists, including 178 women and 909 men, who used bicycles in their everyday lives in the city, voluntarily participated in the research. The study was a descriptive research in the survey model and quantitative research approach was adopted in the research. Data were collected with "Bike Use Dissemination Scale" developed by Çeyiz (2019). The scale consists of two parts; a personal information form and expressions of participants' dissemination of bicycle use. The t-test was used for the variables consisting of the bipartite groups and the One-Way ANOVA was used for the variables consisting of more than two groups. According to the data obtained from the bicyclists participating in the survey, there was a significant difference in the dimensions of security and dissemination by gender. It was found that women bicyclists' safety perceptions were more negative than men's perception; and their perceptions of the spreading dimension were more positive than the male bicyclists.

Erasmus+ CityLab Program at Universidad de Belgrano School of Architecture and Urban Planning, has focused on urban structure as generator of dynamic and transformable spaces, through a local case located at Juan B. Justo Avenue corridor, Buenos Aires, Argentina. The CityLab project motivated students to experience an integrative 3-year Problem-Based Learning process, related to Morphology Communication and Digital Media, Urban and Territorial Planning, Final Degree Project, as well as integration with School of Public Relations. More than 75 students participated in this international programme to explore, diagnose and re-think city scale, as well as to discover, build and apply technological tools. Land use and mobility regulations were introduced with the participation of stakeholders and external experts in different stages from diagnosis to final project validation. Students' and teachers' staff contribution to the academic final conference "PBL for Sustainable Cities"- September 2018, Bogotá, produced a motivating socialization in collaboration with local partners.

Within the framework of the CITYLAB LA "Engaging students with sustainable cities in Latin-America" Project, ERASMUS Program, this article reflects on the application of the Project-oriented Problem-Based Learning pedagogical method in the workshop work carried out by the Chair Urbanism IIA--Faculty of Architecture, Urbanism and Design, National University of Córdoba, Argentine Republic---in the first quarter of the school cycle 2017--, called "Urban-Territorial Plan for the Municipality of Villa Allende, Province of Córdoba. Scenario 2032". An evaluative analysis of the results of this experience is carried out in relation to the teaching-learning process proposed by the Chair. The Chair Urbanism IIA belongs to the 5th year of the Architecture Degree and its main objective is that students develop professional competences for the study and intervention of the contemporary city as an integral fact inserted in various territorial and contextual scenarios, from the paradigm of environmental sustainability.

The urban design courses of the urban planning career in the Universidad Simón Bolívar (USB, 2017) Caracas-Venezuela, are part of the backbone of workshops (4 of 11) and invite to the study of parts of the city whose problems demand to be resolved, according to traditional teaching methods. Considering this precedent and within the framework of the Citylab project (2015-2018), the Problem Based Learning (PBL) is implemented in Workshop VI, during the last quarter of 2017; and then a questionnaire is given to the participating students to know their opinion on the following points: their role in this process of building knowledge, and their appreciation about both the exchange with local guests-actors and this new methodology. The respondents conclude that in the face of the traditional method, the PBL promoted capacity building for critical analysis, teamwork and consensus building against the city's complex problems

Investigating the potential of video games as an aid to community mapping and participatory architectural design, the author discusses the use of the sandbox game "Minecraft" by the Block by Block Foundation in collaboration with Mojang Studios, Microsoft, and UN-Habitat for three projects--Model Street (Dandora Phase 2, in Nairobi, Kenya), Mind the Step (Jardim Nakamura, in São Paulo, Brazil) and Former Marketplace (in Pristina, Kosovo). The author offers different perspectives or "lens" from which to view the projects, including as an architect (which he calls a spatial lens) and as a community member (which he dubs a player lens). Favoring agency over participant choices, he claims, the institutional forces at work can prevent true access to space making by either the foundation or the game, each of which suffers from accessibility problems for both players and the communities. He argues for a need to look more closely into the politics of the Block by Block Foundation and "Minecraft" and seeks to make readers explicitly aware of the systemic mechanisms of exclusion.

In the framework of policies against the effects of climate change on public health, mobility policies based on zero carbon dioxide emissions have focused their interest on the implementation of bicycle lanes, the bicycle motor subsidy and restriction of automobiles. In this sense, the objective of this paper has been to establish the reliability and validity of an instrument that measures the perceptions of risk and utility, as well as the intentions of voting in favor of electoral proposals and candidates that support the urban sustainability policy in Subject d mobility. A non-experimental, cross-sectional and exploratory study was carried out with a non-probabilistic sample selection of 250 residents of the metropolitan area of Mexico City. From a structural model. The factors cited were found to correlate positively and significantly, but it is recommended to extend the study to the contrast of the model in other scenarios with local elections and mobility policy based on the use of the bicycle.

This article analyzes the impact of experiential and inquiry-based learning exercises in a 2019 Toronto study abroad course on smart cities for first-year students. The course treated the city as a text to be read, analyzed, and unpacked. Students engaged with the disciplines of urban studies, critical race and ethnic studies, and surveillance studies in order to assess Toronto's smart city initiative while exploring firsthand how technology and urban planning currently structure the lived experiences of Toronto's inhabitants. Ultimately, students came to understand how data analytics order, pattern, and structure the complexity of urban life in ways that can be inclusionary and exclusionary, democratic and autocratic. They gained an appreciation for why a range of stakeholders with disparate social and economic power perceive smart city initiatives differently, and they theorized what it might mean to live in a wise city that accounts for history, ethics, and power.

Computer-aided design (CAD) tools are widely used in the urban planning process, giving planners the ability to generate urban contexts and many scenarios for future development. However, debate is ongoing regarding the effects of CAD tools on student learning and the reliability of the cluster of assumptions that usually come with them. This article aims to examine whether CityCAD can be an effective tool for achieving learning objectives related to critical thinking, problem-solving, and creativity in the urban planning discipline. This research also examines whether the software influences students' interest in planning and affects students' perceptions of the discipline. Using instructor observations, students' projects, and surveys, we find that using CityCAD in education can achieve learning objectives, increase students' interest, and enhance the perception of planning as a more creative field. The results have implications for instruction, student recruitment, and perceptions of the field.

Caribbean nations are amongst those considered the most vulnerable to climate change impacts. This necessitates climate change education (CCE) to enhance the mitigation and adaptation capacities of the region's populace. CCE is necessary at all levels of the education system, from pre-primary through to the tertiary level. To facilitate this, teachers must be exposed to CCE, understanding what climate change is, its impacts, and how to respond to climate change. Additionally, in order to facilitate students' (as well as their own) abilities to visualise various climate futures and respond to the range of emotions associated with climate change, teachers' own visioning skills must be developed. This article focuses on educators' engagement' with a low-carbon visioning exercise in a CCE course for educators at a regional university in the Caribbean. Thematic analysis of the document and interview data offers illustrations of the possibilities of visioning for awakening students to alternative future possibilities and engendering hope.

This article draws on environmental justice frameworks located in urban planning (Agyeman et al., 2002; Pellow, 2007) and critical place inquiry (Tuck & McKenzie, 2014) to focus on the relationship between green building curriculum, career and technical education, and climate justice. Green building--a rapidly growing field within the architecture, planning, and design fields--seeks to mitigate the consequences of climate change by reducing the built environment's impact on the natural world. Green building involves technical learning and is often carried out by credentialed professionals. We thus ask, how do we advance climate justice through green building curricula? We draw insights from a green building education program from a Career and Technical Education classroom to discuss the need to engage high school students' knowledge about the connectivity between their communities and green building plans. We identify the consideration of erasure and futurities in green building curricular efforts, youth as co-planners and co-designers, and organizational learning and change as central to reimagining responses to ecological precarity in justice oriented-ways.

De-a Arhitectura Association, a Romanian cultural organization made up of architects and teachers, develops and promotes architecture and built environment education for children and young people, in order to raise awareness and provide knowledge about the values of architecture, design, and urban planning. Its educational programs take place in public schools and museums, and at architecture and design events throughout the country. Over the last decade, De-a Arhitectura has reached close to 35,000 children from public schools all over the country, and over 1,200 teachers and 900 volunteer architects were involved in its activities. This article describes how the De-a Arhitectura created their educational program in partnership with teachers and became one of the first interdisciplinary curriculums based on project learning and experiential activities used in Romanian schools.

Finding ourselves in the midst of a plural eco-social crisis, this paper addresses roles and guiding questions for action research understanding, envisioning, practicing, and organising eco-social action, with the aim of renewing our human entanglements with the living ecologies, in which we are embedded. Driven by the aim of democratising eco-social transformations, climate- and biodiversity disasters are approached as symptoms of a plural eco-social crisis. From an eco-feminist position, this crisis concerns notions of mastery and extractivism eroding human and societal capabilities to sustain the inherent regenerative capacities of the living. Grounded in critical utopian action research, the paper addresses four different dimensions in action research for eco-social transformation: i) enabling social learning spaces to make visible the ways we are socially and ecologically related; ii) re-imagining how we want to live and relate in wider ecologies; iii) seeking alternatives to mastery through tangible practices; and iv) enabling new organisational forms for societal reorganisation. Building on concrete cases from urban planning to rural and regenerative practice, this paper describes how these different perspectives can mutually strengthen action research for eco-social transformation.

In this article, we examine the development of a new, experiential learning human geography and planning course at a smaller campus in Newfoundland, Canada. Our interest is twofold: to consider how pedagogical approaches can be transferred between a large urban campus and a small-town location; and to examine the benefits and complications of such transfers through a reflective examination of the resulting experiential learning program. The article captures the experiences of students, faculty, and university engagement staff in the deployment of the course. From these perspectives, we situate the decision to transfer an existing program across universities, the nuances of adapting such programs to the local context, and the challenge of meeting student desires for experiential learning amidst experimental pedagogical approaches. The paper concludes by suggesting that transferring pedagogical models across locations requires flexibility in terms of ensuring that new modules fit existing program constraints, and that such transfers have the potential to both challenge and positively transform experiential learning processes.

According to the standard definition, creative ideas must be both novel and useful. While a handful of recent studies suggest that novelty is more important than usefulness to evaluations of creativity, little is known about the contextual and interpersonal factors that affect how people weigh these two components when making an overall creativity judgment. We used individual participant regressions and mixed-effects modeling to examine how the contributions of novelty and usefulness to ratings of creativity vary according to the context of the idea (i.e., how relevant it is to the real world) and the personality of the rater. Participants (N = 121) rated the novelty, usefulness, and creativity of ideas from two contexts: responses to the alternative uses task (AUT) and genuine suggestions for urban planning projects. We also assessed three personality traits of participants: openness, intellect, and risk-taking. We found that novelty contributed more to evaluations of creativity among AUT ideas than projects, while usefulness contributed more among projects than AUT ideas. Further, participants with higher openness and higher intellect placed a greater emphasis on novelty when evaluating AUT ideas, but a greater emphasis on usefulness when evaluating projects. No significant effects were found for the risk-taking trait.

Designing public space can take an interdisciplinary approach to urban space design by highlighting the relationship between urban design research and practice. This research attempts to educate students as 'researcher-designers' by applying practical techniques such as Place-check and Gehl's public life-tool in a review of how public space design is taught in a studio course on our Master's degree in Urban Design. This study uses action-research to engage 30 students attending the course entitled 'urban design studios' which focuses on Tehran's historic neighborhoods. The results indicate that applied 'evidence for design' based on soft and hard evidence can provide improved practical understanding of environmental quality issues in urban space design. Findings indicate that inviting citizens' opinions during the design phase leads to more reliable and useful design and planning processes. These initial steps in encouraging designers to solicit citizens' feedback could prove the stimulus for further participative action research which builds on students' improved understanding of design contexts.

This article presents experiences and reflections from two cases of problem-oriented project work working with action research in bottom-up urban planning and sustainable transition in Copenhagen. The first case concerns the involvement of local residents in the redesign of a public square through a series of aesthetic experiments. The second case concerns an experiment with alternative transport solutions and sustainable street transition through reduction of private car use and the creation of new public spaces on former parking lots. The article concludes that action research seems to be a promising way of involving students in processes of planning and sustainable urban transition. Seen from the perspective of external stakeholders, the students can make valuable contributions to the exploration of the potentials of places and the possible futures of communities, and they can assist in providing a knowledge base for planned experiments and initiatives. Seen from the perspective of the students, doing action research strengthens their understanding of "the logic of practice" and their ability to master practical and ethical judgments in complex real-world empowerment and learning processes.

In this paper, we present the project, Community Drive, as well as the theoretical and empirical background on which the project is based. Through technical and humanistic collaboration, the project aims to create models that allow children and young people to participate in overcoming future challenges in cities by becoming active and contributing participants in research and development efforts. Further, the project contributes knowledge about community-driven game tools, user-driven big data and the Internet of Things and their connection with intelligent and socially responsible urban development. The project is conducted in cooperation with the city of Copenhagen, local schools and Aalborg University. Community Drive involves students, aged 10-13, attending schools in deprived neighbourhoods near Aalborg University Copenhagen in southern Copenhagen. This area is characterised by a high rate of unemployment, low income and residents with little or no education. As a result, resources have been allocated for reconditioning the subsidised housing in this area. In this paper, we discuss the ways in which Community Drive, initiated in May 2018, is based on the results of pilot projects conducted from 2014 to 2017. Overall, these studies showed that tasking students with changing their living conditions by redesigning their neighbourhoods is a strong motivational factor. During the redesign process, students were able to construct game-based models of various residents' needs and argue for redesigns based on their knowledge about the area and the ability of certain designs to fulfil the needs of various groups of residents living in the area. We also present initial results from collaboration workshops between schools and professional external local partners. These results show that three themes are central for the collaboration process: building local contact, meaningful local ownership and real challenges and applicable solutions.

Shaping OurSpace was an urban planning project asking children to propose plans for a housing project phased for redevelopment. Our primary aim was building visual-spatial thinking. McCormack's (1988, 2011) hierarchical framework was used to operationalize visual-spatial thinking, and we believe that embodied cognition served as a vehicle for fostering visual-spatial thinking not only in rudimentary ways but also more conceptually. Thus, although our study did not depend on Piaget and Inhelder's (1956) developmental approach to spatial reasoning, their work provides theoretical insight that supports assumptions underlying our work. We highlight two areas of connection between Piaget and Inhelder's theory on spatial reasoning development and our methodology across the 2 phases of our project: (1) Piaget and Inhelder privilege sensorimotor experiences as the bases for spatial reasoning; and (2) Piaget and Inhelder argue that spatial reasoning occurs in 2 phases -- via perception and via imagination and thought. We argue that Piaget and Inhelder's arguments about spatial reasoning remain decidedly relevant in understanding how to potentially facilitate this reasoning in children.

The study aims to examine the relationship between art education and government policy towards sustainable urban development in Tehran. The mixed approach of quantitative and qualitative was adopted as the study design. Stratified sampling technique coupled with simple random sampling was used to sample 300 respondent for this study. Students, as well as development partners, were targeted. Both questionnaire and interviews for literate and non-literate respondents were used respectively. Likert scale questions were used to obtain the required data for the study. The study found that there is a strong relationship between art education and sustainable urban development in Tehran and hence more collaboration is required from the government and development partners to train engineers and Urban planners based on art education.