First Year Experience and Planning Studio Pedagogics

Abstract

Studio Pedagogy is usually the realm of Architecture and the Arts rather than Planning. As student numbers increase and academic institutions place pressure on staff to achieve more with less and to improve student retention and heighten the first year experience, appropriate and effective pedagogies become critical. Planning studios in most Australian Universities have been re thought and restructured in recent years and Griffith University is no exception. Our paper will draw upon some of the literature on first year experience and studio teaching and learning in general and look at what is happening in other first year planning programs in Australia. We will draw upon the changes made to the first year planning studio at Griffith's Gold Coast campus and comment on possibilities for and relevance of planning studios; specifically in relation to the first year experience and as a means to address the institutional call for excellence in teaching and learning.