Experiential Pedagogy as a Teaching Tool For Students of Urban Design and Landscape Planning
Abstract: Currently, the Department of Urban Design, Town and Regional Planning provides students with the teaching of the basics of urbanism, landscape architecture as well as town and village planning. Within the framework of specific subjects, students attend a series of professional lectures, which are supplemented by exercises on the premises of the faculty. Especially in the field of urbanism and spatial planning, the condition for passing the course is usually an independent thesis-syllabi, in which students create a proposal, consult experts or apply theoretical knowledge from lectures. This is a standardized approach, used by probably all universities that teach these subjects. However, it follows from experience, official evaluations of students, or unofficial debates that this method of teaching does not bring students the expected level of knowledge and understanding. The contribution deals with the possibilities of innovative approaches to the teaching itself, the practical grasp of theoretical parts that are often meaningless to students or popularizing and made accessible by the spectrum of these disciplines. Some of these approaches can also be applied to the lay public of various age categories. The article shows activities that are used especially in the teaching of the students of the subjects urbanism 2, Basics of urbanism, and Rural settlement planning. The given interactive inputs to teaching, which fulfill the principles of experiential pedagogy, include activities in the school environment, outside the faculty, or in a virtual environment (this environment was created in connection with the need for interactions during The COVID-19 pandemic). Almost all of the demonstrated approaches represent a demanding, but highly attractive, innovative, and effective educational tool that can be successfully used in both school and extra-curricular education and training. The theoretical basis of these inputs is the phenomena of experiential pedagogy and simulation games and their potential to positively influence human development at every level of education.
