DEBATE AS A LEARNING STRATEGY. FLIP TEACHING AND USE OF ICTS

This text describes a teaching innovation experience in the framework of the department of Architectural Composition of Universitat Politècnica de València in three different subjects: Architectural Conservation (obligatory fifth-year subject from the Degree in Foundations of Architecture), Conservation of Non monumental Historic architecture (elective subject from the Master’s in Architecture) and Theory and History of Conservation (obligatory subject in the Official Master’s in Conservation of Architectural Heritage). The three subjects, worth important credits in theory, focus on skills based on the critical development of interlinked cultural, technological and material aspects of built historic architecture and criteria for intervention in architectural heritage. To do so the crucial flip teaching methodology, which encourages debate and confrontation, is particularly interesting.

For the last few years the syllabi for these subjects have included a series of debates which students prepare for by studying the literature, initially working outside the classroom and promoting debate and critical analysis of these texts by specialists, theorists and/or regulation guidelines relating to architectural, monumental, traditional or vernacular conservation.

The current proposal for these debate activities has been the introduction of digital technologies as a tool to encourage debate between students, making the activity more dynamic. The Socrative online platform was used in this experience as an immediate feedback tool, mainly because of the immediate response it offers to the questions posed, which could relate to the opinion held by the students, their degree of understanding of previously explained concepts or any other information whose interpretation could improve the learning process.