Abstract:

The question "How can we make city?" initiates the pedagogical process of the teaching innovation carried out in the subject Urban Development Management and Control of the third academic year of the Grade of Building Engineering of the University of Seville.

This teaching innovation aims to transform the traditional teaching model into a new one based on participatory strategies. The innovation was carried out during the academic year 2014-2015. From two improvement cycles, it is possible to establish guidelines to apply lessons learned in the development of the teaching of future academic years.

The first improvement cycle is focused on the instrumental knowledge of town planning and its real application in Andalusian municipalities. On the other hand, the second improvement cycle comprehends analysis and practical implementation of the knowledge and skills acquired, by means of the study of a piece of news connected with town planning.

The experience developed starts from the analysis of previous teaching activity and subject contents. The first step consists of answering questions such as: what is the essential of the subject?; what is the complementary of the subject?; how is the subject structured?; what relations are indispensable to give sense to the essential contents identified?; how do we build relations between contents?; how can we organize the sequence of contents?; how do we learn?; what steps are required to acquire an autonomous, deep and collaborative knowledge?.

All preceding questions invite us to reflect on our teaching experience. Furthermore, in our teaching innovation activities, these questions are taken as the initial element of the development of the pedagogical process.

Hence, sessions developed in class are based on asking questions and the learning process is supported by the development and presentation of projects.

The activities carried out in class pursue the following goals: the reconnassaince of the elements that define the city; the establishment of connections between urban landscape, city and town planning instruments; the identification of urban areas; and, finally, the search of a better understanding of the urban reality through town planning instruments.

The learning process methodology begins with the formulation of a global question, that has to be able to provoke in the students curiosity and interest for its solution and for the search of answers. This initial question is permanently present and sets a reference for different approaches of the problem solution that may arise in class.

Therefore, contents are developed through questions. These questions are connected with specific projects, so that students can learn specific concepts in the context of a concrete reality.

The construction of a suitable working environment in class becomes essential to foster collaborative work; thus students can ask themselves questions, share doubts, advances and progress with their peers.

The global questions asked should be able to be divided in smaller queries, facilitating their study and analysis by parts. The importance of the drawing of diagrams and sketches is also highlighted in the teaching innovation experience.

In summary, the teaching innovation activities proposed are focused on the implementation of alternative teaching methods from the traditional ones in order to allow students to learn in an autonomous, deep and collaborative way.

Keywords:

City, town planning instrument, teaching innovation, questions, teaching-learning process.