Abstract:

Over the last 20 years, since joining various international organizations and signing the ECFA with China, Taiwan has experienced an increasing rise in national competitiveness. Thus, the architecture departments at various schools have begun striving for globalization. This study explores the professional competencies and attitudes required of teaching assistants (TAs) of architectural design to improve the teaching quality of architectural design curricula. First, we designed a questionnaire based on relevant literature. We then distributed these questionnaires among students of architecture departments, who were the study subjects. SPSS was employed as an assessment tool to obtain students’ perceptions of the professional competencies and attitudes required of TAs. Regarding “professional competencies,” most participants believed that TAs should possess basic professional competence. However, for the “attitude of assistant teachers,” most participants stated that TAs should have a more active role in bridging the communication gap between teachers and students to further reduce the load on teachers. Based on these findings, this study provides the MOE and architecture institutes with practical recommendations regarding architectural design curricula and students’ expectations of TAs. We hope these recommendations can contribute to a more refined architectural design syllabus that increases students’ willingness to learn and facilitates excellent teaching outcomes.

Keywords:

Department of Architecture, architectural design, teaching assistants, professional competency.