Abstract:

The premise of this study is that in order to build confidence, enhance problem-solving, model ethical environmental and cultural responsibility, which are necessary to be a professional landscape designer today, we need to more regularly engage landscape design students with stakeholders and hands-on experiences.

Although much has been studied about skill development, the impacts of learning within a service-learning context is less prevalent. Further, while these experiences are a challenge for faculty to orchestrate, engaged learning has implications for enriching student learning and fostering a positive professional attitude.

This study describes the course organization and the learning outcomes identified through student’s perception of how they evolved during the learning experience. The results describe the impacts, which reveal challenges and reinforce the value of teaching landscape design with hands-on service learning course. This work tackles the challenge of teaching a design course that builds skills and critical thinking abilities while applying them in a service-learning design project that weaves throughout the course. It showcases how to use the design process and the critical thinking cycle to structure the course and design project process. This will help faculty to structure a service-learning (community engaged) component in their design courses. It provides a description of impacts to student learning that make the extra effort worthwhile.

Keywords:

Service learning, professionalism, responsibility, hands-on, design thinking, education, ethics, confidence.