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School of Architecture

Teaching of the highest quality is essential to the mission of the School of Architecture. Excellence in teaching weighs heavily in all hiring, reappointment, tenure, and promotion decisions. It is also a major criterion for merit pay. All courses are taught by the faculty. Student teaching assistants perform valuable service as discussion sections leaders, studio assistants, and research assistants. The four departments of the School, Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Architectural History and Planning, have for many years engaged in discussions of curriculum and pedagogy which have resulted in such initiatives as interdisciplinary courses, team-taught studios, and informal brown bag lunches with faculty and students sharing recent research or practice and matters of mutual academic concern. The emphasis on studio teaching in several departments of the School fosters an academic environment conducive to interdisciplinary work in a public forum. All members of the School are encouraged to attend reviews of student work. Visiting critics from professional offices and other academic institutions provide valuable feedback on the quality of studio work. In addition to studio classes, the School offers numerous lecture courses and seminars, several of which are team-taught by members of the various departments. Faculty are encouraged to make full use of the Teaching Resource Center and they are informed by the Dean's office and Chairs regarding resources for the development of teaching within the university.

The Conversation on Teaching has served to further this ongoing discussion by initiating a healthy re-examination of policies regarding teaching evaluation, development, and incentives. This re-examination has resulted in several recommendations which are intended to further the School's ongoing quest for teaching excellence.

The Conversation proceeded as follows. An Ad-Hoc Committee on Teaching composed of junior and senior faculty representing the four departments of the School provided all faculty members with a succinct summary of present policies in the School regarding teaching evaluation, development, and incentives, along with a brief questionnaire soliciting their critique of these policies. They were also provided with a copy of "Self-Study Recommendations and Selected Practices for the Evaluation and Improvement of Teaching at UVA." In addition, committee members scheduled individual discussions and, in some instances, departmental discussions of these materials. On the basis of these questionnaires, dialogues and its own deliberations, the Ad-Hoc Committee formulated several recommendations to the faculty of the entire School. These recommendations will be critiqued by the faculty of the four departments in a special meeting and the discussion will continue.

The Ad-Hoc Committee, in formulating its recommendations, sought to avoid the hazard of over-regulation, which would stifle sound judgment and shackle creative initiative. It has produced a brief list of initiatives which it believes, if acted upon, will have immediate beneficial results and will lead to additional initiatives in an ongoing effort.

The recommendations are as follows and are not listed in any order of priority:

  1. Create a faculty handbook for the School of Architecture, which will serve as a supplement to the University's faculty handbook. The handbook will deal with procedures of evaluation and resources for development particular to the School of Architecture. In brief, it will inform faculty what is expected of them, the criteria by which they will be evaluated, and the resources for development available to them.
  2. Rewrite the present student course evaluation questionnaire, which is used in the mandatory end of the semester evaluation of all courses within the School.
  3. Encourage mentoring and reward it. Junior faculty should be urged by departmental chairs to seek a mentor of their own choosing. Effective mentorship should be recognized as a form of service and administration and rewarded as such in promotion and merit pay decisions. Mentorship need not be confined to senior faculty. Junior faculty can serve as valuable mentors to senior faculty in certain instances, such as the use of new teaching technology. The value of such service by junior faculty should be recognized in merit pay, reappointment, and tenure decisions.
  4. Establish Architecture School Awards for Teaching Excellence. At present such awards are granted by the university, the state, or professional organizations. Such awards should not be monetary, but honorific.
  5. Create a Committee on Teaching and Curriculum in the School, which would serve to further efforts towards an interdisciplinary curriculum at the graduate and undergraduate levels and create a forum for innovation and effective pedagogy.

Respectfully submitted by the Ad Hoc Committee on Teaching of the School of Architecture:

Charlie Menefee; Kevin Murphy; Ayse Pamuk; Kathy Poole; Reuben Rainey; Theo van Groll