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NTNU – THE FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE AND FINE ART
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The formation of architects who will be able to respond
appropriately and effectively to a society determined by
complexity, uncertainty, risk and speed can be usefully
considered in terms of the
knowledge
, the
skills
and the
values
they will need to acquire, and at what levels in the
programme. Increasing complexity of understanding
in any programme of professional development is not
characterised simply by more connections between con-
ceptions. Some connections are held to be valid whilst
others are not. Super-ordinate conceptions or threshold
concepts require a
transformation
of more basic concepts,
so that these become aligned with an emerging structure
of understanding that fosters distinctive
ways of thinking
and practising
within a profession. These distinctive ways
of thinking and practising lead to a particular disposition
of the architect that the School is seeking to develop. In
this way personal transformation can lead to social action
of a critical, reflective and ethical nature. Transformative
learning involves profound personal change, but such
change will emerge from dialectic engagement among
a group of learners and teachers with diverse perspec-
tives. A pressing challenge for the School is to reach
consensus on which skills, knowledge and values should
be emphasised and experienced within the curriculum at
Bachelor’s and Master’s levels, what kind of ontological
shifts should be designed into the curriculum and what
kinds of architectural disposition are desirable and should
be encouraged.
6. Transformative Learning in architecture
– knowledge, skills and values