Redesigning a Course Using Action Research to Renovate an Undergraduate Curriculum in Architecture

Abstract

Architectural education is a time-intensive endeavor, typically resulting in a high number of student dropouts. In an effort to address better matriculation, faculty in an architecture and interior design program instituted course redesigns for an introductory lecture course within the undergraduate curriculum over the course of two academic years. This resulted in significant changes to the course structure and the course content, as well as to adjacent courses within the first-year curriculum. Through the implementation of the course redesigns, researchers realized that the process of redesign resembles the process of action research. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how action research can apply to course redesign in higher education. The research questions that guided this study were: (1) How is action research applied to redesign an architecture and interior design program? and (2) What does course redesign as action research look like within a course setting in higher education? This article strives to make clear the connection between course redesign and action research by organizing the course redesigns into an integrated action research model. The implications and discussion based on the research findings will also be provided for applying action research to redesign courses in higher education.