Values and transformative learning

This chapter focuses on the basic premise with special attention to values-based pedagogy in professional design education. It explores the importance of foregrounding values in and for landscape architects, and explains the structure and intent of an online course in landscape history developed and taught over several years at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. In professional degree programs, one way to open up the conversation on values is through teaching the social and humanistic history of landscape design. A variety of active learning techniques are used including peer-to-peer teaching, role-playing, debates, appreciation of historical construction methods, analysis of fictional accounts, and visual essays showing how local landscapes may encode personal values for the students. The community of inquiry can safely explore techniques for opening up challenging formative, even transformative, and conversations about the values—some of them problematic—inhering within contemporary landscapes.