In the second half of today's class we will discuss the importance of reflection in becoming a good sustainability planning practitioner, review your progress in getting started with Google Sites through creating a preliminary posting, and discuss basic facilitation skills. Note the questions we will explore in the agenda below as you do the preparatory reading.
The chapter from Lang and Taylor is focused on the importance of reflection in moving as a mediator from being a novice, to an apprentice, to a practitioner, and ultimately to being an artist. However, you can substitute the word "planner" for "mediator" throughout the chapter and it is almost totally relevant to your developmental interests. You will read how Lang and Taylor's ideas are based on Donald Schon's seminal books: Educating the Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action (1983), and The Reflective Practitioner (1987). Even though Schon is regarded as a major influence on planning theory and practice, I don't know of any writing by him or anyone else as accessible as Lang and Taylor's presentation. The article by Manns in the Supplementary Readings demonstrates how ideas on reflection are being built into the curriculum for planning education in the UK. Many of her suggestions have been part of SCARP's curriculum for some time. In the second part of this session we will discuss how your work on the Individual Assignment can be a means for beginning to develop your habit of reflection.
By now, from what you have read and ways we have been working in the class, you will have begun to appreciate the importance of productive group work and the facilitation of it in planning practice. Read the paper on Basic Facilitation Skills to begin developing your ideas on how to strengthen your approaches and the techniques you employ. In the last part of the session we will talk about your experiences to date with the good, the bad and the ugly in group work and explore the implications of the reading for how you can proceed better in the future.
September 27: The UBC Sustainability Initiative: Our Campus As A Living Lab
Lang, M.D. and Taylor, A. 2000. The Making of a Mediator: Developing Artistry in Practice. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. (pp. i-22) Omnibus Materials
Basic Facilitation Skills. 2002. Published by Human Leadership and Development Division of The American Society of Quality; The Association for Quality and Participation; and The International Association of Facilitators.
Manns. S. 2003. Developing the Reflective Practitioner Through Work Experience: a small-scale investigation into the benefits of integrating a range of workplace experience into a full-time professional postgraduate town planning course, Journal of Further and Higher Education 27.1 (pp. 77-88) Omnibus Materials