DrPaula Russell

My aim in my teaching is to facilitate student learning, to motivate my students to learn and to encourage the development of autonomous, deep learners. Motivated by my research interests I believe that collectively we should try to create places where everyone can live safe, rewarding fulfilling lives. The planning profession has a role in this and as a teacher on a planning programme, which educates students to play a future role in that profession, I am motivated to instill an appreciation of these issues in my students. To this end I integrate this research into my teaching practice. The modules I teach focus on: engaging the public in the planning process (Community Development and Planning BSc CPEP); and on the development of skills and knowledge in relation to the local plan and development plan making process (Local Planning Studio, BSc CPEP) (Planning Studio: Plan Making, MRUP). 

As a professional discipline there are differing points of view on how to balance the requirements to focus teaching and learning on skills which are needed by the Spatial Planning graduate to enter the workforce and be employable, and to teach planning as a field of study (Ritchie et al. 2015:3). As a teacher and a member of the planning profession, I aim to ensure that both elements are valued and taught. Therefore, students engage with the theory as well as the practice of planning in all of the modules I teach. Where practicable and possible I integrate a component of field study, practice engagement (field trips and shadowing days) in addition to practical exercises within my modules.

As a teacher I try to be empathetic and understanding of students and their learning needs. To this end my teaching is embedded within constructivist and social constructivist theoretical frameworks (Bruner, 1962; Kay and Kibble, 2016, Vgotsky, 1978). These theoretical paradigms emphasize that individual learners come with their own constructs of the world derived from knowledge and experience, and that a range of learning styles exist and are valuable . As knowledge is always in the process of being constructed, my teaching methods provide students with the opportunity to reflect on their existing knowledge and experience, which then makes new experience and concepts more understandable from the students’ own perspective. As a teacher, I see my role as a guide, working collaboratively with students in order that we can co-produce knowledge, providing them with the necessary supports and direction to develop.