Barbara Illsley - Chancellor’s Award for Lifetime Contribution to Teaching
Published on Thu 15 Jan 2015
Barbara Illsley, Senior Lecturer in Town and Regional Planning and winner of the University of the Dundee Chancellor’s Award for Lifetime Contribution to Teaching in 2014, presented a Discovery Days lecture on 9 January, 2015, entitled ‘The education of tomorrow’s town planners’.
Barbara explained that town planning has a long history both as an academic discipline and a professional activity dating back over a century. This dual identity presents educators with challenges and opportunities; graduates need to have both in-depth knowledge and understanding of the discipline while also demonstrating the professional competencies required by the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI). One of the best ways of integrating these elements successfully is to design courses which take the students out of the class room and into the real world where they can observe, ask questions, and interact with practitioners and the public. This approach is summed up by the famous phrase of Sir Patrick Geddes, Professor of Botany at Dundee and a founding member of the RTPI, ‘by creating we think, by living we learn’.
Barbara went onto discuss three recent projects undertaken by Dundee planning students which have been successful in integrating knowledge, skills and values; Dundee Civic Award, a design centred exercise carried out in collaboration with Dundee City Council; a ‘cases panel’ where students review planning applications affecting the conservation area in St Andrews to assist St Andrews Preservation Trust; and a joint project with primary 7 pupils at St Mary’s Primary School looking at future employment in the city. While each of these initiatives were of value to students in different ways, they all helped to build student confidence and develop their understanding planning in the real world.