Teaching with influence : an analysis of teaching methods used at the course of control systems in buildings

Abstract EN

The course of the control systems in buildings was an elective course offered to junior students in credit-hour system at Ain Shams University in Egypt .The course aimed at providing students, who are not energy experts, with a tool that enables them to use energy consequences in designing sustainable buildings, in addition to enhancing critical thinking.

To fulfill the course objective, a group of non-systematic teaching methods were applied.

Thus the main goal of this paper is examining the application of a group of methods, in environmental design education, to promote critical thinking, to go beyond the limits of academic teaching and to influence students while creating an effective learning environment.

This approach is fulfilled through the analysis of the course entitled: “Control Systems in Buildings”, where different teaching methods, techniques and tools were adopted, including debate, case studies analysis, mind mapping, teamwork and various decision-making techniques.

The main challenge was that these students were not architecture specialists, as their curriculum concentrates on other issues including civil works and management, in addition to environmental courses.

The paper conducted analyses of the case study of the course, where the tasks performed by students, together with an evaluation of their satisfaction with the course and its overall impact on their environmental awareness, choices and exam results were analyzed.

The results of this analysis, though very beneficial to any instructor working in the field of environmental education, should be limited to elective courses including a small number of students, to be fully beneficial.