Assessing the effectiveness of self-directed learning as a teaching intervention in urban planning education

Self-directed learning (SDL) is an educational strategy in which students take charge of their own learning. It incorporates the guidance of an instructor in setting learning materials, with students choosing how and when to learn and evaluating their own performance. SDL is utilised in urban planning education and can support the ability of students to address real-world problems they may encounter as a professional planner. Despite the utilisation of SDL within planning education, there is a limited body of research which assesses the impact of this as a teaching intervention. This paper adds to this body of research through explaining how an Action Research (AR) project was used to assess the impact of an SDL intervention within the University of Dundee’s Urban Conservation module. AR is a method of systematic enquiry used by instructors who wish to review their own practice. This AR project enabled an evaluation of the effectiveness of the SDL teaching intervention. The outcomes of the pilot AR project provide evidence that the SDL intervention was successful in improving student understanding of a range of urban planning and conservation issues. In addition, it gave the students the opportunity to apply their learning from the module to a real-world context, enhancing their understanding of professional practice. The methodology of the AR project could be applied to assess the impact of SDL across a range of other degree modules. In doing so, instructors should remain conscious of the implications and limitations of SDL as outlined in this paper.