Teaching Beyond the Curriculum

Abstract

Construction details are vitally important to meet the intended purpose of buildings and make them efficient. The majority of architecture and/or construction schools concentrate on various sustainability related subjects such as energy efficiency, life cycle costs and climate issues, therefore giving less consideration to promoting students’ knowledge about construction details. Providing students with an adequate knowledge of detailing is more illustrated since functional failures are frequently associated with poorly designed details. In addition, designing and developing construction details is becoming more intricate due to the production of new materials and/or development of construction techniques. Moreover, students who are admitted in architecture and/or construction schools have often different level of knowledge about construction details. This study conducts a survey research to evaluate the effectiveness of using a variety of teaching methods in order to promote undergraduate students’ knowledge about the construction details. The analyses of results indicate that while using various teaching methods is beneficial for the development of future skills, it requires a thoughtful and realistic planning.