Curriculum development in health and the built environment: creating a multidisciplinary platform to enhance knowledge and engagement

The gap in capacity building on climate, health, and equity in built environment postsecondary education: a mixed-methods study

Institutions of higher education are feeling increasing pressure from both students and the international climate community to offer more courses and joint degrees on the role of the built environment in advancing climate action, population health, and social equity. The built environment plays a leading role in this new, transdisciplinary approach. Thoughtfully designed buildings, neighborhoods, and communities can simultaneously lower per capita greenhouse gas emissions, reduce population exposure to dangerous climate-sensitive extreme weather events, reduce disparities in climate-related health outcomes, and advance social equity goals. This mixed-methods study explored the extent to which post-secondary courses and joint degree programs teach students the research methods and technical skills they will need to design and implement built environment interventions addressing the effects of climate change on population health and social equity. The study found that the number of universities offering courses addressing climate, health, and equity in the built environment grew from 2018 to 2022. The number of joint planning/public health degree programs rose from four in 2005 to 15 in 2022. No joint architecture/public health degree programs were identified. A detailed review of 99 course descriptions from three universities found that 17 courses (roughly 1/5 of the total) covered population health, built environment, and climate change; and, 2/3 of the set (n = 60) covered two out of the three topics. Schools of public health were more likely to offer courses covering all three topics, whereas schools of architecture were more likely to include the building scale in relevant courses. Exposure pathways and social equity/vulnerable populations were the most common methods included in relevant courses. Professors and administrators at institutions identified by the study as "transdisciplinary-ready" reported that accreditation requirements and university rules governing the allocation of student tuition had slowed efforts to offer cross-listed courses. However, faculty in these institutions regularly collaborate informally with their peers - both on transdisciplinary research and by offering guest lectures in each other's courses. The results of this study show that, while universities have made great strides over the past 18 years in beginning to support transdisciplinary research and pedagogy, institutional barriers and gaps in key content areas remain.

Relating Student Engagement Indicators to Academic Performance Using Multiple Correspondence Analysis

Student engagement is an essential device for deepening learning, achieving learning outcomes, developing competencies, and improving academic performance in education settings. It is widely receiving increased attention among various scholars and higher education leaders. However, there are increasing concerns about the academic performance of students in higher education settings. The application of statistical data analytics for mining student engagement datasets is a candidate strategy for discovering essential indicators associated with academic performance. However, widely used data analytic methods like principal component analysis are ineffective when most of the indicators captured are categorical, making them inappropriate for establishing the weighty academic performance indicators. This study’s objective was to investigate the application of multiple correspondence analysis to establish weighty student engagement indicators of academic performance. This study’s findings have indicated that higher-order learning and student-staff interaction are weighty indicators that relate student engagement to academic performance.

Lack of Pregraduate Teaching on the Associations between the Built Environment, Physical Activity and Health in Swiss Architecture and Urban Design Degree Programs

BACKGROUND

Lack of physical activity (PA) is the fourth risk factor for all-cause mortality. Regular PA reduces noncommunicable disease (NCD) and mortality risk. The built environment (BE) is a determinant of spontaneous daily PA. Professionals who plan and build the BE therefore affect public health. We tested the hypothesis of a lack of formal pregraduate training about associations between the BE, PA and health in architecture, landscape architecture, and urban design academic degree programs (DPs) in Switzerland.

METHODS

We reached out to all DPs in Switzerland to ask if and how these associations are taught. For those declaring to teach the topic, the program syllabus and course material were inspected.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

For 30 out of 33 identified programs, information for the analysis was obtained. A total of 18 declared teaching the BE, PA and health associations, but this could be confirmed for only 5 after verifying the course content. Teaching principles of building PA-promoting BE represents an underutilized potential for public health promotion.

CONCLUSIONS

There is a need to introduce formal learning objectives in architecture, landscape architecture, and urban design DPs in Switzerland on the associations between BE, PA and health. It is likely that similar needs exist in other countries.