Teaching Students How to Read and Assess Plan Content

Abstract

Few studies assess methods for teaching students how to evaluate plans. To fill this gap, we designed and analyzed a plan assessment exercise conducted during a ten-week, online undergraduate course with ninety students. We find that student understanding of plan knowledge and skills increased significantly after the plan assessment exercise with students reporting increased interest to engage in planning. This study can be used to inform planning pedagogy both within planning programs and as planners engage the public in plan reading and evaluation.

Keywords

active learning pedagogy plan assessment student learning

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Alexander

2001. “What Do Planners Need to Know?” Journal of Planning Education and Research 20 (3): 376–80.

Arnstein

S. R.

1969. “A Ladder of Citizen Participation.” Journal of the American Institute of Planners 35 (4): 216–24.

Authority for and Scope of General Plans, CA Government Code, Section § 65300.5 and § 65302 (2023). https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayText.xhtml?lawCode=GOV&division=1.&title=7.&part=&chapter=3.&article=5.

Baer

C. W.

1997. “General Plan Evaluation Criteria: An Approach to Making Better Plans.” Journal of the American Planning Association 63 (3): 329–44.

Balsas

2012. “What About Plan Evaluation? Integrating Evaluation in Urban Planning Studio’s Pedagogy.” Planning Practice and Research 27 (4): 475–94.

Banginwar

Antonio

Lopez

Poirier

Ghosh

Dettmann

Brinkley

2023. “General Plan Database Mapping Tool (v3. 0). Zenodo.” doi:10.5281/zenodo.7508689.

Berke

Godschalk

2009. “Searching for the Good Plan: A Meta-Analysis of Plan Quality Studies.” Journal of Planning Literature 23 (3): 227–40.

Berke

Kates

Malecha

Masterson

Shea

2021. “Using a Resilience Scorecard to Improve Local Planning for Vulnerability to Hazards and Climate Change: An Application in Two Cities.” Cities 119:103408.

Berke

P. R.

Conroy

M. M.

2000. “Are We Planning for Sustainable Development? An Evaluation of 30 Comprehensive Plans.” Journal of the American Planning Association 66 (1): 21–33.

10.

Berke

P. R.

French

S. P.

1994. “The Influence of State Planning Mandates on Local Plan Quality.” Journal of Planning Education and Research 13 (4): 237–50.

11.

Berke

P. R.

Godschalk

D. R.

Kaiser

E. J.

Rodriguez

D. A.

2006. Urban Land Use Planning. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press.

12.

Berke

P. R.

Matthew

M. L.

Lee

Masterson

J. H.

2019. “Plan Integration for Resilience Scorecard: Evaluating Networks of Plans in six US Coastal Cities.” Journal of Environmental Planning and Management 62 (5): 901–20.

13.

Brinkley

Wagner

2024. “Who Is Planning for Environmental Justice—and How?” Journal of the American Planning Association 90 (1): 63–76.

14.

Brody

S. D.

Godschalk

D. R.

Burby

R. J.

2003. “Mandating Citizen Participation in Plan Making: Six Strategic Planning Choices.” Journal of the American Planning Association 69 (3): 245–64. 10.1080/01944360308978018.

15.

Bunnell

Jepson

E. R.

Jr.

2011. “The Effect of Mandated Planning on Plan Quality: A Fresh Look at What Makes “a Good Plan.” Journal of the American Planning Association 77 (4): 338–53.

16.

Burby

Dalton

1994. “Plans Can Matter! The Role of Land Use Plans and State Planning Mandates in Limiting the Development of Hazardous Areas.” Public Administration Review 54 (3): 229–38. doi:10.2307/976725.

17.

Burby

R. J.

2003. “Making Plans That Matter: Citizen Involvement and Government Action.” Journal of the American Planning Association 69 (1): 33–49. doi:10.1080/01944360308976292.

18.

California Environmental Justice Alliance. 2021. “2021 Environmental Justice Scorecard.” https://caleja.org/2022/03/2021-environmental-justice-scorecard-read-today/.

19.

Chittum

J. R.

Enke

K. A.

Finley

A. P.

2022. “The Effects of Community-Based and Civic Engagement in Higher Education: What We Know and Questions That Remain.” American Association of Colleges and Universities.

20.

Conroy

M. M.

Berke

P. R.

2004. “What Makes a Good Sustainable Development Plan? An Analysis of Factors That Influence Principles of Sustainable Development.” Environment and Planning A 36 (8): 1381–96.

21.

Dalton

2007. “Preparing Planners for the Breadth of Practice: What We Need to Know Depends on Whom We Ask.” Journal of the American Planning Association 73 (1): 35–48. doi:10.1080/01944360708976135.

22.

Das

Tadj

Cloudwatcher

Ho-Schar

2020. “Future Planning Practitioners and the “Waipahu Talk Story”: Learning from and Reflecting on Participation.” Journal of Planning Education and Research. doi:10.1177/0739456X20954536.

23.

Dong

Farahmand

Mostafavi

Berke

P. R.

Vedlitz

2020. “Institutional Connectedness in Resilience Planning and Management of Interdependent Infrastructure Systems.” Journal of Management in Engineering 36 (6).

24.

Fox-Rogers

Murphy

2016. “Self-Perceptions of the Role of the Planner.” Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design 43 (1): 74–92.

25.

2024. “Natural Language Processing in Urban Planning: A Research Agenda.” Journal of Planning Literature 39 (9), 395–407.

26.

Wang

2024. “Can ChatGPT Evaluate Plans?” Journal of the American Planning Association 90 (3): 525–36.

27.

Guyadeen

Seasons

2016. “Plan Evaluation: Challenges and Directions for Future Research.” Planning Practice & Research 31 (2): 215–28.

28.

Hattie

Timperley

2007. “The Power of Feedback.” Review of Educational Research 77 (1): 81–112.

29.

Hudson

T. D.

Means

D. R.

Tish

2020. “Discovering My Agency: Exploring how Youth Participatory Action Research Facilitates the Development of Capital by Underserved Youth in a College Access Program.” Teachers College Record 122 (1): 1–38. doi:10.1177/016146812012200109.

30.

Identification of disadvantaged communities for investment opportunities, CA Health & Safety Code, Section § 39711 (2021). https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayText.xhtml?lawCode=HSC&division=26.&title=&part=2.&chapter=4.1.&article=.

31.

Kaczmarek

Iwaniak

Świetlicka

Piwowarczyk

Nadolny

2022. “A Machine Learning Approach for Integration of Spatial Development Plans Based on Natural Language Processing.” Sustainable Cities and Society 76:103479.

32.

Khakee

2000. “Reading Plans as an Exercise in Evaluation.” Evaluation 6 (2): 119–36.

33.

King

C. S.

Feltey

K. M.

Susel

B. O.

1998. “The Question of Participation: Toward Authentic Public Participation in Public Administration.” Public Administration Review 58 (4): 317–26.

34.

Kinzer

2016. “Missed Connections: A Critical Analysis of Interconnections Between Public Participation and Plan Implementation Literature.” Journal of Planning Literature 31 (3): 299–316.

35.

Knaap

G. J.

Ding

Hopkins

L. D.

2001. “Do Plans Matter? The Effects of Light Rail Plans on Land Values in Station Areas.” Journal of Planning Education and Research 21 (1): 32–39. doi:10.1177/0739456X0102100103.

36.

Knaap

G. J.

Hopkins

L. D.

Donaghy

K. P.

1998. “Do Plans Matter? A Game-Theoretic Model for Examining the Logic and Effects of Land Use Planning.” Journal of Planning Education and Research 18 (1): 25–34.

37.

Lauria

Long

2017. “Planning Experience and Planners’ Ethics.” Journal of the American Planning Association 83 (2): 202–20.

38.

Lauria

Slotterback

C. S.

2020. Learning from Arnstein’s Ladder: From Citizen Participation to Public Engagement. New York: Routledge.

39.

Laurian

Crawford

Day

Kouwenhoven

Mason

Ericksen

Beattie

2010. “Evaluating the Outcomes of Plans: Theory, Practice, and Methodology.” Environment and Planning B, Planning & Design 37 (4): 740.

40.

Roy

Mostafavi

Berke

2021. “A Plan Evaluation Framework for Examining Stakeholder Policy Preferences in Resilience Planning and Management of Urban Systems.” Environmental Science & Policy 124:125–34.

41.

Liao

Warner

M. E.

Homsy

G. C.

2020. “When Do Plans Matter? Tracking Changes in Local Government Sustainability Actions from 2010 to 2015.” Journal of the American Planning Association 86 (1): 60–74.

42.

Loh

C. G.

Kim

2021. “Are We Planning for Equity? Equity Goals and Recommendations in Local Comprehensive Plans.” Journal of the American Planning Association 87 (2): 181–96.

43.

Lyles

Stevens

2014. “Plan Quality Evaluation 1994–2012: Growth and Contributions, Limitations, and New Directions.” Journal of Planning Education and Research 34 (4): 433–50.

44.

Mandelbaum

S. J.

1990. “Reading Plans.” Journal of the American Planning Association 56 (3): 350–58.

45.

Millard-Ball

2013. “The Limits to Planning: Causal Impacts of City Climate Action Plans.” Journal of Planning Education and Research 33 (1): 5–19.

46.

Morgan

E. D.

Osborne

Mackey

2022. “Evaluating Planning Without Plans: Principles, Criteria and Indicators for Effective Forest Landscape Approaches.” Land Use Policy 115:106031.

47.

Mui

Khojasteh

Judelsohn

Sirwatka

Kelly

Gooch

Raja

. 2021. “Planning for Regional Food Equity.” Journal of the American Planning Association 87 (3): 354–69. doi:10.1080/01944363.2020.1845781.

48.

Noth

Tonzer

2022. “Understanding Climate Activism: Who Participates in Climate Marches such as “Fridays for Future” and What Can We Learn from It?” Energy Research & Social Science 84:102360.

49.

Padt

F. J. G.

Bose

Luloff

A. E.

2023. “Teaching Public Engagement in Research Using the Engagement Tool.” Journal of Planning Education and Research 43 (4): 766–72.

50.

Patton

M. Q.

2008. Utilization-focused Evaluation, 4th ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

51.

Peel

2000. “The Teacher and Town Planner as Facilitator.” Innovations in Education and Training International 37 (4): 372–80.

52.

Poirier

Antonio

Dettmann

Eng

Ganata

Ghosh

Lopez

Karma

Natekal

Brinkley

2024. “Making Plans Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable With Data Infrastructure: A Search Engine for Constructing, Analyzing, and Visualizing Planning Documents.” Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science 51 (8): 1913–30.

53.

Quick

K. S.

Feldman

M. S.

2011. “Distinguishing Participation and Inclusion.” Journal of Planning Education and Research 31 (3): 272–90. doi:10.1177/0739456X11410979.

54.

Reckien

Salvia

Heidrich

Church

J. M.

Pietrapertosa

De Gregorio-Hurtado

D’Alonzo

Foley

Simoes

S. G.

Lorencová

E. K.

, et al 2018. “How Are Cities Planning to Respond to Climate Change? Assessment of Local Climate Plans from 885 cities in the EU-28.” Journal of Cleaner Production 191:207–19.

55.

Ryan

B. D.

2011. “Reading Through a Plan: A Visual Interpretation of What Plans Mean and How They Innovate.” Journal of the American Planning Association 77 (4): 309–27.

56.

Seltzer

Ozawa

C. P.

2002. “Clear Signals: Moving on to Planning’s Promise.” Journal of Planning Education and Research 22 (1): 77–86.

57.

Steinberg

2018. Promoting Food Security for UC Davis Students: Report and Recommendations of the Chancellor’s Task Force on Student Food Security. Davis, CA: University of California, Davis.

58.

Susskind

Cunningham

Cruxên

A. I.

2018. “Teaching Participatory Action Research: The Search for Pedagogical Insights.” In Participatory Action Research, edited by Calder

Foletta

, 125–150. Hauppauge, NY: Nova Science Publishers.

59.

Talen

1996. “Do Plans Get Implemented? A Review of Evaluation in Planning.” Journal of Planning Literature 10 (3): 248–59.

60.

Brand

A. D.

Berke

2020. “Making Room for the River: Applying a Plan Integration for Resilience Scorecard to a Network of Plans in Nijmegen, the Netherlands.” Journal of the American Planning Association 86 (4): 417–30.

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

0.19 MB