Teaching and Studying Planning Practice: An Analysis of the "Planning and Institutional Processes" Course at MIT

This article assesses an innovative experiment in the teaching and study of planning practice. It reports upon the "Planning and Institutional Processes" core course, taught in the Fall of 1985, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Department of Urban Studies and Planning. This course sought to expose students to different styles of practice (exemplified by the professional work of faculty in the Department), to engage students in correspondingly diverse classroom exercises, and to enable students and faculty together to reflect upon these multiple possibilities of planning practice.