Rethinking the Crit

Assessment in architecture and creative arts schools has traditionally adopted a ‘one size fits all’ approach by using the ‘crit’, where students pin up their work, make a presentation and receive verbal feedback in front of peers and academic staff. In addition to increasing stress and inhibiting learning, which may impact more depending on gender and ethnicity, the adversarial structure of the ‘crit’ reinforces power imbalances and thereby ultimately contributes to the reproduction of dominant cultural paradigms. Our collaboration on an alternative to the traditional model was supported by the Teaching & Learning National Seminar Series fund which helped us organise an international symposium to debate the ‘crit’ in 2016. We have recently been awarded further funding which has allowed us to pilot alternative feedback methods.