David Ruy describes the Design Theory & Pedagogy program as an attempt to theorize design instruction, while also examining the emergence of the hybrid Educator/Theorist/Architect. He describes the varied backgrounds of the students: both recent graduates and practicing architects who teach. He notes that some of the participants are not present because they have already started new teaching jobs. Ruy describes how over the year their design and research activities were accompanied by teaching duties. The Fall term spent teaching in core studios paralleled research and development of their own core curriculum plans; the Spring term spent teaching in Vertical studios paralleled development of their own advanced design studio briefs—projects that they developed over the Summer term. They also worked with Todd Gannon on researching the history of architectural pedagogy.

Ruy reviews the final projects of Pooyan Rouhiarrmaki, Garet Ammerman, Henry Yang, Majeda Alhinai, Matthew Lopez, and Ryan Scavnicky.

The panel discussion is prefaced by presentations on three key issues by students from the program: Ammerman on precedents, Yang on history, and Scavnicky on abstraction.

David Ruy, Matt Shaw, Michael Osman, Erik Ghenoiu, Marcelyn Gow, Ferda Kolatan, and Kristy Baillet debate precedent, history and abstraction, leading to discussions of topics including the National Architectural Accreditation Board (NAAB), disciplinary expertise, precedents in other disciplines, the contrasting methods of historians and designers, and teaching critical thinking. The panel responds to comments from the audience on authority, rejecting authority, psychoanalytic approaches, evaluation, ideology, social-economic context of contemporary academia.