Problem structuring in urban science education: Why, what, and how
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44243_2025_Article_64.pdf
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1.3 MB
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5365cdbff7dcbfff5b421e79a3399c75
Author(s)
Lai, Yuan
Lavi, Rea
Date Issued
October 9, 2025
Journal
Frontiers of Urban and Rural Planning
Publisher
Springer Nature Singapore
Citation
Lai, Y., Lavi, R. Problem structuring in urban science education: Why, what, and how. Front. Urban Rural Plan. 3, 13 (2025).
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Urban science is an emerging and transdisciplinary field that attracts deep interest in planning degree programs from educational institutions worldwide. Urban science education emphasizes the science of cities and urban information technology by integrating design, engineering, system science, spatial science, behavioral and social science, decision science, and other disciplines. The increasing complexity of urban systems creates significant pedagogical challenges for urban science education, particularly in problem structuring, which is the process of structuring, or defining, (a) the scope of the problem, (b) the potential ways for addressing the problem, and (c) suitable criteria for judging solutions to the problem. In this article, we describe the theoretical foundations of problem structuring in relation to urban science education and explain why it is difficult to teach. In response to this pedagogical challenge, we propose DIMES (Describe, Inquire, Model, Extract, and State), a novel domain-agnostic method combining design thinking and systems thinking developed for problem structuring in any level of higher education. We describe how the DIMES method can be integrated into urban science curricula with relation to critical considerations for teaching urban science problem structuring, the fast-evolving smart city development, and the disruptive impact of generative artificial intelligence on urban science education. Finally, we provide our thoughts on potential future studies with DIMES in urban science learning settings.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1007/s44243-025-00064-3
