In 2016, Professor William Nazaroff, Editor-in-Chief of Indoor Air, posed two pivotal questions in his editorial: How is a new generation of professionals to be educated about indoor environmental quality (IEQ) and How can educators expand the role of IEQ in universities? His article offered valuable insights into the challenges of IEQ education in America. A key observation was the fragmentation of responsibility, with no single agency serving as the overarching authority on IEQ. Instead, it is an inherently interdisciplinary field that spans public health, engineering, science, and design. As a result, education on IEQ tends to appear as a peripheral component within several distinct curricula.
Nearly a decade later, this paper revisits Nazaroff’s call to action by presenting findings from a review of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) on IEQ. The review explores whether built environment educators have responded to – or left unanswered –Nazaroff’s questions.
The review involved a systematic search across academic databases for articles containing the terms “indoor environmental quality,” “teaching,” “education,” and “pedagogy” in their abstracts. Identified papers were analysed to determine the context in which IEQ was addressed. Articles relating to built environment pedagogy were then examined using the DIA Framework developed by the Built Environment Learning and Teaching (BEL+T) group at the University of Melbourne. It provides a structured way to examine how teaching is delivered, how students interact with content, peers, and instructors, and how their learning is assessed.
The review found that SoTL in IEQ remains limited, with most pedagogical approaches focusing on delivery and assessment rather than fostering interaction – the dimension most strongly associated with deep learning and the translation of knowledge into practice. This imbalance suggests missed opportunities to engage students in reflective and experiential learning that drives enduring behavioural and disciplinary change to improve IEQ.