Learning Environment
S. Heidari; H. Moztarzadeh; H. Azemati; M. Taghipour
Abstract
Background and Objectives: Since students’ mental focus is one of the main conditions for learning and academic achievement, investigation of the factors that can help restoring this factor in students, is very important. In the meantime, it seems that in addition to the student’s individual ...
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Background and Objectives: Since students’ mental focus is one of the main conditions for learning and academic achievement, investigation of the factors that can help restoring this factor in students, is very important. In the meantime, it seems that in addition to the student’s individual and the inner factors, the factors related to teaching and learning quality, physical variables in the classroom can affect this critical feature too. It seems that creating visual permeability and the optimal visual connection of classrooms with the view of outside through the classroom window as one of the physical variables of the classroom, by creating a visual opportunity, albeit short, to a view outside the classroom can be reconstructed student’s mental activity and help them to relieve their mental fatigue. The current research seeks to achieve an optimal state with restoration of mental focus of students via investigating some physical variables of the classroom window such as the window length and height variables. It can take a critical step in line with reducing the mental fatigue and restoration of mental focus of high school students who are in specific age range and have superior learning opportunities compared to other educational levels. From that point, the view from the window has a great impact on this process. It should be noted that the window in this study overlooks the natural elements and green space of the school yard. Methods: The statistical population of this research is all male and female students who were studying during the educational year of 2018-2019 in the high schools of Shiraz city in the age range of 16-18, who were selected as the sample pf the current study via cluster random sampling. The subjects were first assessed by a psychological test approved by psychologists and then completed a researcher-made questionnaire to make that subject more generalizable. To analyze research data and to find a relationship between physical variable of window length and height and student’s mental focus restoration, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used. Findings: The results show that changes in the physical state and the size of classroom window can affect the restoration of students’ mental focus. Accordingly, to the present research, decreasing the window length from 3.5 to 2.5 and 1.5 reduces the level of students’ mental focus from 149 to 148.9 and ultimately 148.1. As well, changing window height from 2 meters to 1.5 and 1 m, the students’ mental focus changes from 149 to 148.8 and 147.3. Conclusions: The level of students’ mental focus does not depend solely on the students' conditions, academic performance, the quality and teaching methods of teachers; but also, the physical environment of schools and the interior design of classrooms can have a significant impact on this importance. The presence of classroom window as one of the classroom physical variables, not only does not lead to the student's distraction, but also, via creating views toward outside natural elements, conscious placement, suitable dimensions can be a really important factor in restoration of the students’ mental focus.
Learning Environment
H. Azemati; B. Saleh Sedghpour; M. S. Taher Tolou Del; Z. Sadoughi
Abstract
Background and Objectives: The ultimate goal of education is the learner’s growth. Therefore, the main concern of the architects in this field is the educational environment design in accordance with the high goals of educational system. In this study, relying on the opinions of Islamic thinkers ...
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Background and Objectives: The ultimate goal of education is the learner’s growth. Therefore, the main concern of the architects in this field is the educational environment design in accordance with the high goals of educational system. In this study, relying on the opinions of Islamic thinkers in Quranic sciences field, the teachings derived from the Holy Quran and basic components underlying the perfection has extracted. These components have proposed, as the main contents of design criteria and improving the quality of schools and educational places, in three areas of meaning, function and body to help the architects benefit from an efficient design. Materials and Methods: This study has considered as an effective fundamental research, using quantitative-qualitative methodology. The methodology, in beginning, is survey. Then, the validity of the researcher-made questionnaires and the reliability of the variables have been calculated and confirmed through Cronbach's alpha test with a coefficient of 0.764. In addition, Q factor analysis (extracting expert opinions) and R factor analysis (extracting users' interests) were also performed using spss19 software. The specialist’s statistical population includes 25 professors specialized in the fields of Islamic education, educational sciences and architecture. Next, 40 female trade school junior were selected, from Tehran trade schools, as a non-random environmental users sample. Finally, the illustrated questionnaires obtained from the views of the professors were prepared and analyzed. Findings: After 990 minutes of interviews with specialized professors of Shahid Rajaee University, Tehran University, Science and Technology University and Imam Khomeini international University of Qazvin, two-stage coding and extraction of effective categories were done to prepare a researcher-made questionnaire with 40 items. According to the results of the factor analysis, the following three factors have detected; 1- Physical characteristics of educational buildings as a factor of human spiritual excellence, 2- Introversion as an effective factor in human self-knowledge and self-construction, 3- Extroversion as a factor in regulating environmental conditions and natural areas of human perfection from the view of the specialists. Then, the users’ illustrated questionnaires in 9 different educational fields with 3 quality grades, have distributed among users. Conclusion:: The students’ identified needs, regarding the meaning and spiritual growth, "creating peace and security, a sense of satisfaction, increasing thinking power, fostering creativity and increasing responsibility." In the function field, the following issues are supposed to have taken into account: "individualized places, observance of hierarchy, flexibility, social interactions, multifunctional spaces and the cultivation of sensory powers". In the body field, "observance of diversity, attention to details, scalability, beauty and connection with nature" should have given priority in designing the school and campus. Therefore, based on these identified variables, the obtained correlation model of the factors making students' spiritual excellence in school design is specified through: 1- body design with considering growth factor characteristics, 2- human self-knowledge and self-construction, 3- nature and environment. Therefore, considering the important role of the body and especially the characteristics of the school environment in the growth of students' talents, the optimal design of educational environments is clearly effective to make a suitable ground for their spiritual growth.
Educational Environment
S. Kowsari; A. Tarkashvand
Abstract
Background and Objective:People differ in their ability to understand complex concepts, to adapt effectively to the environment, to learn from experience, how to reason, and to overcome obstacles using thinking. Learning experts believe that learning occurs in different ways in people and in most learning ...
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Background and Objective:People differ in their ability to understand complex concepts, to adapt effectively to the environment, to learn from experience, how to reason, and to overcome obstacles using thinking. Learning experts believe that learning occurs in different ways in people and in most learning situations, people use their desired learning style. The similarity of users and the similarity of learning methods in different people, causes the incompatibility of the body of schools with the individual characteristics of students and different ways of learning in them. Student's individual characteristics and learning styles highly depend on their intelligence. According to Gardner's multiple intelligence theory, intelligence in individuals has different aspects and types. Each of these intelligences can be strengthened by acquiring skills in doing some activities. The present study seeks to find spatial qualities that increase students' inclination to do these activities in each space. Understanding these qualities and applying them in school spaces can increase the likelihood of occurrence of intelligence-related activities and consequently increase the likelihood of developing these intelligences in students. Therefore, in this research, field studies have been conducted to identify the physical characteristics and qualities of spaces which lead to more correspondence between spaces and intelligence-nurturing activities. Methods: The statistical population of this study was elementary school students in Mashhad. 172 students were selected as a sample population, using a clustered random sampling method. They were asked to identify and describe the qualities of their desired space pictures for doing the above-mentioned activities among 6 provided images. The qualities were coded and classified according to the importance and frequency of repetition in SPSS software. Findings: Qualities derived using the qualitative research strategy and the in-depth interview technique, after evaluations and analyses, have turned to guidelines for designing elementary schools. The purpose of these guidelines is to increase the desirability of school spaces for occurring activities that develop each intelligence in students. Conclusion: Some qualities have been proposed only to improve the conditions under which a particular activity group occurs in a particular space and have not been repeated in other spaces and activity groups. Therefore, these qualities, from the students' point of view, merely facilitate the occurrence of that group of activities in the relevant space. On the other hand, some qualities for a single space are repeated in different activity categories. This means that activities appropriate to that space all need those qualities in order to be realized in the desired way. In other words, the space inherently needs those qualities. For example, shading on a learning terrace tends to involve all related activities. Another part of the qualities, such as the size and pleasantness of the space, are repeated in most spaces and activity categories. Students' frequent attention to these qualities, in different spaces as well as in different activity categories, can have several reasons
Technology-based learning environments
F. Imani; Kh. Movahed
Abstract
Background and Objectives: One of the effective educational factors in the new education is the architecture of the educational spaces. In the new education, the physical space of the school is not only a strict and soulless environment in the learning process, but also plays a role as a living and dynamic ...
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Background and Objectives: One of the effective educational factors in the new education is the architecture of the educational spaces. In the new education, the physical space of the school is not only a strict and soulless environment in the learning process, but also plays a role as a living and dynamic factor in the quality of students' educational activities. In learning environments, paying attention to design features is not only in order to improve the quality of the environment but also as a tool to increase the impact of the environment on behavioral characteristics. In some recent research, the physical environment is referred to as the "hidden subject in the curriculum." In this interpretation, the meaning of "hidden subject" is anything that, in addition to the common curriculum, by emotionally organizing the educational space, affects the adolescent emotionally and psychologically. This is "hidden" because it does not necessarily have objective and tangible effects or is often overlooked by everyone. Life stresses play a crucial role in mental and physical health and are especially associated with various psychological and social harms. Identifying student stress is the basic basis for designing and developing various preventive programs. In the meantime, school is a special place as a place where teenagers spend a lot of time and should play a role in reducing students' stress with proper design. Stress is a special relationship between a person and the environment in which the person evaluates the environment beyond his or her resources or threatens his or her health. Various factors play a role in stress. One of these factors is environmental factors. The current study has been done with the aim of investigating the effect of natural daylight on students’ stress reduction in the classroom. Methods: This research is a correlational study and in terms of purpose is an applied research. The research method is survey and the data collection instrument includes the standard questionnaire for measuring stress, anxiety, and depression (DASS-21). The reliability of the questionnaire was approved with the Cronbach’s alpha of 0.897. The questionnaires were analyzed by SPSS software version 22. Findings: Hypothesis testing was done by t-statistic, Pearson correlation coefficient, and regression. The Levin test was also used to verify the research hypotheses. The results of this study indicate that there is a relationship between daylight and stress, anxiety, and depression with correlation coefficients of 0.634, 0.742, and 0.698 have been found respectively (p < 0.01) Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that in environments with unfavorable light, the rate of depression, anxiety and stress is higher than in environments with favorable light. In general, it can be said that due to the effect of daylight in reducing stress, anxiety and depression of students and their better performance, the importance of paying attention to the effects that school design has on building users becomes more clear. Architects have a major role in designing educational spaces and with proper design and tailored to the physical and mental needs of students can improve the level of education in society. In order to properly use daylight in educational spaces, the following should be considered: height of windows (with increasing window height, depth and amount of daylight increases), type of canopy (indoor, outdoor canopy or direct beam control) and the properties of glass are effective factors in the amount of daylight that must be designed correctly. Also, in addition to the right amount of light and natural light, direct sunlight should be controlled so as not to dazzle the eyes and disturb the thermal balance of the spaces.
