Learning Environment
E. Zarghami; S. M. Behrooz
Abstract
Background and Objective: Interdisciplinary scientific perspectives define learning as part of the individual’s process of shaping physiology, morphology and behavior within the boundary of organism’s biological nature, to adjust the environment, which in premodren childhood occurs through ...
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Background and Objective: Interdisciplinary scientific perspectives define learning as part of the individual’s process of shaping physiology, morphology and behavior within the boundary of organism’s biological nature, to adjust the environment, which in premodren childhood occurs through play, exploration and participation in socially meaningful contexts over an extended period of immaturity. This type of learning has become subordinate to the official schooling these days.In the past, children spent most of their free time outdoors; this time was spent on activities in informal spaces, without control and in other words, unstructured. These spaces in ancestral life (before the advent of agriculture and settling down) were of ancestral nature and then the neighborhood environment, that were an important place for children to play throughout history and around the world. However, children today spend most of their free time indoors, and most of their outdoor time on scheduled and structured activities. This routine has led to physical and emotional problems such as body imbalance, type 2 diabetes, obesity and a sense of loneliness. The development of brain neural system occurs in the early years of childhood through movement and stimulation, indicating the importance of children's experiences, activities, and daily interactions for their physical, cognitive, social, and emotional development. The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent of children's natural learning opportunities in environments with varying degrees of urbanization.Methods: By means of Gibson’s affordances concept, using the affordance taxonomy of Heft-Kytta on 10–12-year-old children in metropolitan, urban, semi-urban/rural and rural communities, through questionnaires and Analysis of variance in 2018.Findings: Significant differences were observed among the communities in affordance availability, in the level of affordances actualization, in the distribution of affordances within the categories of the taxonomy, and also the location of the affordances, whether they were at home, in the yard, in immediate surroundings or elsewhere.Conclusion:Children's natural and everyday learning occurs through environmental provision. In the environments of human’s past history, children had a great deal of freedom to use existing natural elements and features, while intertwined in the daily social and work relationships of their neighborhood. However, in today's urbanized environments, both children's freedom has diminished, and those elements and natural features have become inaccessible (or, in other words, carefully removed from everyday life), and the environment of social and work interactions has distanced them from their place of residence. The results of this study testified to the severity of these three events, especially in metropolitan areas. This decrease was especially evident for exercise equipment, detachable hand objects, slippery, climbing, hanging, and height-changing features. Based on the findings and their interpretations, it is suggested that children have adequate access to messy spaces, various spatial fixed and loose elements, to have learning chances.
Learning Environment
S. Bitaraf; M. Kameli; B. Saleh sedg poor
Abstract
Background and Objectives: Due to the spatial-content development in domains of knowledge, it is necessary to pay attention to the new approaches to education by emphasizing opportunities and limitations. Therefore, in this paper providing an appropriate educational model compatible with an affordance-based ...
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Background and Objectives: Due to the spatial-content development in domains of knowledge, it is necessary to pay attention to the new approaches to education by emphasizing opportunities and limitations. Therefore, in this paper providing an appropriate educational model compatible with an affordance-based approach (including environment features and physical, cultural, behavioral and perceptual characteristics of users) at different levels of teaching the design of residential complexes is desired. The research studies conducted in this regard can be examined in two subjects: teaching residential architecture and affordances. In this regard, the purpose of this paper is studying the basics of teaching architecture, with two approaches including the affordances and the optimal relationship between environment and human being in the residential space and providing an operational model in educational planning of the course in designing the residential architecture. In fact, the analysis of the basic criteria for the design of residential complexes in the field of architecture education with a focus on improving the quality of these spaces based on the dimensions of sustainability are considered in this study. Methods: This research is applied in terms of purpose, descriptive in terms of data collection, and its type is causal-comparative. In the first phase of the research, the effective components of architectural education in the design of residential complexes were studied and collected in a qualitative and descriptive manner with the help of library and field resources and unstructured interviews with experts.Research instruments at this stage were a researcher-made questionnaire extracted from a primary model and an interview with the experts which included the following 6 components: 1- Environmental factors 2- Individual factors 3- Educational planning 4- PCK of education 5- PCK of teacher, and 6- Internal and external factors. The research was conducted in two stages with the aim of increasing the face validity (approval of the questionnaire by the experts) and the reliability of the research. The statistical population included experts and specialists in two groups of university lecturers and those involved in the design of residential architecture. The sampling method has been selected purposefully due to maintaining the principle of comprehensiveness and respecting the diversity of the community. In the second stage of the research, the variables were discovered using factor analysis tools in order to perform computational and statistical studies of the research for the purpose of explanation and prediction Then, the factors identified as affecting the residential architecture education were ranked. Findings: Theobtained results are descriptive statistics of respondents of both sexes holding master's and doctoral degrees and working as faculty members, university lecturers and those involved in residential architecture in three age ranges of less than 40 years, between 40 to 60 years and 60 years and above. The findings showed that among all the aforementioned six components that affect the architecture education, PCK of education, and environmental factors have the most significant impact. Conclusion: Based on the research studies conducted and the statistical results obtained, a comprehensive and operational model was developed for the educational planning of the residential architecture design course. In this pattern, TPCK and environmental components (including the design of light, the design of color, territory-oriented behaviour, ventilation, environmental equipment, security and respect for the environment) were introduced as the most effective components in residential architecture education. Also, based on the emphasis laid on the teacher-student interaction and the guidance role of the instructor and the facilitating role of the teacher in the type of the teaching method, an important feature of this model is the centrality of the aforementioned components in three dimensions of the instructor (teacher), the learner (student) and the environment.
