The Effects of Model Making on Design and Learning in Landscape Architecture Education

Upon inspection of Turkish national programs, it is seen that today they incorporate more universal values and principles such as democracy and pluralism. In order to design systems and curricula for multicultural societies, it is of great importance to thoroughly understand the phenomenon of multicultural education in minority and public high schools in Turkey; since the number of qualitative studies conducted on this topic remains inadequate. The aim of this study is to investigate the perceptions and implementations of multicultural education among different participants from a minority high school and two public high schools in Istanbul, Turkey. Research Methods: In the first phase, the intention was to explore how students analyzed the seating activity through the model and how they interpreted the relationships among the dimensions, form and equipment in their designs, and thus equipment models were investigated accordingly. In the second phase, a survey study developed examines the effects of the model technique on the design process and student learning. Thus, the effects of the model-making technique on the level of teaching in the Equipment Design course were determined. Findings: Consequently, it was determined that students’ notions of design develops through model making and that making a model of the seating equipment was found to be an instructive method for students of landscape architecture in terms of dimensions, form and material. Implications for Research and Practice: The “Equipment Design” course can contribute to the design processes of students especially in terms of creativity and realism. The model making approach facilitates students’ understanding of dimension, form and the dimension-form relationship and material and the material-form relationship in the learning process, while contributing greatly to the development of the students’ design processes.