INTEGRATING MULTI-GRADE COLLABORATIVE LEARNING PEDAGOGY INTO DESIGN STUDIOS

Undergraduate design instruc¬tion in the Arab world has traditionally focused on the design studio as the primary tool for developing creative design capacities. Interaction continues to be based on student-tocontent, student-to-interface, and/or student-toinstructor. Student-to-student (peer) interaction however has usually not been formally considered as a source of skill-development, or limited to groups formed in the research and data collection phase of the design process. This paper describes and evaluates a type of collaborative learning which was applied in the context of transforming the traditional single-level design studio into an all-level combined design studio. The impressions, skills acquired, and the efficiency of the produced project is compared with those produced in a traditional design, competitive class setting using a student-based survey. The items of this survey were derived from theories on collaborative learning that stress the importance of interaction to promote deep learning. The literature review addresses: definition of collaborative learning, assumed benefits, conditions for success, as well as the vertical studio approach and relevant experiences in the Arab world.