پرورش توانايي طراحيِ طراحان مبتدي معماري؛ طراحي، كاربست و آزمون يك محيط يادگيري سازنده‌گرا

Nurturing Design Ability of Novice Architecture Designers; Designing, Implementation and Testing a Constructivist Learning Environment

هدف تحقيق حاضر، طراحي، كاربست و آزمون راهكاري تربيتي براي پرورش توانايي طراحي دانشجويان مبتدي معماري است. اين راهكار تربيتي، يك محيط يادگيري است كه محصول يك طراحي آموزشي سازنده‌گرا، و متضمن دلالت‌هاي تربيتي يك مدل توصيفي رشد توانايي طراحي است. كانون توجه اين محيط، اشتغال دانشجويان به تكاليف اصيل و واقعي مسيله‌گشايي طراحي معماري است كه توسط رويارويي ساختار‌يافته و روايت‌گرانه با پيشينه‌هاي ذيربط معماري پشتيباني مي‌شوند. همچنين، بهره‌گيري از منابع اطلاعات و ابزارهايي به مسيله‌گشايي طراحي دانشجويان مبتدي كمك مي‌كنند. مربيان نيز از طريق فعاليت‌هاي آموزشي سرمشق شدن، راهنمايي/ راهبري و حمايت/ مراقبت فعاليت‌هاي مسيله‌گشايي دانشجويان را پشتيباني مي‌كنند. آزمون كاربست اين محيط با استفاده از يك طرح تحقيق شبه آزمايشي پيش‌آزمون- پس آزمون با گروه گواه انجام شد. داده‌هاي تحقيق با استفاده از روش سنجش عملكردي و از طريق تعيين رتبه هاي فراورده هاي طراحي دانشجويان توسط هييت داوران مجرب گردآوري شدند. يافته‌هاي تحقيق نشان مي‌دهند كه محيط يادگيري سازنده‌گراي طراحي معماري رشد توانايي طراحي دانشجويان مبتدي را تسهيل مي‌كند و خلاقيت طراحي ايشان را بهبود مي‌بخشد. نتايج تحقيق مويد تاثير مثبت كسب دانش رويدادي طراحي و توسعه طرحواره‌هاي طراحي در رشد توانايي طراحي طراحان مبتدي است؛ همچنين، نشان‌دهنده توفيق رويكرد طراحي آموزشي سازنده‌گرا در توسعه روش‌هاي آموزشي معماري است.

This research aims to design, implement and test a pedagogical method for facilitating design ability development of novice students of architecture. The pedagogical method is the resultant of a constructivist instructional design approach and educational implications of a descriptive model of design ability development. The descriptive model fundamentally is based on the Dreyfus model of skill acquisition and adapted from a primary model of acquiring design expertise developed by Lawson and Dorst. Based on descriptive model, novice designers? design ability development results, basically, from design schemata development through structured familiarization with design precedents and acquiring episodic design knowledge. Based on constructivist instructional design approach, the educational method provides a constructivist learning environment that supports student-centered, situated and collaborative Learning. In this study, the Jonassen model is used for designing a constructivist learning environment due to its significant similarities in principles and components with learning and teaching processes in the architectural design studio. Finally, the educational approach is a Constructivist Architectural Design Learning Environment (CADLE). The focus of CADLE is authentic design problem-solving tasks that are supported by structured familiarization with related design precedents and architectural information sources. Cognitive and other supportive tools support problem-solving processes and social interactions within this environment. Design tutors support students? problem-solving through instructional activities that consist of ‘coaching’, ‘modeling’ and ‘scaffolding’. The CADLE is implemented and tested through a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest control group design. The statistical population of this study includes all junior undergraduate students of architecture in Iran. Instructional method is independent variable, and studentsʹ design ability development is dependent variable of our research. The experiment was conducted during the first semester of the 2008-2009 academic year in the Architectural Design Studio (2) in the undergraduate program of architecture in Bu-Ali Sina University. The dependent variable was measured by students’ design performance. Towards that goal, a panel of judges composed of experienced educators of architecture ranked qualities of studentsʹ design products based on seven criteria. Data analysis was carried out by means of Mann - Whitney U test to see if a statistically significant difference existed between the two groups. The findings show that design performance of the test group is better than the control group, and the difference is statistically significant. Consequently, constructivist architectural learning environment showed to have a positive effect on novice student`s design ability development. Concerning fixation risk of familiarization with design precedent, findings showed that design problem solving under conditions of CADLE positively affected student`s creativity. The results showed that constructivist instructional design approach is suitable for developing architecture educational methods, which in turn confirms the appropriateness of constructivist learning theories for describing learning mechanisms in architectural education. Finally, results indicated that structured familiarization with design precedents within CADLE could facilitate the acquisition of design episodic knowledge and development of architectural design schemata of novice designers, which in turn has a positive effect on their design ability.