Educational behavior of the students in the design studios during the pandemic time

Abstract

The main aim of this paper is to demonstrate the process of adapting architecture students to the pandemic condition in the design studios due to wearing face masks and social distance measures. An architectural design studio is different from a normal classroom due to the open space for open discussion and dialogue and group work. The methodology of the research was designed based on the quantitative method with the application of the Likert scale questionnaire and analyzing the data in SPSS. The findings of the research identified that three factors are important for the students in the activities in the design studios including desk-crits (critique), social interaction, and the physical environment of the design studios. The Chi-square analysis illustrated that the students preferred to use the individual desk-crits over group desk-crits during the pandemic time due to wearing face masks and social distance. Apparently, public activities such as presentations, communication, and discussion were replaced with the individual desk-crits as a more adapted form to wearing face masks and social distance for the students in terms of personalization of the learning process in design studios during the pandemic time.

A new way of social interaction for educational purposes in architecture design studios during the pandemic

“…Despite both negative and positive literature on the influences of COVID-19 on education, the results of the research demonstrated that the students preferred to follow their style of activities in the design studio (Tafahomi, 2022a;Tafahomi, 2022b) as mentioned in terms of interaction through desk-crits by Schon (Schon, 1987). The studies mentioned the positive effects of the pandemic time on blended learning (Delialioglu & Yildirim, 2007;Gulbahar & Madran, 2009), however, the students' answers demonstrated that they preferred a physical class for social interaction.…”

“…While the study criticized the unclear scales in the Likert questionnaire (Joshi et al, 2015), the Likert scale questionnaires were applied in educational research, importantly concerning the students' cases in the teaching and learning qualities (Li, 2013;Hartley, 2014;Huertas-Delgado et al, 2019;De Campos et al, 2020). Likert scale questionnaires were common due to the cluster of answers, the ability to sort data, and adaptation to statistical analysis (De Campos et al, 2020;Tafahomi, 2022a;Yang et al, 2013).…”

“…The COVID-19 condition resulted in social distancing and wearing face masks for all university students, online activities, and blended classes for theoretical courses. However, the design studios remained on campus as face-to-face activities similar to the other practical courses in the universities (Ando, 2021;Tafahomi, 2022a). Importantly, stick reduction protocols and measures were required to control the pandemic for the physical classes through face masks wearing, social distance, and washing hands or sanitization (Filiz & Konukman, 2020).…”

Students’ Public success and private breakdown?

“…One-on-one desk critiques are customary practices preferred by students (Tafahomİ, 2022) in studio settings, wherein learners present ideas for a specific assignment and receive formative feedback from a studio master who responds, critiques, and guides the learners (Goldschmidt et al, 2010;Smith & Boyer, 2015). The asymmetrically power-structured master-apprentice pedagogical model remains ubiquitous as the core design disciplines (Achten, 2015;Ahmad et al, 2020;Brzezicki, 2020;Ceylan et Vol.16 Nr.5, 2023, Art.…”