The Preferences of the Students to Select the Seating Position in the Architecture Design Studios

Abstract

Both seating arrangement and position have been one the problematic topic in educational studies, particularly in higher education. There is a large body of studies on the seating arrangement; however, an architectural design studio is specialized in different activities and interaction that challenges the classical form of arrangement. For this reason, the students arrange, rearrange, and disarrange the seating arrangement and position in the studio. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between the viewpoints of the students with seating arrangement positions to find out the students' preferences to select seating positions. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were applied to analyze data. The Likert questionnaire with fifteen criteria analyzed variables through chi-square, mode, and the graphical analysis illustrated important aspects of the seating arrangements in the department of architecture, the University of Rwanda. The findings addressed that students preferred to use a U-shaped classroom and studio and five statistical criteria supported the association between the viewpoint of students and seating arrangement including the trend to personalize the position, to teamwork activity, to sit close lecturers, to enhance their position. Although other criteria statistically did not associate with the seating arrangement, the crosstabulation table address that the rear seats in the studio were more preferable for students due to the visual corridor to the front, monitoring, and eye contact.

The student's evaluation of the delivery of the theoretical courses due to warning mask and social distance during the pandemic condition

“…The studies used both qualitative and quantitative methods to analyze the opinions of the students about the quality of teaching and learning in higher education (Cohen et al, 2007;Johnson & Christensen, 2014;Miller et al, 2004;Silverman, 2010;Creswell, 2012). For qualitative research in education, some techniques have been so common such as structured observation (Cohen et al, 2007;Tafahomi, 2021b), photography (Hemyari et al, 2013;Tafahomi, 2021e;Alerby, 2000), interviews and questionnaires (Ez zy, 2002;Johnson & Christensen, 2014). In addition, the quantitative method was used widely for research through questionnaires and surveys (Frankfort-Nachmias et al, 2014;Creswell & Creswell, 2018) in different styles to discover the opinions of the students about different educational parameters (Lee, 2005;Xi et al, 2017;Yang et al, 2013;Tafahomi, 2021a).…”

“…Although the study criticized the Likert scale questionnaire in research (Joshi et al, 2015), Likert scale questionnaires were applied commonly in the studies to discover the opinions of the students about teaching and learning (De Campos et al, 2020;Hartley, 2014;Li, 2013;Huertas -Delgado et al, 2019;Tafahomi, 2021b). In addition, the studies emphasized the interpretation of the results i n questionnaires (Neuman, 2006;Santrock, 2011) as part of the content analysis and extracting of the meaning from the text (Krippendorff, 2003;Elo et al, 2014;Moretti et al, 2011).…”

“…In this case, despite the trends to adapt the classroom arrangement to the topic of the modules, normally the theoretical courses are delivered in the same arrangement of the room. Seemingly, the space arrangement is the same and just the topics and lecturers are changed occasionally (Tafahomi, 2021b).…”

“…The design studios include a big room with potable drawing tables, normal desks, chairs, and shelves for archiving the materials. Both lecturers and students are involved to arrange the design studio with the form of raw-column, U-shaped, grouped, or free forms (Lee, 2005;Tafahomi, 2021b). It means that although the social distance was an obligation for everyone to respect the measures, the students sometimes sit closer based on the limita tion of equipment in the classrooms and psychological needs (Stifel et al, 2020).…”

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

“…However, the central part of the design studios is designed based on a big hall for portable drawing tables, chairs, and shelves for archiving the physical models and drawing boards. Some design studios include fixed tables and partitions for the students in raw and jointed tables (Tafahomi, 2021b).…”