A Lens Model Approach on Estimating Perceptions of Turkish Primary School Students and Architects on Ideal Primary Classroom Settings

Abstract

The study has been perfonned on prirnary school students and designers (architects) in order to define the conıponents and design factors of the ideal classroonı setting in which prirnary school students will willingly study and to decide which setting and design factors are nıost suitable for effective learning. To this end, the following hypothesis was developed: "Classroom setting perceptions of students and designers differentiate in terms of setting and design factors". Visuals of 20 different classroonı settings fronı Turkey - the physical properties of which were pre-defined in detail by the control group - were used in the scope of the study. A questionnaire fonn was used to collect students' and designers' (architects') evaluations on the visuals; collected <lata were analyzed by using statistical nıethods. After that, a Lens­Model was adopted to enable conınıents on the prirnary classroonı setting. The Lens-Model enables conıparison of evaluations of different groups such as students and designers in relation to the sanıe space. Also the present study defined setting and design factors suitable for positive leaming by using the preferences of the students and designers. Findings and obtained perceptions of classroonı setting were detennined to differ fronı each other in tenns of environnıental and design factors. These variances also indicated age and education factors as two paranıeters of significant irnportance for perception studies. In addition, the study revealed that the Lens-Model nıethod enables successful conıparisons between the preferences of different groups such as students and architects related to the sanıe setting.