Educational Outcome of Students’ Group-Table Arrangement for Collaboration in Architectural Thesis Studio

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the learning outcome of students’ Group-Table method when employed in an Architectural Thesis Studio and their communication, collaboration and social interaction levels after all. The group-table method has been applied for a period of time in the studio to discover the effects of the seating arrangement on the educational and behavioural pattern of students in their learning activities. The methodology was designed qualitative methods specifically the open-ended questionnaire, observation, and in particular, the photography techniques were applied to measure the behaviour of the students. The finding of the research indicates that the students’ change of seating arrangement and grouping, constantly introduce healthy learning competition and access to more space, more facility and equipments.  Accordingly, some aggressive behaviours to grab more space is constantly observed, hence, the results strongly contradict the purpose for which group-tables was introduced as a learning method. In conclusion, despite the fact that the grouped-table provided advantages to share data, information, and idea on the tables, the application of this seating arrangement requires a certain level of maturity and privacy for the students to concentrate on the study and research in a common room.

Keywords: Architectural Design Studio, Collaboration, Grouped-table, Research Project, Privacy, Social Interaction