Improvement and Continuity of Childhood Experience in Children’s Educational Environments (A Reflection on the Home and School Environment among Elementary School Children in Kerman)

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Professor, School of Architecture, College of Fine Arts, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

2 PhD Candidate, School of Architecture, College of Fine Arts, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran _Faculty member in Higher Education Complex of Zarand, Kerman, Iran

Abstract

Since children spend a significant proportion of their life in school, one of the important issues for designing such environments is to provide them with the proper setting for development and childhood experience in these spaces. This paper seeks to provide a theoretical framework for identifying the main variables, explaining the relationship between the physical characteristics of the children’s environment and the childhood experience in this environment, and defining the children’s place-development model. Thus, the questions of this paper are: what are the environmental components of the childhood experience? and how do they affect the childhood experience? Accordingly, by reviewing the literature, different views on what an ideal children’s learning environment is and important environmental factors are identified, and the basic views that consider childhood experiences as continuous (children’s experience based on the continuous needs of different environments) are evaluated. Then, to achieve a theoretical paradigm with a developmental-ecological approach, 30 children living in co-operative families were selected. The research method is qualitative with an ethnographic approach and tools of interviewing, tour interviewing, observation, and Q method were used in data collection, while content analysis was used for analyzing the data. The findings show that childhood experience is affected by how the psychological needs of children are met in the ecological context that they live in. In this context, the physical characteristics, the environmental affordances as well as the psychological and social characteristics of the children’s environment are of high importance. Also, the children’s experience in one setting influences their experience in another one. The main themes that were obtained from the data represent the psychological needs (cognitive, social, and emotional) that are met through interacting with the environment (control, opportunity to be alone, comfort, freedom, coziness, sense of ownership of the place, implicit learning, exploratory learning, etc.). Regarding the theoretical aspect, this research proposes the following theoretical model based on the literature review and its empirical findings on the environmental factors affecting children’s psychological development: 1. Environmental affordances that are responsive to the symbolic and spiritual tendencies consist of the semantic components of the environment that affect children’s emotional development, 2. Environmental affordances that are responsive to physical interaction with the environment consist of the cognitive components of the environment that affect children’s cognitive development, 3. Environmental affordances that are responsive to interpersonal communication consist of functional components of the environment that affect children’s social development. In conclusion, enhancing the children’s environment, particularly the continuity of childhood experience requires considering theoretical as well as practical aspects and addressing basic and common needs in all environments for children. Therefore, a reflection on the environments that are more responsive to the childhood experience and their impact on the mental development of children would be helpful in designing overlooked environments such as schools. The results of this research can lead to a holistic view in designing children’s environment on a large scale and it could also result in designing environments based on the needs of the children on a small scale and ultimately enhancing and sustaining the childhood experience in the environments. 
 

Keywords

References

-   Altman, I., & Wohlwil, J. (1978). Children and the Environment. New York: Plenum.
-   Armstrong, D., Henson, K., & Savage, T. (1983). Education: An Introduction. New York: Macmillan Coll Div.
-   Armstrong, L. (2011). Family Child Care Homes: Creative Spaces for Children to Learn. New York: Redleaf Press.
-   Barker, R. G. (1968). Ecological Psychology: Concepts and Methods for Studying the Environment of Human Behavior. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.
-   Barker, R. G., & Gump, P. V. (1964). Big School, Small School. Stanford. California: Stanford University Press.
-   Bettelheim, B. (1955). Truants From Life. Glencoe. Illinois: The Free Press.
-   Bowlby, J. (1951). Maternal care and mental health: a report prepared on behalf of the World Health Organization as a contribution to the United Nations programme for the welfare of homeless children/ John Bowlby, 2nd ed. World Health Organization. https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/40724.
-   Bronfenbrenner, U. (2005). Making Human being human: Bioecological perspectives on human development. New York: Sage Publications Ltd.
-   Bryant, V. C., Shdaimah, C., Sander, R., & Cornelius, L. (2013). School as haven: Transforming school environments into welcoming communities. Children and Youth Service Review, 35(5), 845-855.
-   Canter, D. (1977). The psychology of place. Linden: The Architecture press LTD. 
-   Castells, M. (1998). End of Millennium, The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture. Vol. III. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Publishing Inc.
-   Chawla, L. (1992). Childhood place attachments. In I. Altman, & S. M. Low (Eds.), Place attachment (63-86). New York: PLENUM Press.
-   Cooper Marcus, C. (1978). Remembrance of Landscapes Past. Landscape, 22(3), 34-43.
-   Cooper-Marcus, C. (1992). Environmental Memories. In I. Altman, & S. M. Low (Eds.), Place attachment (87–112). New York: Plenum Press.
-   Day, C., & Midbje, A. (2007). Environment and Children. Oxford: Architectural Press.
-   Deutsch, N. (2004). Hidden Curriculum. Second Conference of the International Society for Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (Vancouver B.C., 14-16, October, 2005).
-   Dewey, J. (1963). Experience and Education. New York: Collier.
-   Douglas, M. (1991). The Idea of a Home: A Kind of Space. Social Research, 58(1), 287–307.
-   Dudek, M. (2005). Children’s Spaces. Oxford: Architectural Press.
-   Evans, G. (2006). Child Development and the Physical Environment. Annual Review of Psychology, 57, 423–451.
-   Golan, M. B. (1978). Privacy, Interaction and Self-esteem. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation in Environmental Psychology, City University of New York.
-   Gallagher, A. (2013). At home in preschool care? Childcare policy and the negotiated spaces of educational care. Children’s Geographies, 11(2), 202-214.
-   Graue, E. (2006). The Answer is Readiness-Now What is the Question? Early Education and Development, 17 (1), 43-56.
-   Harms, T., Cryer, D., & Clifford, R. (2007). Family Child Care Environment Rating Scale Revised Edition. New York: Teachers College Press.
-   Hartley, R. E., Frank, L. K., & Goldenson, R. M. (1952). Understanding Children's Play. New York: Columbia.
-   Heft, H., & Wohlwill, J. F. (1987). The Physical Environment and the Development of the Child. In I. Altman (Ed.), Handbook of Environmental Psychology (281-328). New York: PLENUM Press.
-   Hester, R. (1978). Favorite Spaces. Childhood City Newsletter, 14, 15-17.
-   Holloway, S., & Valentine, G. (2000). Children’s Geographies. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.
-   Horwitz, J., & Klein, S. (1978). An exercise in the use of environmental autobiography for programming and design of a day care center. Childhood City Newsletter, 14, 18-19.
-   Hursh, D. (2007). Assessing No Child Left Behind and the Rise of Neoliberal Education Policies. American Educational Research Journal, 44(3),  493–518.
-   Iltus, S., & Hart, R. (1994). Participatory planning and design of recreational spaces with children. Architecture et Comportement, 10, 361-370.
-   Kinsman, C. A., & Berk, L. E. (1979). Joining the block and housekeeping areas: changes in play and social behavior. Young Children, 35(1), 66–75.
-   Lang, J. T. (1987). Creating architectural theory: The role of the behavioral sciences in environmental design. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Co.
-   Maxwell, L. E., & Chmielewski, E. J. (2008). Environmental personalization and elementary school children’s self-esteem Lorraine. Journal of environmental psychology, 28, 143-153.
-   McDonald, M. (2008). Securitization and the Construction of Security. European Journal of International Relations, 14(4), 563–587.
-   Moore, G. T. Lane, C. G., Hill, A. B., Cohen, Y., & McGinty, T. ( 1979). Recommendations for Child Care Centers.Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Center for Architecture and Urban Planning.
-   NAEYC. (2008). A Guide to the NAEYC Early Childhood Program Standard and Related Accreditation Criteria.Washington: NAEYC. 
-   Olds, R. (1979). Designing developmentally optimal classrooms for children with special needs. In S. J Meisels (Eds.), Special education and development: perspectives on young children with special needs. Baltimore, Maryland: University Park Press.
-   Ornestein, A., & Miller, H. (1980). Looking into Teaching. Chicago: Rand McNally College Publishing.
-   Prescott, E. (1978). Is Day Care as Good as a Good Home?  Young Children, 33(2), 13-19.
-   Proshansky, H. M., & Fabian, A. K. (1987). The development of place identity in the child. In C. S. Weinstein, & T. G. Thomas (Eds.), Spaces for children: The built environment and child development (21-40). New York: Plenum Press.
-   Rainwater, L. (1966). Fear and the house-as-haven in the lower class. Journal of the American Institute of Planners, 32, 23-31.
-   Rivlin, L.,Weinstein, C. (1984). Educational  Issues, School Settings, and Environmental Psychology. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 4, 347-364.
-   Rothenberg, S. (1977). The Social and Spatial Organization of Boys and Girls in Open Classrooms. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation in Environmental Psychology, City University of New York.
-   Saegret, S. (1982). Environment and Children Mental Health: Residential Density and Low-Income Children. In A. Baum, & J. E. Singer, Handbook of Psychology and Health (247-71). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
-   Siegler, Eisenberg, N., Deloache, J., & Saffran, J. (2003). How Children Develope. New York: Worth Publishers.
-   Silvern, B. (1988). Continuity/Discontinuity between Home and Early Childhood Education Environments. The Elementary School Journal, 89(2), 147–159.
-   Spencer, C., & Blades, M. (2006). Children and Their Environments: Learning, Using and Designing Spaces. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
-   Wachs, T. D. (2003). Expanding Our View of Context: The Bio-Ecological Environment And Development. In R. V. Kail (Eds.), Advances in child development and behavior, Vol. 31 (363–409). Academic Press.
-   Weinstein, C. S. (1982). Privacy-seeking behavior in an elementary classroom. Journal of Environmental Psychology,2, 33-35.
-   Weinstein, C. S., & David, T. G. (2013). The Built Environment and Children Development in Spaces for Children.New York: Springer US.
-   Wilner, D. M., Walkley, R., Pinkerton, T., & Taybeck, M. (1962). The Housing Environment and Family Life.Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Press.
-   Zeisel, J. (1976). Stopping School Property Damage: Design and Administrative Guidelines to Reduce School Vandalism. Arlington, Virginia: Association of School Administrators, and New York: Educational Facilities Laboratories.
Journal of Architecture and Urban Planning
Volume 13, Issue 30
March 2021
Pages 61-79

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics