Creative thinking and ‘learning spaces’: prototypes in primary school design in Turkey

Date

2023-9-11

Author

Ural, Ezgi Cemre

Metadata

Show full item record

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Item Usage Stats

410
views

3055
downloads

Cite This

The aim of this thesis is to examine the prototype projects used in primary state school buildings in Turkey from the perspective of creative learning spaces, which constitute a new paradigm shift in the union of educational and architectural disciplines. Besides being the first social environment where a child exists independently from their family, schools are the places where children spend most of their time. Considering that childhood is the period when human development is most effective, school environment plays a crucial role in children’s creative thinking. Learning experience of children can be constrained or supported by the characteristics of the educational space. Therefore, schools have a potential to create an environment where children can experience according to their imagination, and expectation; also emancipate and socialize as independent individuals. Investigating the impact of the physical qualities of the school environment on learners is crucial for the development of generations and a change in societies. In this context, this thesis examines the impact of the spatial qualities of schools on students through the lens of creative thinking theory. The scope of this thesis consists of primary school buildings because childhood in the primary school years (ages 6-10) represents a higher developmental openness of creative thinking skills. This research begins by vi establishing a conceptual framework of creative thinking theory, followed by the shift in the understanding of educational spaces to ‘learning spaces’. It is concluded that, while creative learning spaces can vary significantly from one another, they share common principles in their design, such as flexibility, student-centeredness, aesthetics, and collaborative design phase. In addition, primary state school prototype projects in Turkey are examined from the perspective of creative learning space principles as sample area. The research findings indicate that the fundamental criteria for creative learning environments are not adequately reflected in the standardized primary school projects of the Turkish governments. However, re imagining of primary school buildings in terms of creative learning space principles is necessary in order Turkish society to be active participants in changing world.

Subject Keywords

Standardized school design, Creative learning space, Innovative learning environment, Creative thinking, Primary school design

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/105576

Collections

Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences, Thesis