WOMEN CREATE SPACE A SKILLS DEVELOPMENT

Transcription

1 WOMEN CREATE SPACE A SKILLS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM TO EMPOWER FEMALE ARCHITECTURE AND ENGINEERING STUDENTS Bernadett Babály, Szent István University, babaly.bernadett@gmail.com Andrea Kárpáti, ELTE University, andrea.karpati@ttk.elte.hu Budapest, Hungary The 35th World Congress of the International Society for Education Through Art Daegu, Korea, August 7 11, 2017

2 Spatial abilities of girls are inferior a fact-based myth Female architect in Hungary = a draftsperson More than 80 % of architects doing assistant (draftsman) jobs at firms are women Less than 20% of graduating female architecture students will be leaders of design teams in 10 years Spacial ability research has a history of data about male skills superiority in ages 4 and above Testing AND development studies rare a niche for gender oriented arts education research!

3 Interpretation and development of spatial skills The ability to visualise objects and situations in one s mind, and to manipulate those images. (Sorby, 2007) Piaget: spatial skills are developed in three stages: Stage 1: we are able to recognise an object s closeness to others, its order in a group, and its isolation or enclosure by a larger environment.

4 Piaget: spatial skills are developed in three stages: Stage 2: visualising 3D objects and perceiving what they will look like from different viewpoints, or what they would look like if they were rotated or transformed in space. Child s drawing of a landscape: Piaget s experiment on the development of the horizontal and vertical axes, Jean Piaget Archives, Geneva.

5 Piaget: spatial skills are developed in three stages: Stage 3: people are able to visualise the concepts of area, volume and distance in combination with those of translation, rotation and reflection. Elliot Eisner s 13 spatial categories, from: Eisner, E.W. (1967). A comparison of developmental drawing characteristics of culturally advantaged and culturally disadvantaged children.

6 Components of visuospatial thinking (Maier, 1998): spatial perception: the perpendicular and horizontal fixation of direction regardless of troublesome information;

7 Components of visuospatial thinking (Maier, 1998): visualisation: it is the ability of depicting of situations when the components are moving compared to each other spatial orientation: the ability of entering into a given spatial situation

8 Components of visuospatial thinking (Maier, 1998): spatial relations: the ability of recognizing the relations between the parts of a solid mental rotation: rotation of three dimensional solids mentally

9 Development of spatial skills Activities that are particularly useful for development: playing with construction toys (e.g. LEGO) as a young child handicraft and design (In middle or secondary school) playing 3D computer games participating in certain types of sports (e. g. gymnastics, horse riding, group games, golf) having well-developed mathematical skills.

10 Objectives and methods of the research project Major aim: To investigate the effectiveness of a creative modelling training program for the development of spatial skills with a focus on differences in spatial information processing in real and virtual spaces and by genders. Particiants: Architecture (n=198) and civil engineering (n=74) students (Szent István University, Ybl Miklós Faculty of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Budapest, Hungary)

11 Assessment tools: 1. Spatial Ability Test by Séra, Kárpáti and Gulyás (2002) Construction of mental spatial images Mental rotation

12 Assessment tools: 2. Student questionnaires 3. On-site observations 4. Visual documentation

13 The experimental program Control group: traditional methods Experimental group: processoriented project method

14 The experimental program Control group - two-dimensional spatial representation (graphic techniques)

15 The experimental program Experimental group 1 - three-dimensional models in real space

16 The experimental program Experimental group 2 - three-dimensional models in virtual space

17 Results Distribution of results in the pre- and post-tests (N=272)

18 Results Spatial skills of all groups developed significantly, but post-test results of the experimental groups were significantly better than control group. (t[226]=-4,70, p 0,001) Two learning environments: modelling in real space with tangible materials equally enhances spatial skills as constructing models virtually. (t[74]=-1,00, p 0,322)

19 RESULTS (%) Results PRE- AND POST-TEST RESULTS Pre-test control g. Post-test control g. Pre-test experimental g. Post-test experimental g BASIC MENTAL OPERATION 2 MENTAL ROTATION 3 MENTAL TRANSFORMATION SKILL COMPONENTS 4 CONSTRUCTION OF MENTAL SPATIAL IMAGES Comparison of results by components

20 RESULTS (%) Results DEVELOPMENT Control groups Experimental groups BASIC MENTAL OPERATION 2 MENTAL ROTATION 3 MENTAL TRANSFORMATION SKILL COMPONENTS 4 CONSTRUCTION OF MENTAL SPATIAL IMAGES Comparison of development by components

21 Sex differences in the level of spatial ability Hypothesis : Male students would score higher on the pre- and post-tests than female students. This hypothesis was justified in the present study as well: male students scored higher in the pre- and post tests. However, results indicate similar degree of development for men and women and we could not detect gender-related differences in tasks that appear regularly in the university training programs.

22 RESULTS (%) Sex differences in the level of spatial ability PRE-TEST MALE FEMALE BASIC MENTAL OPERATION 2 MENTAL ROTATION 3 MENTAL TRANSFORMATION SKILL COMPONENTS 4 CONSTRUCTION OF MENTAL SPATIAL IMAGES Female students showed significantly lower performance in mental rotation and mental transformation on the pre-test.

23 RESULTS (%) Sex differences in the level of spatial ability POST-TEST MALE 60 FEMALE BASIC MENTAL OPERATION 2 MENTAL ROTATION 3 MENTAL TRANSFORMATION SKILL COMPONENTS 4 CONSTRUCTION OF MENTAL SPATIAL IMAGES Female students achieved similar results in mental rotation and mental transformation on the post-test.

24 Female and male differences in modeling men: geometric shapes women: organic shapes

25 Female and male differences in modeling men: monochromatic and material use is not varied women: polychromatic and variety of materials

26 Female and male differences in modeling men: the connection of elements and the spatial structure are emphasized

27 Female and male differences in modeling women: the investigation of visual effects like form characters, rhythms, transparency, light and shadow effects are the most important components

28 Summary Through creative tasks, the spatial ability of girls can be as effectively developed as those of boys.

29 Bernadett Babály, Szent István University, Budapest, Hungary Andrea Kárpáti, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary BABÁLY B., KÁRPÁTI A.: The impact of creative construction tasks on visuospatial information processing and problem solving. Acta Polytechnica Hungarica, 13(7), 2016, pp , Kárpáti, A., Babály, B., Budai, L. (2016): C.4.4 Onlinetests für die Teilkompetenz Imaginieren (Raumvorstellung). In: Schönau, D. és Wagner, E. Hrsg.: Gemeinsamer Europäischer Referenzrahmen für Visual Literacy - Prototyp. Münster-New York: Waxmann Verlag,