Educational environment of public and non-governmental secondary schools in Karaj: Comparison of opinions and standards

From the perspective of environmental psychology, educational spaces are considered behavioral camps. Among the various components of this behavioral camp, classrooms can influence children's behavioral characteristics more than other spaces. Thus, from the classroom benches and how they are arranged in the space to the choice of classroom light and color, all have a special place in the interior architecture of learning environments (Kamelnia, 2010). Educational spaces are spaces that are used by students during the academic year for the teaching and learning process with the description of specific courses under the guidance and guidance of students with appropriate facilities and equipment and include theoretical, experimental and general classes. Theoretical class refers to a closed space used by a group of peers for the teaching and learning process through reading, writing and repetition under the guidance of a teacher with appropriate facilities and equipment. Experimental class refers to a closed space in which a group of students are guided by the teacher every year for the process of teaching and learning by doing practical work that is the basis of activities based on research and objective and experimental observation. General classroom refers to the educational space and package that the teaching and learning process does not require practical work and the curriculum is provided by the teacher to the students (Organization of the renovation, development and equipping of schools, 2013). Unfortunately, most of the educational spaces in the country's schools do not have the necessary compatibility with the psychological characteristics of children and adolescents, and in this regard, they can affect their social and behavioral performance, as well as their attitudes and perceptions towards education. The rules and standards for the design of educational spaces in all courses have been prepared by the Organization for Renovation, Development and Equipping of Schools and have been approved by the Vice President for Planning, and are currently the only reference available to architects and designers of educational spaces. ‌ (Tabaeian, 2011). If the school environment responds positively to the psychological and physical needs of students, users' focus on learning will increase and they will achieve the desired performance. Otherwise, improper design of the environment will cause dissatisfaction, fatigue and distraction of users. Unfortunately, many existing school buildings are not in good condition. This disadvantage includes old buildings with poor condition or new buildings that have not been built according to the correct principles of architecture (Tahertoloudel & Aminifar, 2016). The purpose of this study was to determine the difference between the views of students in public and non-governmental secondary schools with educational environment standards in Karaj. The research method is applied to the purpose and the method of data collection is descriptive-surveying. The statistical population includes 23192 secondary school students in secondary school in Karaj, selected by Multistage cluster sampling from 4 educational districts and 384 students were selected. The research tool was a researcher-made checklist for evaluating educational space and a researcher-made questionnaire for educational space adjusted to the standards of the School Renovation Organization . The educational environment includes dimensions, layout, light, color, location and temperature. Content validity was used to assess the validity and Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used to determine the reliability of the questionnaire. The coefficient of reliability obtained for the survey scale is 0.910. According to the results of the checklist in the school environment, the standards for the desk and bench, classroom dimensions and the level of sound penetration into the classroom are not well considered. The color components of the desk and the bench are standard in all schools. Therefore, in these cases more attention has been paid to the required standards. The number of students in the class, the type of class arrangement, the coloring and the heating and cooling equipment are in most cases non-standard. The type of classroom, the number of class windows, the amount of natural light, the amount of light entering, the temperature, and the adjacent places are in most cases consistent with the standards of the teaching space. According to the students' opinions, the questionnaire of the type of table and bench survey and heating and cooling equipment is in most cases non-standard. The size of the classroom, the distance to the first row, the size of the classroom, the number of class windows and their dimensions, the amount of natural light, the amount of artificial light, and the amount of light entering are in most cases consistent with the standards of the teaching space. Therefore, in terms of the type of desks, benches, heating and cooling equipment, the non-standard and the number of windows in the classroom, the amount of natural light and the amount of light entering, are in accordance with the standards of the school renovation organization. In cases involving classroom temperature, window dimensions, adjacent locations, class layout and board type, students' opinions did not differ significantly from educational space standards, but with regard to number of students, board size, distance to first row, distance between rows, class coloring , Dimensions of the window, classroom temperature, and heating and cooling The students' views are independent of the educational space standards.According to the results it is better to pay more attention to the students' opinions in developing school education standards.This shows that less attention has been paid to the opinions of students in the development of standards. International standards in the field of educational space as one of the important sources for document preparation for the School Renovation Organization, a significant number of indicators do not correspond to the social, cultural, indigenous and climatic conditions of our country and this issue is reflected in students' opinions. Therefore, in preparing the standards of educational space by the Organization for Renovation, Development and Equipping of Schools, in addition to international standards, special attention should be paid to the culture of the country, religious issues, climatic conditions and students' opinions. New standards can be developed based on a holistic and realistic view that is more in line with the conditions and requirements of the country, which ultimately leads to the effectiveness of teachers and all education officials to improve the quality of education and improve the educational and behavioral performance of students.