Assessing the possibility of using constructive educational implications in teaching basic architectural design courses

Nowadays it is accepted that education in architecture, is one of the topics of interest in architectural research. Since the main purpose of education in any field, is providing appropriate learning conditions, and in Iranian architecture schools, architectural education is based on design workshops, this type of research can be argued to be among the most important concerns in architecture. Due to the multidimensional nature of architecture and its relationship with different fields of knowledge, the method of teaching architectural design, compared to other disciplines, requires different needs and special approaches. Especially since design issues do not have a simple and recognizable structure and according to researchers, are ill-structured. This means that architectural design issues cannot easily and completely be defined and designers are always faced with a great deal of ambiguity at the start of a project. Therefore, it is important to focus on what is going on in the form of "design based on desk criticism" in Iranian schools of architecture. Desk criticism, are usually called as “Correction” in faculties of art and architecture. A review of the available sources shows that the traditional way of “correction” in architecture schools is struggling with failures and inefficiencies. Due to its pivotal role, in direct and face-to-face interaction with students, and its other effects, it should try not to ignore the significant differences of students in their distinguished backgrounds. Some experts believe that a good set of corrections should be managed to guide each student in finding his or her personal and distinctive answer to the design question. This study tries to examine educational theories, in the field of educational psychology, to maintain appropriate implications to achieve the components of an effective correction method which in this article is called "guiding critique". This paper can be considered as a qualitative applied research. Data collection in qualitative research utilizes data resources, documentary studies, observations (intervening and non-intervening), in-depth interviews, fieldwork, and if necessary, case studies. The Delphi technique has also been used for predictions. The necessary steps for this included defining the research problem, determining the necessary characteristics of the participants, identifying the candidates for participation and inviting them, determining important factors in consultation with panel members, determining the importance of the factors from the members' point of view and reducing the number of factors, determining the order of importance of the factors and continuing until there is a consensus among them. The result of the research provides multiple solutions from the set of educational implications of constructivist theory in the form of six main chapters in advancing the "guiding critique" in the architectural studio. These chapters included: mental structure, considering distinctions, redefining roles, focus on mistakes, tools, evaluation and measurement.