A discipline-based approach towards teaching architecture on the secondary level

Statement of the problem. The problem that was tested was how a discipline-based approach towards teaching architecture on the secondary level increases student-content knowledge in architecture and the ability to design architecture problems. This researcher studied the differences in design abilities between high school students who have taken an architectural course with a Discipline - Based Art Education (DBAE) approach towards teaching architecture and those who have taken the regular architectural curriculum taught by an industrial arts teacher.;The students who were used in this experiment were both males and females and taken form an accessible population. The students that were available to this researcher may not reflect the target population of all high school students who will take a high school architecture class. The reasons being that all of the students used in this study have: (1) registered themselves for an architecture class, (2) have all had mechanical drawing as a prerequisite for taking this class, and (3) had at least a C average or better in mechanical drawing.;Although there are variables that existed in this study, all subjects in the control group were similar to the subjects in the experimental group. The control group had a total of sixteen students, and the experimental group had a total of nineteen students.;The following procedures occurred: (1) The students in the control group were: (A) Pre-tested by the researcher with a written architecture test and an architectural drawing test. (B) Taught the general architectural curriculum by the industrial arts teacher. (C) Post-tested by the researcher with a written architecture and architectural drawing test. (D) Evaluated by the researcher. (2) The students in the experimental group experienced all of the above mentioned in the control group with the addition of the added treatment: (A) The students were team-taught by the industrial arts teacher and the researcher (an art teacher). (B) The overall curriculum content was the same with the addition of the DBAE lessons taught by the researcher. (3) All information and datum were collected and recorded by the researcher and presented in the form of a thesis.;Procedures. The procedures that were used in the research design were descriptive and experimental. The research design can be described as: ROXO (experimental group), and RO O (control group).;Methods of investigation. The pre-tests and post-tests were designed to measure the variables and content that was explored in this research experiment. The test measured a high school student's knowledge and understanding of architecture and his/her ability to design an architectural structure.;There are two parts to both the pre-tests and post-tests. Part I was designed to have multiple choice questions that could be used with a scantron program for computer evaluation. The program calculates/evaluates multiple choice questions that have five possible answers, matching questions that are designed in groups of five, or true and false questions.;Part II of the pre-tests and post-tests were designed to measure the students' ability to design architectural structures. This test was evaluated in an objective manner by a neutral evaluator.;The students in the experimental group were given the treatment of discipline-based art lessons that focused on architectural history, architectural aesthetics, and architectural criticism. These added lessons were covered over a period of seven days.;Results of the experiment. The results of this experiment were based on statistical information obtained by using the statistical tools of the mean score, the median score and standard deviation. The test results were calculated by using the raw scores from the tests.;Conclusion. The findings from this experiment indicate that the students who were in the experimental group, that received the treatment of the discipline based lessons, showed a significant improvement in the drawing part of the post-test (226%). The students' also showed an improvement in the written part of the post-test, this improvement was (6.6%). Although the students' performance on the written test were not exceptional, their performance on the drawing test showed remarkable improvement.;In conclusion this experiment has proven to be successful in that it suggests that the DBAE methodology/philosophy does affect the learner positively and is an essential element in art education. Since this experiment has shown a significant difference in the students' ability to understand architecture and design architectural structures, the Palisades High School will adopt DBAE into their regular architectural curriculum.