Browsing by Subject "Environmental behavior"
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Item Developing democratic civic virtues through aesthetic education and design in public schools(2014-08) Orsinger, Ann Kathryn; Gregg, Benjamin Greenwood, 1954-By consciously re-crafting K-12 American public schools through aesthetic design, the United States can improve civic education. Specifically, by paying attention to how school environments affect students through each of their five senses, Americans can create learning environments that encourage the development of civic virtues necessary to support four essential criteria identified by John Dewey as foundational for an ideal democracy: individual expression, communicated experience, associated living, and consciousness of the connection between individuals, their behaviors, and their choices. By examining Dewey’s theory of ideal democracy, and the civic virtues that it requires, I delineate and analyze specific criteria by which to improve American civic education in public schools. Then I show that creating beautiful schools can meet the specified criteria and develop civic virtues in students. These virtues are necessary – although not by themselves sufficient – for healthy democratic citizenship. America today is far from an ideal democracy. Split in our beliefs, unengaged in the civic process, disconnected from fellow citizens, and often unaware of the harm caused by our lack of participation, care, and responsibility, we have a long way to go before our democracy approaches the ideal form proposed by Dewey. Far from deterring our efforts, however, these facts should motivate us to find new and improved ways to educate our young citizens during their years in public schooling. This thesis aims to convince the reader that the conscious crafting of school aesthetics can provide a unique and irreplaceable contribution to that end.Item The use of a virtual environment as a method of wayfinding research in architecture(Texas Tech University, 2006-05) Pramanik, Adetania; Haq, Saif; Hill, Glenn E.; Curry, Zane D.Virtual environment (VE) and wayfinding research are two emerging areas in architecture. Wayfinding studies have postulated that the built environment plays a significant role in the wayfinding process. Unfortunately, these studies were constrained by the inability to systematically control extraneous environmental variables. VE technology has the potential to create similar research conditions as in real environments and limit extraneous variables. The purpose of this study is to examine the appropriateness of VE as a tool for wayfinding research and to compare the outcomes of similar research done in a VE and a real environment. A simulation technique was used. A VE was created from an actual hospital corridors used in Haq’s (2001) wayfinding experiment. Thirty-two subjects carried out the same tasks in the VE as those in Haq’s experiment. The data from the experiment was used to measure the percentage of subjects who were successful in completing the VE experiment, and the similarities found in the use of corridors and intersections in exploratory search, success in finding destinations, and pointing errors in the VE and the real environment. Ninety percent of the participants success in completing all the experimental tasks in the VE demonstrated the ability to replicate a real-environment wayfinding experiment. This study also found that the participants’ movements in exploratory search and the overall averages of wayfinding success in both environments were similar. The differences were explained by the technological limitations and the presence of extraneous variables in the real environment. These findings indicated that VE could be a valuable tool for controlling and investigating environmental variables in the wayfinding process.